“Halving my gruel ration” is pretty sacred stuff for us portly types. It’s like hearing the “Defcon 4″ klaxon echoing through Cheyenne Mountain, requiring instantaneous response.  …that’s OK, this was what TC was going to unwrap for Christmas, a genuine bamboo monitor, with matching bamboo mouse. Now I’m thinking the rubber dogdoo or the inflatable [...]

I was only kidding about the “too-big” trout for pike to eat, it appears the Department of Fish and Game was paying attention however, as they’ve just planted 33,000 pounds of 2-4lb Eagle Lake rainbows in Lake Davis. Actually it was the American River hatchery that pressed the issue, as the trout earmarked to restock [...]

I remember seeing my first leader dispenser wondering why was this gadget necessary? Naturally, I was looking at the “dry” version and had no idea that you had to soak a catgut leader to make it supple. We’re the “monofilament” generation, and it’s possible some small gadget may linger for your kids to ponder. Synthetic [...]

Guilty. I am a devotee of fantasy football, usually my fantasy ends on draft night and becomes a horrid reality the following Sunday. I knew it was only a matter of time, but now we’ve got Fantasy Fishing -  I can look forward to public humiliation at the hands of my favorite bass pro. Any fantasy [...]

That’s a helluva question, the kind that gnaws at a fellow for most of the day. I stumbled on a story of George M. Daniel, a fly fishing champion who was asked to speak to 182 graduating college students on the secrets of success. Daniel is a national and international fly-fishing champion, with several gold [...]

In the prior installment I described a “professional” tyer as “someone who ties flies an hour per day”, fun or profit being immaterial. This is the start of flytying season, complete with area closures, holiday madness, Egg Nog obsession, and bitter cold. Lots of folks will fit this category for the next six months, applying [...]

There are times when I wonder, I suppose it’s proof that I still have a spark of optimism left, at this late stage I assumed it’d been stomped out of me. Surfing in the Arizona desert gives me pause, but so does adding cream and sugar to black coffee… “…another ambitious project is in the [...]

Cooperation the key to financial reward? Makes sense for any other industry other than fishing, as getting two fishermen to agree on anything is an exercise in futility. Nevertheless, the Science journal has published research from Australia that suggests a cooperative system can increase the financial reward and lessen pressure on troubled fisheries. “We believe [...]

I’m thinking that the TC is bent on world domination with the inclusion of the Daytripper to the Underground Writers Network. It’s a great addition, guaranteed to get you in trouble with the boss, as now there’s three idjits to read. What he failed to consider is that two of the authors fish, and between [...]

Thin the prey to benefit the predator? Somehow it sounds all wrong, but Swedish scientists suggest it’s one way to reestablish a predatory fish whose numbers have dwindled. Scientists found that culling older, larger prey fish can lead to more small fish for predators to dine on, even though the overall number of prey decline. [...]