You all know how this works.  Write your best caption below and we will pick what we consider the best one and award you a prize.

The winner this week scores big time with a pair of Korkers Guide Wading Boots complete with their famous interchangeable sole and BOA "lace" system.  They retail for $179.99

Good luck, and may the best caption win.

TR [ Read Full Post ]

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed I failed to post a blog Tuesday. Sorry. I was too busy saving my sanity by doing a little extreme winter fishing. All I can say is, man, did it ever feel good to bend a rod. I'm not going to tell you much about it because the outcome of this trip will be showcased very soon in the first "Hook Shots" video episode of the year. Although I'm guessing many of you will figure it out even though I carefully and strategically censored the photo below. But now onto what has certainly been plaguing your minds...the caption contest winner from last week.

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Sorry to riff off the Fly Talk blog, but I came across this photo and it was too good to pass up. If I'm not mistaken, it originally ran in a 1912 issue of Field & Stream. And yes, that's a big old porpoise (a.k.a. "Flipper" if you want to make it cute), hanging on a Naples, Florida, dock like a marlin or tuna. Oh my, how things have changed.

So let's have some fun. Whoever writes the best caption wins a Sebile Crankmaster and Flatt Shad...two very fine lures good for bass, walleye, even redfish if that's what you're into. I'll announce the winner at the end of my blog post on Thursday, February 4th. Have at it. -- Joe Cermele [ Read Full Post ]

As you might imagine, I find myself a little more at home at the ICAST fishing industry show, but here I am with the rest of my team walking the SHOT Show floor in Las Vegas. Since I've been here I've lovingly caressed many a fine rifle, and even shot a few rounds of trap (I'm acutally not bad. I can do more than cast). But I've always got an eye out for fishy wares. Last year I reported on some cammo rods. This year I decided to visit the booth of each knife manufacturer to see what blades coming out in 2010 would pique angler interest.

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I love sight fishing.  There is nothing better than picking out a  fish camouflaged among the weeds or against a gravel river bottom, then making that cast and earning the bite.

My young son is getting into it also.  He has his first pair of little polarized glasses now, and we like to walk along the river, sometimes without a rod or flies, just looking for fish. He summed up the game of spotting fish perfectly last summer when he said, "Hey Dad, this is just like playing Where's Waldo!"  Indeed... while fish don't wear little red and white striped shirts and beanie hats... the approach with spotting fish is the same as it is when you are playing the game in the children's book.  What you ultimately want to key on with your eyes is the slight inconsistency that gives your subject away amid a jumbled pattern around it.

Here are five tips to help you spot fish better (especially when they don't pop out like these rainbows).

1.  The secret to spotting fish is knowing where to look.  Sounds like a Yogi Berra-ism, I know, but if you know where trout hang out... on current seams, in tailouts of... [ Read Full Post ]

Not too long ago, Mr. Merwin posted a blog about the boom in on-line social media, particularly the micro-blogging site Twitter, and how it relates to anglers. John is not a "tweeter," and (at the moment) neither am I, though I have been sucked into the black hole that is Facebook. Twitter basically allows you to track what your friends are doing 24-7, and that can range from drinking a beer on the couch to watching a man get ripped apart by a great white.

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Whether or not you use products like Berkley's Gulp! or get excited over the color-changing baits in Yo-Zuri's Sashimi Series, it's hard to deny that recent technology has produced some amazing things in the lure world. But if you're a fan of the Terminator films like I am, you might be inclined to wonder if we'll ever reach a point where lures become too "smart." Imagine a lure that homes in on a fish's mouth like a heat-seeking missile and hooks itself in place. Hey, it could happen, and according to this news story on Physorg.com, science has already created a lure that "forces" fish to bite.

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I found this little bit of film from Nick Clement and Reel Escape Films the other day poking around on Vimeo and decided this is the perfect day to play it. It's called In the Land of the Cutthroats and is shot exclusively in the mountains of Colorado.  Many of the spots in this film I know intimately and fish on a regular basis. They are some of my favorite places to visit.

In the Land of the Cutthroats - Trailer from Reel Escape Films on Vimeo.

As most of you know our friend Charlie Meyers (outdoors editor at the Denver Post)passed away Tuesday night. While I have no amazing slideshow of Charlie nor the words of praise like Kirk I found this video to bring some amount of comfort to me in regards to Charlie's death. I'm certain Charlie fished many of these spots too.

It's a tad hard to explain... I'm just hoping wherever Charlie might be this is what he gets to see on a regular basis. If anyone deserves to fish for native cutthroat in... [ Read Full Post ]

First off, Happy New Year everybody. I hope many of you found time to fish over the holidays. I did. Just once. It was a flyfishing outing for trout, and though some fish were caught, I had had enough after just three hours on the river. The wind chill put the air temp around 8 degrees, but I wasn't cold. I could not stand clearing ice off the guides after every third cast. I don't mind the occasional de-icing, but this was over the top. I'm not entirely sure there's a perfect cure for ice-build up, but if there is I haven't found it.

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Should I go or should I stay? That's the question...

The past couple of years I've been lucky enough to spend a couple of days near the end of January in New Orleans fishing for giant redfish with Captain Gregg Arnold, the Holeman Brothers, and the crew at World Angling Media. Last year was especially good with multiple days of epic fishing and many reds over twenty pounds landed. Even better, Deeter couldn't make it, which meant I got to steal his spot at the front of Gregg's boat.

This year Deeter is going, and he's bringing a friend. Which means I'd have to wrangle up one of the Holeman brothers as a guide, find a place to stay, and, obviously, buy a plane ticket.

My question is; should I go and skip four days of work (putting myself behind the eight-ball early in 2010)? Or should I do the responsible thing, save some money and stay home?

Enjoy the video and if you ever find the yearning to visit one of the coolest cities in... [ Read Full Post ]

Quite a while back in a post here I referred to circle hooks as catch-and-release hooks for fishing with live bait. I was rightly taken to the woodshed by a reader who pointed out that circle hooks were originally (and still are) a commercial-fishing hook because of their high hooking rate on commercial-line sets for fish such as halibut.

But with that clarification out of the way, I still have a question. Who out there is using circle hooks and for what fish?

Commercial applications aside, this style of hook is supposedly a great conservation tool for catch-and-release fishing with bait. Instead of gut-hooking--and thus killing--fish that swallow the bait, these hooks are designed to slide out of the fish's gullet and hook in the jaw. I've tried using circle hooks in a variety of ways during the past few years. My own results have been mixed.

In using worms for stream trout, for example, I found my circle hooks were gut-hooking roughly half the fish I allowed to swallow a bait. I quit testing in that case because I was killing more fish than I wanted to keep. For... [ Read Full Post ]

Our friends over at Trout Unlimited alerted us to this bill making it's way through the Montana Senate right now.

Trout Unlimited, The Montana Wildlife Federation, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership all have announced support of a bill for the state of Montana called the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act, sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester.

“This bill has broad support from hunters and anglers, simply because it keeps irreplaceable fish and game habitat intact,” said Tom Reed, a TU field director based in Bozeman. “The bill is a product of thoughtful compromise and represents the best possible relief for Montana’s long wilderness drought. By protecting habitat in perpetuity, the bill protects our rights to fish and hunt on public land in Montana for generations to come.”

"The bill, which would designate as wilderness some of the best...

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