Staying alive. Personal safety is high on my fall fishing list. The water temperature this morning on one of the big lakes I often fish is 51 degrees. Normally dressed, if I fall out of the boat there’s a good chance of death by hypothermia.

So a couple of years ago, I bought one of the Mustang Survival Jackets shown here. It’s a floatation coat/PFD with enough foam inside to also protect my body’s core temperature in the water. I figure that’ll be enough so I can either make it to shore or somehow struggle back into or on the boat on my own. The jacket is also plenty warm and comfortable while fishing.

This was not some free sample, by the way, but cost somewhere well north of $200. When I explained it to my wife, she who otherwise tends to parsimony immediately bought one too.

I have similar thoughts about river fishing. Neoprene chest waders aren’t as comfortable as the new breathables I most often wear, but unlike breathables the neoprene will act as a wetsuit if I take an inadvertent dive. So there would be some warmth during and after any... [ Read Full Post ]

Sometimes you read something that - to be perfectly honest - leaves you feeling hopeless and doomed. Something so depressing it makes you want to throw up your hands, shout "to hell with it all!" and head straight to the nearest bar. Something like this, from the LA Times.
 
The latest figures from Nielsen have children's TV usage at an eight-year high. Children's health advocates warn of adverse effects.
 
More than an entire day -- that's how long children sit in front of the television in an average week, according to new findings released Monday by Nielsen.

The amount of television usage by children reached an eight-year high, with kids ages 2 to 5 watching the screen for more than 32 hours a week on average and those ages 6 to 11 watching more than 28 hours. The analysis, based on the fourth quarter of 2008, measured children's consumption of live and recorded TV, as well as VCR and game console usage.

"They're using all the technology available in their households," said Patricia McDonough, Nielsen's senior vice president of insights, analysis and policy. "They're using the DVD, they're on the Internet. They're not giving up any media --... [ Read Full Post ]

I clearly remember my first taste of cannibalism in the fish world. I was maybe 7 and reeling in a small bluefish when all of a sudden a bluefish five times the size of the one on my hook pounced on my catch and severed my line. This happens all the time. Big pike eat little pike. Giant brown trout eat little browns. So how big is a great white shark that cuts a 10-foot great white in half in two bites?

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Just yesterday, Merwin posted a blog on essential items you should never forget to bring out on a boat. I might have a new essential item if the Bheestie Bags I received the other day do what they're supposed to.

I have a terrible history of ruining electronic devices on fishing trips. I've burned I don't know how many phones, a hand-held GPS, and most recently, $2,000 worth of video and still-camera equipent when some high-salinity water found its way into my dry bag. I baked all the gear on the dashboard of a fellow angler's truck, but it didn't matter. It was trashed. That was in Texas, and I had to waste a whole fishing day driving 67 miles in the lodge truck to the closest Best Buy. What can I say? I'm dedicated to my craft and wasn't going home without a video.

Though there are all sorts of tricks for saving wet electronics (salt, bag of rice, etc.), Bheestie Bags weigh nothing, travel easily, and are loaded with beads that are supposed to draw water out like no other and hold it there without re-wetting the... [ Read Full Post ]

Some of you who read Kirk Deeter and Tim Romano's Fly Talk blog may have picked up that I paid them a visit in their home state of Colorado a couple weeks ago. A trip to beat up some rivers with these guys was long overdue. As often happens on a "Hook Shots" quest, the wind follows me. This trip was no different, but we persevered, had a blast, caught some fish, and even got chased by a moose.

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I know this is a little off-topic for the blog, but it's too good. I had to share it. While looking at a few news sites this morning, I stumbled across this headline: "Woman Fries And Eats Pet Goldfish After Fight With Ex-Husband." Here's the story.

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With striper season just beginning to take shape in the Northeast, I'm starting to get in that mode where I check tackle shops reports 3,000 times a day. My stomach knots up a bit every time I get a cell phone call from a friend who is more than likely on the beach while I'm at work. I go to bed at night wondering if I should have gone fishing and if the morning reports will tell me working all day on a couple hours sleep would have been justified.

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So how about the new biodegradable fishing lines and flyfishing-tippet materials? A little-known company called Bioline has for the past few years been marketing a corn-based polymer fishing line that is clear and that the company claims will biodegrade naturally within 5 years. This in contrast to common nylon monofilament that can persist in nature for as long as 600 years.

Wright-McGill has recently bought Bioline (or so I’ve been told) and is newly marketing the product as spools of flyfishing tippet. I guess they figure fly anglers will be most willing to pay a premium for an environmentally friendly fishing product. This is all so new that it doesn’t yet appear on Wright-McGill’s website. But when Bioline was selling 30-yard tippet spools, retail was about $10 each or roughly twice the cost of premium nylon.

So how does this stuff measure up? I obtained a size 4X sample tippet spool from some Wright-McGill reps at a recent trade show. The spool is labeled as .009-inch diameter and 6-pound test. On my own micrometer and line-testing machine, the 4X Bioline measured .011-inch and slightly more than 7-pound-test (dry).

A “normal” 4X nylon tippet will be .007-inch... [ Read Full Post ]

October is looming, and that brings thoughts of steelhead. River tributaries of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are within striking distance, and fall-run steelhead are even now starting to trickle in from the big lakes. The fishing will improve through October and into November.

One of the nice things about steelhead is that there are so many ways to catch them. From spawn sacks and plastic worms to dead-drifted nymphs and wet flies, some steelhead will eventually bite just about anything you care to fish with enough patience, care, and persistence.

In most years I’ve been drifting small nymphs deep with enough split shot added to the leader so the fly ticks bottom. This kind of high-sticking with a fly rod works pretty well but can also get tedious if too many hours go by without a taking fish.

So for this fall I’m going to be swinging some big ugly marabou streamers instead. At least in this case there will be more actual fly-casting involved instead of the endless lobbing upstream that deep nymphing requires.

I know that fresh-run fish, aggressive in the fall, will chase and whack these things. And there’s always the potential bonus of a big lake-run... [ Read Full Post ]

Without question, a large part of what makes fishing so appealing is the chance for the unexpected. Well, this Sunday, something incredibly unexpected happened...and my camera was rolling. Chad Love, who many of you know from our Field Notes blog, flew out from Oklahoma for a shot at his dream fish: tuna. He never caught one, but instead ended up boating a near 600-pound blue marlin, which in my opinion trumps any tuna in the ocean.

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This past Sunday morning was rare. I wasn't fishing. That doesn't happen often, but prior obligations found me in the quaint river town of Lambertville, NJ. On my way home, I happened past the Golden Nugget Flea Market, which I haven't visited in years, and just like that I decided to rekindle my love of hunting for fishing treasures at the dirt mall. I confess, I'm a closet flea market and yard sale addict.

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