By John Merwin

Welcome to the fishing-tackle graveyard, a place where old gear goes to die. The photo shows a shelf in my basement with various reels, long out of service, that I can’t bring myself to throw away. And throwing away is the problem. I can’t do it. So stuff accumulates beyond all reason.

This gets pretty silly as I think of it, but that silliness still won’t take me to the dumpster. Someday I might want or need something from that shelf. Or I might decide to refurbish one of those old reels. A little cleaning, some grease, maybe a few spare parts and any one of them would be fishable again. You never know.

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By Don Wirth

Now is not the time to pound the banks for bass. After spawning, big largemouths and smallmouths leave the skinny water and scatter offshore, gravitating to deeper structures—often 15 to 25 feet deep—where they lie in wait for passing baitfish schools. Armed with a graph and a set of marker buoys, you can tap into some hot bass action on these offshore honey holes. Here’s where to fish and what to throw.

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By Tim Romano

This past caption contest had quite a few entries and some surpassingly good ones at that. The job of choosing the winner was pretty tough, but I had to award it to sgtsly for the handful of great entries that made me laugh. The one that got me though was, "I got a little ahead of myself with that flopper, hopper, copper, dropper, mopper, stopper, rig." CastMaster25 almost had me with the Johnny Cash reference. God knows I love me some Cash... [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano

Have something to say about your public lands? It could cost you…

My friends over at Trout Unlimited alerted me to a couple of bills that have been introduced to the House that don't sit well with me. I thought I would share.

They went on to say that Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development (SFRED), a coalition of businesses, organizations and individuals led by Trout Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, has been following this set of bills. And so far, the message isn’t exactly “sportsmen friendly.”

Among the provisions:
- A requirement of a $5,000 documentation fee to protest any lease, stifling a process that is currently free and open to anyone who wants to participate.
- Prioritizing energy development over fish and wildlife on public lands.
- A mandate that leases be issued within 60 days of payment regardless of protests or litigation.
- Requires that a minimum of 25 percent of the leases receive minimal environmental review and no protests. [ Read Full Post ]

By John Merwin

I took a Johnson Silver Minnow from the tackle box, added a white pork rind strip, and then fastened it to a short wire leader. The shiny spoon glistened in the sunlight as I held it in the air before casting. “That looks like Chapter One in The Book of Pickerel,” said guide Dale Wheaton* from the back of our canoe.

And so it was. The rig caught pickerel all day long as we fished a Washington County lake in far-southeastern Maine; in the back ends of various coves where the lake bottom transitions from hard rock to mud, weeds are abundant, and the pickerel abound. And they are usually — but not always — easy to catch. [ Read Full Post ]

By Joe Cermele

Few moments in fishing are more enjoyable than when a big largemouth crushes a topwater lure on a still summer morning. For decades, fishermen have enticed bass into making those explosive surface hits with the zigzagging walks of Zara Spooks, the chugging splashes of poppers, and the gurgling buzzes of propeller baits. The lures haven’t changed much since your granddad tied one on, because there hasn’t been the need. Today’s lure market, however, is all about ingenuity, and designers have to build a better mousetrap. The clever revamps of these three classic topwaters are meant to replace those old standbys. [ Read Full Post ]