By David Draper

After more than a year of anticipation, I finally got my hands on an advance copy of the new "Remington Camp Cooking" cookbook. Chef Charlie Palmer first clued me into the project when I sat next to him at dinner during the 2012 SHOT Show.

As I mentioned in that post, Palmer is one of us, a hunter and all-around regular guy, despite the fact that he’s responsible for more than a dozen restaurants around the country, as well as a handful of wine shops and boutique hotels. You wouldn’t know it by sitting next to him as he relates stories of hunting with his boys. True to that everyman style, the recipes in Remington Camp Cooking aren’t out of reach for most home cooks. [ Read Full Post ]

By Kirk Deeter

Aloha from the Garden Island of Kaua'i in the Hawaiian Islands. I'm on a much-anticipated family vacation, where my wife, Sarah, and son, Paul, and I are enjoying some spectacular scuba diving (along with my brother, Drew, who took this photograph of a sea turtle we encountered Saturday). When I'm not fishing, diving is my favorite pastime. I enjoy watching fish when I'm not actually casting at them, sometimes for reasons explained in one of last week's Fly Talk posts. I'll admit, however, that I much prefer the clear, warm tropical waters over the icy swirling currents of trout rivers.

Last night, I took my rod to cast off a point of lava rocks. I was casting a Clouser minnow at nothing in particular, and truth be told, I didn't catch anything. But I did see another giant green turtle swim up near the shoreline, poke its head above the surface to check me out for several minutes, then vanish under the foam.

[ Read Full Post ]

By David Draper

I just got home from a 2,000-mile road trip from western Nebraska to Winnipeg, where some friends and I battled blizzard conditions in the hopes of icing a few perch, walleye, and whitefish. Unfortunately, the fish stayed pretty tight lipped, though we did manage to catch enough for a fish fry—including the largest, fattest perch I’ve ever pulled through the ice. And while underwater, mouths were closed, on top of the hard-water ours were routinely open as we tried to stay warm by ingesting as many calories as possible.

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By Chad Love

A state fisheries biologist conducting an electro-fishing survey in Broward County, Florida was shocked (pun intended) to discover that he had just shocked up what would have been, had he caught it on a rod, an all-tackle world record... bullseye snakehead.

From this story in the Miami Herald:
The moment Kelly Gestring scooped up the strange, slithery fish from a Margate canal he knew he had a record in his net. Gestring, a state biologist who monitors invasive freshwater fish, wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. The 14-pound, three-ounce bullseye snakehead was a member of an exotic family of aggressive, fast-growing, razor-toothed air-gulpers that have earned considerable hype as “Frankenfish” and “Fishzilla” over the years. Impossibly large fictional mutations have even starred in a few schlocky sci-fi movies.

[ Read Full Post ]

By Kirk Deeter

I often preach about the importance of slowing down and watching before you make casts. The trick to catching more trout with flies, in my mind, has less to do with perfect fly patterns and long casts, and more to do with actually knowing where the fish are and what they're up to. The only way to figure that stuff out is to sit down and watch.

There are tricks to more effective run scouting. Here are my five top tips: [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano

Today's Fly Talk entry is a guest post from our friend Chris Santella. You might know Chris from from his "Fifty Places" series of books, his work in The New York Times, Forbes.com, The New Yorker, Golf, Travel & Leisure, …and many others.

Chris and I were chatting the other day about the portrayal fishing on TV and in advertising, which as I'm sure you know is just god awful 99 percent of the time. To make a long story short, during the course of the conversation we both admitted to watching the season finale of Downton Abbey and were aghast at the sight of such horrible spey casting. Anyway, I'll stop trying to explain and let Chris take it from here. Warning: Spoilers ahead. [ Read Full Post ]