By Joe Cermele

My best friend Mark and I have tried 3 times over the last 2 years to shoot a "Hook Shots" episode together. Between nasty weather and getting skunked, it just never seemed to come together. So this year I told Mark we could go wherever he wanted to try it again. To my surprise, he asked if we could go somewhere I had fallen in love with during my travels. That was easy...the marshes of Louisiana. Seeing that Mark and I learned to flyfish together, I couldn't wait to see his face the first time he connected to a ripping redfish, and was pumped to get it on camera. I hope you enjoy the show, and hope it inspires you to get on the water with your best fishing buddy ASAP. Don't forget to take the latest Hook Shots Quiz for a chance to win some cool gear. 

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Last week we launched a new fishing app for the iPhone that automatically turns photos of fish you've caught into detailed fishing journal entries that show up on your map, then shares those entries exclusively with trusted friends. Our goal is to help you and your buddies learn more about the spots you fish. You can download the app from iTunes here.

We want this to be a useful app for the hardcore angler. But we want it to be a source of casual fun, too. That's why any photos users post show up on the main page of the app, where everyone can see them.

You won't be able to see the spot a fish was landed unless you're friends with the person who posted it, but it's still fun to check in and see photos of what people are catching around the country. We think it's a great way to burn a moment when you're standing in the checkout line, or stuck in the lobby at the doctor's office.
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By Bob Marshall

 
In the coming weeks, media groups will be publishing and broadcasting special reports marking the second anniversary of the start of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But what Ryan Lambert and other Louisiana coastal sportsmen and guides want the nation to know is that the spill isn't over.

"The oil and gas might have stopped flowing, but the spill is still going on for us," said Lambert, who runs Cajun Fishing Adventures in Buras, La. "We're still seeing the impacts every day.

"My fishing business is still way down. We still see some (isolated) patches of oil, some tar balls on the beach, some dead birds and dolphins.

"BP likes to say they made it all right. The spill is over. Everything is cleaned up. They're wrong. It's not over, and it probably won't be over for years. And that's when we'll finally know how much damage it did."



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By Chad Love

Remember last month, when the EPA was petitioned (once again) to ban lead ammo and fishing tackle? Well, guess what? The EPA has (once again) rejected the petition...
 
From this story on infozine.com:
 
The Environmental Protection Agency today rejected a request for federal regulation of toxic lead in hunting ammunition, again abdicating its responsibility to protect the environment from toxic substances. Earlier this year, 150 organizations in 38 states petitioned the EPA for federal rules requiring use of nontoxic bullets and shot for hunting and shooting sports to protect public health and prevent the lead poisoning of millions of birds, including bald eagles and endangered condors.
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By Nate Matthews

If you're an angler, you know that keeping a detailed journal of your time on the water is one of the best ways to up your catch rate. That's because, over time, your journal will show you patterns in when and where fish bite, and what lures and baits work best under different conditions. The more detailed your journal is, the more of these patterns you'll see. But keeping a detailed journal requires time and dedication that most anglers can't afford.

Not anymore. Field & Stream's FREE new Catchbook app, just released on the iPhone, is designed to take all the work out of keeping a fishing journal. The app does this by taking photos of fish you've already shot with your phone and automatically converting them into detailed fishing reports that include the weather and water conditions present when those photos were taken. The app pins each report to a map, then lets you share them exclusively with trusted friends and fishing buddies. The more friends you have, the more reports you see on your map, and the easier it becomes to pattern your spots!

Our editorial team has been working for nearly half a year on the project, and it finally launched last week. Now we're looking for feedback from the people we designed it for. You! If there are bugs, we want to know about them. If there's something you think we can improve, we want to know what that is. And if you love something we've done? We want to know that, too.

We'll incorporate your comments into updates to the app, which we're planning to roll out regularly. You can give us your feedback by commenting on this post, or within a new "Catchbook" category in our online Answers section. And, right now, exclusively for readers of this site (and for a limited time only) if you sign up and request user "Field & Stream" as a friend within the app, we'll add 5,000 points to your F&S Online username.  

Click here to view the app in the iTunes store, or follow the jump for more details on how Catchbook works. Thanks for checking it out! -- The Editors 

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By Chad Love

Is this a new reality TV series just waiting to happen? The price of eels, yes, eels, is approaching the stratosphere.
 
From this story on abcnews.com: 
 
Tiny translucent elvers — alien-looking baby eels the size of toothpicks, with big black eyes and spines — are mysterious creatures, floating thousands of miles from their birthplace in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean before ending up each spring in Maine's rivers and streams. But there's no mystery about what's drawing hundreds of fishermen to riverbanks to catch the creatures during the two-month fishing season. The price of the eels has skyrocketed to unparalleled levels, with catches bringing up to $2,000 a pound.

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