By Joe Cermele

There is not an angler alive that hasn't gotten flipped the middle fin. You know, just when you think you have a fish beat, it's coming in nice and easy, then it shakes its tail and bolts away? Or when its so close to the net and you make eye contact just before the head shake that snaps the line? Well, the photo below is from a series that popped up on the Facebook page of BDOutdoors over the weekend.

By Joe Cermele

Interesting story: Reader Billy Sheahan submitted a huge list of photos to the vintage tackle contest. Apparently, everything was a hand-me-down from his grandfather, and there were some pretty neat items in the batch. But rather than pick one, I sent the whole list to resident expert Dr. Todd Larson of The Whitefish Press and "Fishing For History" blog and told him to select the item with the coolest back story. I never dreamed it would be the lone fly shown below, but this Mickey Finn does, in fact, have a pretty cool history, and I learned something about how fly shops were stocked back in the day.

By Joe Cermele

I so badly want to tell you that the huge steelhead bending my rod in the photo at left was landed. Unfortunately, I cannot. Nor can I tell you the four other steelhead hooked during the same session were landed. Luckily for L.L. Bean, I wasn't field testing one of their nets in Pulaski, NY, this past weekend. Equally lucky for Bean, my horrible landing ratio was a product of the need for 4-pound tippet, a crowded river, and making dumb decisions at critical points in the fight...not the performance of new Quest Large Arbor reel I was using.

L.L. Bean's Quest fly reels have been around for a while, marketed as introductory reels for  beginner fly fishermen. The original Quests are made of a composite resin. This year, Bean upped the ante with the Quest Large Arbor series, which have spools and housings made of die-cast aluminum, and some extra beef in the sealed disc drags. The model I got to play with was the #2, and it sells for only $45.

By Joe Cermele

I know what you're thinking. How many interesting things can be said about old fishing line? Well, what if I told you this Western Fishing Line, entered into the vintage tackle contest by Scott Cottle, has direct ties to the the ladies' sexy underwear business and was scrutinized back in the day for some of the most risque ads in the fishing industry? Dr. Todd Larson of The Whitefish Press and "Fishing For History" blog has all the details. Dr. Todd says:

"I have a deep and abiding passion for collecting line spools. You've got a really cool post-World War II line display from California's Western Fishing Line Company. Western Lace & Line was founded in Los Angeles in the 1930s but moved to nearby Glendale soon after; it was originally a maker of laces for corsets and shoes.