By Joe Cermele

Sometimes when I forward an winner's vintage tackle contest submission email to Dr. Todd Larson of The Whitefish Press and "Fishing For History" blog, there are multiple photos attached, and I tell the Doc which one I like most. But if something in the mix is worth more money, or has a cooler back story, he'll veto my choice. Case in point, this old fly reel submitted by Dave White. It doesn't look like anything special, but apparently this old beater has a lot more history than the lure Dave submitted. Fine by me...I love old fly reels that look like they've been there and done that.

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By Chad Love

Too many expenses and too few hunters carrying on the tradition means the end of an era for what was once the oldest and largest sportsman's club in the state of Oklahoma.

From this story on kfor.com: 
The Sportsman’s Country Club in Oklahoma City has brought hunters and fishermen together for decades. But now, Oklahoma’s oldest hunting club is up for auction. The club closed a couple of weeks ago, officials said, because of overhead costs, declining interest in the sport and even the drought has been to blame. [ Read Full Post ]

By Kirk Deeter

There are reasons why some fly patterns sell by the thousands of dozens every year. The Copper John, arguably the most popular nymph pattern on the planet, simply sinks better, faster, and is just flashy enough to grab a trout's attention. You can turn over a million rocks in rivers and never see anything that looks like a Copper John, but the fly is brilliant. The Parachute Adams is equally remarkable for its drab simplicity. Developed in northern Michigan nearly a century ago, the Adams proves to me over and over that trout care more about profile and presentation than they do about exact colors and detailed body accents.

Thing of it is, I have also come to believe that familiarity breeds contempt, at least in the context of trout and the dry flies they see every day. [ Read Full Post ]

By Bob Marshall

When you spend most days scanning the wire (ok, the Internet; I’m old-school) ferreting out the latest events on the important conservation issues of the day, you come across some remarkable stories. Most make you cry. Some make you laugh.

And then there are those that make you laugh while you cry.

Which brings me to these two headlines from last weekend that created a serious panic among those of us in Cajun country:

“Oysters With Herpes: One More Effect Of Climate Change”

and

“Crabs, Supersized By Carbon Pollution, May Upset Chesapeake’s Balance”

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By Joe Cermele

How many times have you or one of your buddies said something to this effect: I hear there's good INSERT SPECIES HERE fishing over at INSERT BODY OF WATER HERE. We should go check that out one of these days. Now, how often does the day you actually go come? When you have limited time to fish on weekends, or skip out on work here and there, it's very easy to talk yourself out of trips to unfamiliar places and opt for the waters you know well. I'm just as guilty of doing it, but I was reminded last week how important it is to roll the dice every once in a while, because you're bound to learn one of two things. Either you'll know never to try it again, or you'll discover something worth revisiting. In my case, I found a pretty great northern pike fly fishery close to home.

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By Steven Hill

Field & Stream profiled Thomas Gibson Jr. of Houston as “Texas’ tarpon guru,” in 1991. At the time he'd caught 973 tarpon—including the Texas state record and two International Game Fish Association line-class records.

Gibson, 75, has since run his tally to more than 1,400 tarpon and counting, and he’s added a lot more noteworthy catches to his name, including several IGFA line-class records and a 230-pound tarpon caught in 1993 (pictured at bottom) that still reigns as the Louisiana state record. But none surprised him nearly as much as his most recent catch, a 102-pound Guinean barracuda that is the pending IGFA all-tackle world record.

Gibson caught the ’cuda February 14 while trolling for tarpon near the mouth of the Cuanza River in Angola. He has traveled to the west coast of Africa for the past nine years to chase the fish that hooked his heart back in 1949, when he caught his first one as an 11-year-old boy near his childhood home on the Panama Canal.

“I’ve fished all over the world,” Gibson says. “Gabon, Angola, Louisiana, Texas, Boca Grande, Key West. Everywhere there are tarpon. Always looking... [ Read Full Post ]