By Joe Cermele

When I set out to shoot a "Hook Shots" episode, rarely does the rough plan I have in my head regarding how things are going to work come to fruition. Sometimes there is only slight deviation from the original plan. Other times, I end up capturing something on video that is miles away from what I expected. Case in point, two weeks ago my buddy Jimmy Fee from "On The Water" and I flew down to Stuart, Florida to meet Zach "Hammer" Miller of Team Rebel Fishing. Miller was going to get us tied into sharks in the surf, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. What I thought we'd be filming were some bulls and lemons during daylight hours. We caught none of those. But when a 12-foot, 475-pound hammerhead found our bait just before dark, what ended up following the strike was the most chaotic, heart-pounding, sweat-dripping, hand-shaking fight and video shoot I've experienced thus far. Enjoy the show, because I don't think I'll be topping this episode any time soon. Have a great weekend.

[ Read Full Post ]

By David Draper

If any time of year begs for surf and turf, it’s early summer. The fish (or in this week’s case, crabs) are in season, and there’s usually still a bit of venison in the freezer from last season. Those steaks will slowly disappear as summer wanes on, so two of our readers took advantage of the larder in this week’s Food Fight with a couple wet and wild dinners. [ Read Full Post ]

By Kirk Deeter

One of the greatest assets of the Ponoi River Company is its staff of fishing guides. It's literally an all-star international team, and I was pleased to find a number of familiar faces in the group—I had previously fished with Joaquin Arocena for dorado in Bolivia, and Max Mamaev for sea trout in Tierra del Fuego.

Ryabaga camp manager Matt Breuer is one of the anglers who figured out how to catch arapaimas on the fly in Guyana. It makes sense that the best of the best would gravitate to the Ponoi, since it's one of the world's finest fisheries. It makes sense from the lodge perspective too—if you're running a fishing operation east of Murmansk and north of the Arctic Circle, you don't want your guides to be semi-pro. [ Read Full Post ]

By Ben Romans

Earlier this week, Jason Johnston reeled in one of the largest sharks ever caught with a rod-and-reel—a 1,323.5-pound mako that could shatter the 12-year-old International Game Fish Association (IGFA) record of 1,221 pounds. In the few days since he made the catch on June 3, he’s gained both celebrity status—even appearing on CNN’s Piers Morgan Live—and been attacked by animal rights advocates, but so far, he says he wouldn’t change a thing.

Johnston, a resident of Mesquite, Texas, will be the first to tell you he feels more at home in the woods than on the ocean. After a 25-year career in the hunting industry, most of it spent as a big-game guide, the notion of instant fame from a record-setting fish of any kind was completely unexpected.

In fact, when we spoke on the phone, he mentioned that he was sitting outside his hotel, drinking coffee, looking at his picture on the front page of the Los Angeles Times with a Texas-sized grin and a pocketful of quarters, ready to purchase every copy he saw for posterity.

Johnston was in California fishing on an... [ Read Full Post ]

By Tim Romano

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about the Thompson Divide here in Colorado. It's an undeveloped backcountry area just west of the Roaring Fork Valley and is home to many productive and pristine native cutthroat trout watersheds as well as one of the most productive elk habitats in the state. Unfortunately for hunters and anglers here as well as out of state visitors, energy development is creeping in.  Almost half of the 220,000-acre area has been leased for natural gas development. I'll be blunt and say that I'd like some help working out a reasonable solution to development in the area.

The video above was made by my friend Josh Duplechian and features two of my friends and colleagues that depend on this wilderness area to make a living. [ Read Full Post ]

Father's Day is almost here. Is your pops one of those guys that has everything, or when you ask him what he wants, you get, "Ah, I don't need anything," or a similiar response? This list will definitely help. We have shooting gloves, a cooler, a grill, boots, and lots more—from the affordable to the extravagant. They're all sure to make the old man crack a smile. Scroll through and get some ideas.

In England: £27.99; online: $45-$50 (macwet.com) Serious target shooters, high volume dove hunters, and any dads that shoot anything will love a pair of MacWet gloves for Father’s Day. Skin-tight and thin enough that you can easily pick up a dime while wearing them, MacWets offer exceptional dexterity. In fact, I am wearing a pair as I type this. Seriously.

Hailing from England, a famously damp island, MacWets are made of Aquatec fabric that both wicks moisture and retains its gripping power when wet. I have worn mine shooting on days both dry and very rainy and they perform exactly as advertised. They are so thin that at times I really have forgetten I had them on as I was... [ Read Full Post ]