By Tim Romano

Last week I had the privilege of attending friends Geoff Mueller and Kat Yarbrough's wedding on the Bighorn River in southern Montana. The families put on one hell of a cool shindig. I've been to weddings where there was a little fishing here and there, but this one it ran deep. [ Read Full Post ]

By Kirk Deeter

I will never forget my first trip, years ago, to Montana's Bighorn River. Until then, most of my fly-fishing experiences had been focused on smaller rivers and streams in Michigan and Pennsylvania. I'd been told by friends and family members who had fished the Bighorn that making the trek to this fairly isolated spot (far from the more "tourist-friendly" locales like Bozeman or Missoula) was worth the effort.  In my first few minutes of fishing the Bighorn, wading among hordes of eager trout, and learning about the area's huge volume of insects first hand, I knew they were right.  Fishing here can, at times, be a jaw-dropping experience. [ Read Full Post ]

By David Draper

If there’s any one ingredient (besides bacon) that will almost guarantee a Food Fight victory, it’s venison backstrap. So, who do you vote for when both entries include this reader-favorite cut? I guess this week’s fight between Wild Chef readers Neil Selbicky and SMC1986 will come down to the side dishes, but then they each excel on that front as well. What to do? What to do? I can’t decide so I’m leaving it up to you. [ Read Full Post ]

By Joe Cermele

There are pure-strain, landlocked striped bass all over the country, but there are only so many places in freshwater where these fish reach the same "cow" proportions as their coastal cousins. Being a Jersey guy, I know a thing or two about big bass (or pretend to, anyway), so it's taken me a while to pull the trigger on a sweetwater striper hunt. That's partially because it's hard to break the mentality that the biggest bass are salty, and partially because picking the right body of freshwater and finding the right guy to get you on the big fish is tricky. But I finally found him. In three days on the Clinch River in Eastern Tennessee, veteran guide Bud White made me and fellow Northeast striper nut Mike Sudal realize that you can't appreciate the fight of a 30-pounder until you need to lock down the spool with your thumbs to stop the fish from running into one of many downed trees that are always in close proximity. Enjoy the show. 

[ Read Full Post ]

By Steven Hill

Robert and Stefanie Stanley of Olathe, Kansas, managed a twofer that not many couples can claim: Both caught state-record blue catfish.

Stefanie and Robert with her tournament-winning Kansas lake-record blue catfish in April.

Robert caught his blue, a 102.8 pounder, August 11, 2012, on the Kansas side of the Missouri River. Stefanie reeled in her record—an 82.05 pounder thought to be the largest blue catfish ever taken from a Kansas lake—April 6 during a fishing tournament at Milford Reservoir.

His catfish was the stuff of dreams—literally. Fishing at 2 a.m., Robert dozed off while waiting for a bite. “My buddy gave me a smack and said, ‘Hey, you got a hit,’” Robert recalls. “About that time the rod bends double and the drag starts screaming. I was wide awake then.”

Robert Stanley with his 102-pound state-record blue catfish in August, 2012.

Hers was a white-knuckle ride, thanks to windy conditions that churned up whitecaps at the 16,000-acre reservoir near Junction City. “I have a fear of water, especially at Milford,” Stefanie says. “When the wind starts blowing there it’s like being in the ocean. I grew up on the water, watching my... [ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

Authorities in Minnesota have busted what appears to be a massive gamefish poaching ring that allegedly used nets to haul thousands of pounds of walleye from some of Minnesota's most popular fishing lakes.

From this story on startribune.com: 
Last week, 10 people were indicted in federal court for their alleged roles in a major fish poaching scheme involving the buying and selling of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of walleyes netted from some of northern Minnesota’s most popular lakes. The ten men from northern Minnesota were accused of netting walleyes and other fish from lakes on the Red Lake and Leech Lake Indian reservations and selling them in violation of federal, state and tribal law. The illegal activity allegedly has occurred since 2009 and was widespread. Among the lakes where fish were netted and then sold were Leech, Cass, Winnibigoshish, Red and Six Mile, according to the indictments.

According to the story, in addition to the ten charged last week, 21 more indictments will be handed down today as a result of the three-year investigation of the poaching ring. [ Read Full Post ]