From FoxNews.com
Navigational locks and gates in Chicago-area waterways crucial for shipping may be opened less frequently than usual under a $78.5 million campaign to prevent Asian carp from overrunning the Great Lakes, federal officials said Monday.

The plan falls short of closing the navigational structures entirely, as demanded by Michigan and five other Great Lakes states. They fear the locks will provide an opening to the lakes for the giant carp, which some scientists say could devastate the region's $7 billion fishing industry.

But the Obama administration described the plan as part of an effective strategy for keeping the invasive fish at bay while long-term biological controls are developed. The government said it would take 25 actions to slow the advance of the carp, which can reach 4 feet long and 100 pounds. [ Read Full Post ]

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed I failed to post a blog Tuesday. Sorry. I was too busy saving my sanity by doing a little extreme winter fishing. All I can say is, man, did it ever feel good to bend a rod. I'm not going to tell you much about it because the outcome of this trip will be showcased very soon in the first "Hook Shots" video episode of the year. Although I'm guessing many of you will figure it out even though I carefully and strategically censored the photo below. But now onto what has certainly been plaguing your minds...the caption contest winner from last week.

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Sorry to riff off the Fly Talk blog, but I came across this photo and it was too good to pass up. If I'm not mistaken, it originally ran in a 1912 issue of Field & Stream. And yes, that's a big old porpoise (a.k.a. "Flipper" if you want to make it cute), hanging on a Naples, Florida, dock like a marlin or tuna. Oh my, how things have changed.

So let's have some fun. Whoever writes the best caption wins a Sebile Crankmaster and Flatt Shad...two very fine lures good for bass, walleye, even redfish if that's what you're into. I'll announce the winner at the end of my blog post on Thursday, February 4th. Have at it. -- Joe Cermele [ Read Full Post ]

Much has been written about south Florida's problems with non-native giant snakes, but according to this story officials are now faced with the frightening prospect of hybrid "super snakes" slithering amok.

Fears of a new "super snake" emerging in the Everglades grew this week during a hunt to track South Florida's invasive python population. A three-day, state-coordinated hunt that started Tuesday had, by Wednesday, turned up at least five African rock pythons -- including a 14-foot-long female -- in a targeted area in Miami-Dade County. Those findings add to concerns that the African rock python is a new breeding population in the Everglades and not just the result of a few overgrown pets being released into the wild, according to the South Florida Water Management District.
 
In addition, state environmental officials worry that the rock python could breed with the Burmese python, which already has an established foothold in the Everglades. That could lead to a new "super snake," said George Horne, the water district's deputy executive director. In Africa, the rock python eats creatures as large as goats and crocodiles. There have been cases of the snakes killing children. "They are bigger and meaner... [ Read Full Post ]

If you stop and think about it, many common American angling practices have been borrowed from other countries. Fly fishing has its origin in England. Many lures for muskie were copied from designs used by European pike anglers. Some of the most universal marlin tactics were derived from Australian methods. But now I say it's time we adopt the South Korean ice fishing strategy.

To be honest, I didn't even know it got cold enough to freeze massive bodies of water in South Korea. Not only was I mistaken, but people flock to the annual South Korean Ice Fishing Festival in numbers greater than Minnesota's Eelpout Festival. [ Read Full Post ]

Fads and fashion in fishing tackle seem to wax and wane in waves according to the marketing hype behind them. For the new year, one hot thing seems to be fluorocarbon lines. There are more brands and more varieties (like the Seaguar example shown here) being touted in more and more advertising.

So here’s the question: Who’s actually using them?

Fluorocarbon does have some advantages over common nylon monofilaments: less visibility in some circumstances, a little less stretch (hence, more sensitivity), and much greater abrasion resistance. On the down side, fluoro can be stiffer and harder to handle on spinning reels, can be more difficult to knot well, and it sinks--so it’s not for surface lures. It’s also more expensive than mono.

I fish fluorocarbon occasionally as a leader on braid when bass fishing. And I’ll sometimes use fluorocarbon flyfishing tippet for fussy fish like winter steelhead that have been in the river for a while. When trolling for trout and landlocked salmon in the spring, I think fluoro line might get me a few more strikes.

