The Tie that Binds
A fishing knot does infinitely more than bind a fly or lure or bait to line, it binds a person to the idea of catching a fish. "It's the tie that binds." I wasn't sure if he was making a statement to me or talking to himself. He slid the line through the eye of the...
Teach a Man to Fish
If you think fishing with your daughter is engrossing, try fishing with her new husband. If you are fortunate enough to have been blessed with a daughter, you eventually come to realize that someday, somewhere, some guy is going to come along who wants her for his...
How to Find Great Fishing in Minnesota
Q&A with Minnesota DNR’s Ray Ruiz offers fishing tips for beginners and experienced anglers alike Anglers can find fantastic fishing opportunities all across Minnesota. Wherever you are, chances are there is a lake, river or stream nearby with fish that can be...
Crawfish: The Po’ Man’s Lobster
If you want a delightful seafood dinner, and you can’t afford lobster, then say hello to my little friends. They are called by many names: crayfish, crawfish, crawdads, mudbugs, mountain lobsters and yabbies. They have more names than Carter’s has Little Liver Pills,...
The Shining Tides: Fall
Roccus fed and strengthened, yet did not grow in size. Despite her healing, her feeding, her strengthening, she continued to waste away. Roccus sank to the bouldered deeps off Mashnee. The hooks of the plug were merely an annoyance, the weight of it a nuisance, which...
The Shining Tides: Summer
Roccus sinuated, swirled and sounded, and all the line so laboriously won was lost before the boat could be brought on a following course. So the May was gone. The backward spring leaped to keep abreast of the sun’s orbit. Anglers sandpapered rods, wound guides and...
The Shining Tides: Spring
Roccus the striped bass had survived man's hooks and nets and the ocean's deadliest predators...and now, in her last years, she'd become the largest of her kind. Sun and a wafer edge of dissolving moon rose a few minutes apart. From a late roost in a scrub oak on...
California Steelhead: The Fish of a Thousand Casts
A Little Background Oncorhynchus mykis - aka Steelhead - are a unique form of rainbow trout. Born in high country freshwater, they experience a physiological transformation within a year that allows them to survive in the ocean. They spend most of their lives there,...
Setting Sights on Nebraska’s Walleye
The walleye may be Nebraska’s most popular, albeit often hard-to-catch, game fish. It is known for not only having great-tasting fillets, but also for growing big and providing anglers a fishing challenge. Despite its reputation for being hard to catch, at certain...
South Carolina Stripers
The success of striped bass in our freshwater reservoirs represents one of the great modern-day stories of nature's ability to adapt. We got skunked that day, yet it remains one of my most vivid fishing memories. It was a warm spring morning in 1963. My dad had loaded...