By Kirk Deeter

This graphic, unappetizing story comes courtesy of my friend Will Rice of Trout's Flyfishing in Denver. Will took one for the team to underscore why fishing with barbed flies just isn't worth it. [ Read Full Post ]

By Kirk Deeter

Let's face it. Trout earn high respect within the fly angling world because they are "pretty fish." Doesn't matter if it's a rainbow, brown or cutthroat. The trout is the species that other fish in the same lake or river would want to take to the prom.

A bright, ruby-sided hen steelhead would be the prom queen in places like Oregon or Michigan. But a carp? Wallflower. Trash fish. Why? Because that fish is downright ugly.

It doesn't matter where you catch a carp (and I'm one of those shouting loudest from the bandwagon) — they may be cagey, tough and all that — there's no denying that this fish is plain hideous. Not in a "nice personality, but" kind of way. I'm talking stinky, foul and ugly to the eyes. [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano

Have something to say about your public lands? It could cost you…

My friends over at Trout Unlimited alerted me to a couple of bills that have been introduced to the House that don't sit well with me. I thought I would share.

They went on to say that Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development (SFRED), a coalition of businesses, organizations and individuals led by Trout Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, has been following this set of bills. And so far, the message isn’t exactly “sportsmen friendly.”

Among the provisions:
- A requirement of a $5,000 documentation fee to protest any lease, stifling a process that is currently free and open to anyone who wants to participate.
- Prioritizing energy development over fish and wildlife on public lands.
- A mandate that leases be issued within 60 days of payment regardless of protests or litigation.
- Requires that a minimum of 25 percent of the leases receive minimal environmental review and no protests. [ Read Full Post ]

By John Merwin

I took a Johnson Silver Minnow from the tackle box, added a white pork rind strip, and then fastened it to a short wire leader. The shiny spoon glistened in the sunlight as I held it in the air before casting. “That looks like Chapter One in The Book of Pickerel,” said guide Dale Wheaton* from the back of our canoe.

And so it was. The rig caught pickerel all day long as we fished a Washington County lake in far-southeastern Maine; in the back ends of various coves where the lake bottom transitions from hard rock to mud, weeds are abundant, and the pickerel abound. And they are usually — but not always — easy to catch. [ Read Full Post ]

By Kirk Deeter

I said that I was going to make 2012 "The Year of the Carp," and I'm putting my money where my mouth is.

I just made a trip to Idaho's world-famous Snake River. Not the Henry's Fork or the South Fork to fish for wild trout, mind you. Instead, I went a bit further downstream to camp by the river, make occasional tater tot/fries sauce runs to American Falls (a Napoleon Dynamite thing), and sight fish for monster common carp. [ Read Full Post ]

By Steve Hill

The Giant Squid (Architeuthis dux) is so elusive that the first photograph of a live specimen in its natural habitat wasn’t captured until 2004. Much of what scientists have been able to learn about them comes from specimens they’ve gathered from the undigested beaks found in the stomachs of their only known predator, the Sperm Whale. So when high-profile Australian angler and outdoor journalist Al McGlashan found a nearly whole specimen 30 miles off Jervis Bay earlier this month, the news was bound to create a stir. [ Read Full Post ]