But I also think fluorocarbon is kind of a mixed... [ Read Full Post ]

Yet another video for your case of the mid winter Monday's. While Deeter's dreaming of warmer climes and massive snook, I just can't seem to shake this cold weather feeling. Muskie, deep in the heart of Wisconsin seemed to fit this wicked cold snap most have been experiencing.

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At a press conference at its Florida headquarters just minutes ago, the IGFA announced its long-awaited certification of a new all-tackle world-record largemouth bass.

The 22-pound, 4.97-ounce fish was caught in July 2009 from Japan’s 259-square-mile Lake Biwa by 32-year-old Manabu Kurita. The 29-inch bass took a live bait.

Kurita’s catch effectively ties George Perry’s 77-year-old record of 22 pounds, 4 ounces because under IGFA rules a new record must surpass an older one by at least 2 ounces. But Kurita’s mammoth bass is none the less the largest ever certified by the IGFA.

Back in 1932 when Perry took his record largemouth from Georgia’s Montgomery Lake, he entered his catch in this magazine’s long-standing annual fishing contest. That’s how his original record was certified back in the ancient days of snail-mail and black-and-white photos. (The IGFA wasn’t begun until 1939 and didn’t account for freshwater records until 1978, when Field & Stream handed off that responsibility.)

In this Internet age of instant communication world-wide--not to mention all the marketing hype that has grown up around bass fishing--there have been many rumors swirling as to the fairness of Kurita’s catch. By all reports, the IGFA’s... [ Read Full Post ]

Does 2010 sound as futuristic to everyone else as it does to me? I only ask because I was alerted to a new application for the iPhone yesterday called Mosquito Repellent. Apparently opening this app and tuning to a specific frequency by projecting sound via the built in speakers repels mosquitos.

Sick of those pesky mosquitos out on the lake? Open that 15th pocket on your fishing vest and crank up the volume on that iPhone!

I must say I'm intrigued. I hate slathering on bug repellent, but can't help wondering if a stupidly expensive electronic device and water really mix. Could this be the answer next summer when the mosquitos are thick and you're patiently tying on a size 20 bug? What if the frequency scares away all the naturals those 24 inch trout are slurping?

The reviews seem to run the gamut from people who think it's a joke with comments like, "the mosquito was laughing until I used my iPhone and smashed it...", to more appreciative fans of the product.

What do you think? Fact or fiction, can a phone repel... [ Read Full Post ]

There was a little fish-type activity here over Christmas weekend, despite its being a cold and blustery winter holiday. I warmed things up a bit by making an old-fashioned New England fish chowder. Here’s how it worked.

Traditional ingredients are local to the New England coast, but can be found anywhere: salt pork, cod or haddock (or any sweet, white-fleshed fish from freshwater or salt), onions, potatoes, water, milk or cream or both, salt and pepper. The trick is in adding ingredients in the right order to account for differences in cooking times. [ Read Full Post ]

Quite a while back in a post here I referred to circle hooks as catch-and-release hooks for fishing with live bait. I was rightly taken to the woodshed by a reader who pointed out that circle hooks were originally (and still are) a commercial-fishing hook because of their high hooking rate on commercial-line sets for fish such as halibut.

But with that clarification out of the way, I still have a question. Who out there is using circle hooks and for what fish?

Commercial applications aside, this style of hook is supposedly a great conservation tool for catch-and-release fishing with bait. Instead of gut-hooking--and thus killing--fish that swallow the bait, these hooks are designed to slide out of the fish's gullet and hook in the jaw. I've tried using circle hooks in a variety of ways during the past few years. My own results have been mixed.

In using worms for stream trout, for example, I found my circle hooks were gut-hooking roughly half the fish I allowed to swallow a bait. I quit testing in that case because I was killing more fish than I wanted to keep. For... [ Read Full Post ]

Last night I was digging through my freezer and buried beneath the Ellio's Pizza and a few venison backstraps, I found this lone vacuum-sealed trout. I thought quite hard about where it came from. I'm usually pretty good about marking the date and species on all sealed fish, but this 12-inch brown trout, no doubt a local stocker, is anonymous and apparently slipped out of view during cold storage. Its origins remain a mystery.

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