By Joe Cermele

I'd be remiss if I didn't run my usual post-Christmas follow up for anglers, so here it goes...

By Joe Cermele

Here's a funny (or not so funny, depending on how you look at it) story posted on the website of The Alaska Dispatch. Alaskan fishing guides are required by law to submit logbooks to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game every year so their catches can be tracked. Matthew Terry, an Alabama resident who guides on the Kasilof River during the summer, decided to spice up his catch report a bit noting that besides loads of salmon, he also boated a bluefin tuna, "jack" beluga whale, a blue whale, and last but not least, a chupacabra (below). Mildly amusing, right? Yeah, the Alaska Wildlife Troopers didn't think so. Question is, did Terry make a boo-boo really worthy of punishment, or do Alaska Wildlife Troopers just have zero sense of humor?

By Joe Cermele

Do you ever watch TV shows like "Planet Earth" or "Blue Planet" and just scratch your head wondering, how the heck did they get that shot? Well, however they got it, it probably took a while to perfect, case in point, the "critter cam" shot. Critter cam is when you see from the perspective of an animal, and the only way to achieve it is by literally strapping a camera to a critter's back or head. In the video below, marine biologist Greg Marshall re-tells the story of the first time a crew from National Geographic attempted to rig a critter cam...on a live shark. And it ain't pretty. Next time you see this shot on TV, remember that bloody was shed perfecting it. Have a great weekend.

By John Merwin

Some of my best trout fishing has always been done sitting down. That’s mostly because I try to watch a piece of water for a while before actually starting to fish. I can often do that as well sitting instead of standing. For that same reason, many of my favorite trout pools have a flat rock somewhere along the shoreline that invites sitting, relaxing, and watching attentively.

I have at times shared such places with others. There are fond memories of sitting on a bench along Pennsylvania’s fabled Letort Spring Run, watching and waiting for trout to rise. They were Charlie Fox’s benches, which he built behind his house for trout watching. Back in the 1970s, he’d sometimes see me there and come out to sit along side, visiting while all the while watching for fish.