Every year around this time, the tackle manufacturers start sending out press releases and sneak-peek samples of all the new goodies they'll unveil at the ICAST show in July. I thought I'd share one with you, as this lure really caught my attention. Pictured below is the YUM Money Hound, and I promise it'll be a while before you see them on tackle shop shelves, so remember, you saw it here first.

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Don't tell New Yorkers, but  snakes are once again in the news. This time, however, it's not rampaging  rat snakes we must worry about, but a southeast Asian water snake with the fish-catching ability of a tournament  pro.
 
It's called, appropriately enough, the tentacled snake,  and a Vanderbilt University researcher recently documented how this snake  uses its body to - in essence - make fish swim right into its  mouth.

From scientificblogging.com
"I  haven't been able to find reports of any other predators that exhibit a  similar ability to influence and predict the future behavior of their prey,"  says Kenneth Catania, associate professor of biological sciences at  Vanderbilt University, who has used high-speed video to deconstruct the  snake's unusual hunting technique.... "The snake forms an unusual "J" shape  with its head at the bottom of the "J" when it is fishing. Then it remains  completely motionless until a fish swims into the area near the hook of the  "J." That is when the snake strikes.

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When I got home Monday evening, the sun was shining for the first time in what felt like months around here. So, with no great expectations and just an itch to get out, I grabbed one rod, two lures and took a drive a local park with a lake therein. The fishing was awful, but I was treated to a show, though not nearly the best I've ever seen.

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Times are undoubtedly tough right now, but every now and then you stumble across a reminder that no matter how bad you think you might have it, you don't have it nearly as bad as you think you do.

I found one such reminder this weekend as I was going through my old reel collection. Sitting amongst the vintage Pfluegers and Langleys and Ambassadeurs was this battered old Johnson Century. The Century was introduced in 1956 and there were a ton of them produced, so there's nothing inherently unique or collectable about it except that it belonged to my wife's grandfather and it was given to me after he died. He and my wife's grandmother were both fishing fools and I can only imagine how many western Oklahoma farm-pond bass this old reel has caught in the past half-century or so.

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So I see by various recent postings that Dave Petzal is taking care of some sewing chores and Joe Cermele is hanging out in greasy spoons. This all got me thinking a little domestically, specifically about food and cooking. Are there any folks out there who can do more than just boil water? I happen to enjoy cooking and it’s a good thing I do.

Our late, great fishing editor Al McClane was as celebrated a chef as he was an angler. I once asked him why he’d learned to cook. His answer was deceptively simple: “self-defense,” he told me with a smile. Simply meaning that when confronted with warmed-over road kill at a lodge or back-of-beyond hash house, it was important to be able go back to camp and make something far better own your own.

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Have you ever noticed that you can associate fishing spots, no matter how well-known or how secret, close to home or far away, with some dingy eatery? Let's be honest, such establishments often round out a fishing trip. I shot this photo at the Forked River Diner the other night because it sums up everything I love about the place. The spoons are literally greasy (remember, that which does not kill you...), the booth vinyl is shredded, but the coffee is hot, the burgers rock, and you can't beat their pork roll and eggs. By the way, if you know what pork roll is, you're one of the lucky ones.

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The other day while getting gear together for a smallmouth trip, I was digging through boxes looking for a few specific baits when it dawned on me that I have more lures than I know what to do with. This is no doubt a problem shared by many fishermen. Part of the issue is that I'll go buy a couple baits for a specific outing, not target that species for a while, then forget what I have and go buy a couple new lures next time around.

But what I also got to thinking about was how this insane collection started somewhere. For me it got rolling with a Boone Spinana, pictured above, though that's not my lure. Mine was yellow with red and black dots and it has disappeared into the ether. I don't know who gave it to me, but I know it was the first artificial lure in my pint-sized tackle box, which at age five (I'm guessing) contained not much more than a pack of hooks and two bobbers.

Tell you the truth, I don't recall fishing with it much or catching anything on it. Lures are boring when... [ Read Full Post ]

What would you say is your favorite all-around fly fishing state in America?  There are a number of great contenders in my mind:  Montana has to be a strong contender... New York's Catskill region is the cradle of many things fly fishing, and don't forget about striper fishing on Long Island... how about Idaho, Wyoming, or Colorado?

All wonderful.

But for me, the number one fly fishing state in the country always has been, and always will be... [ Read Full Post ]

I just got back from a soggy fishing trip in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Thanks to continuous and heavy rains, the Beaverkill was high and muddy. So were the East and West Branches of the Delaware. I did get in some trout fishing in the upper reaches of the Willowemoc, as that stream clears before other area streams, but that was about it.

Once home, I did something I rarely do: I put all my flyreels on my workbench, took them apart, and cleaned and lubed them. On a roll, I also pulled out a couple of Shimano Symetre spinning reels, stripped them down, and cleaned and lubed them as well. 

I point this out because, for the first time, I actually had an official reel cleaning kit. (In the past, I used anything I had lying around – usually an old toothbrush and some WD-40.) This kit has all you need: a Reel Kleen Degreaser, Reel Butter Oil and Grease, a brush and swabs, a combo Phillips/flathead screwdriver, and a silicone cloth, all in a snap-shut plastic case that could easily fit into a tacklebox. It’s a good idea – like... [ Read Full Post ]

From The Town Talk:

I usually have something flip thing to say. But not here. This is a senseless killing and a devastating story, especially considering there was a child involved. 

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Politics, religion, and fishing. Now there’s a combination that’s a little like trying to mix gasoline and water with a propane torch. You don’t know quite what you’re going to get, only that it might become very hot.

I point this out because when I first started taking my wife along occasionally on charter boats, I had to explain to her that she must leave anything related to politics or religion at the dock. When on the boat with other people, don’t mention a word even remotely related to either topic. If you do, it could be a very long day.

Those are items about which many people feel very strongly, including charter captains, boat mates, and other anglers. On one early trip, when she still didn’t believe me, she started chatting enthusiastically about a recent election as we headed out of the harbor. The skipper was at the helm to my immediate right, and I could see his jaw muscles clench as she blithely talked on. Uh-oh.

We were lucky that time in that things didn’t escalate into a... [ Read Full Post ]