No Such Thing as a Bad Day Fishing

No Such Thing as a Bad Day Fishing

The bumper sticker read: A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic wondering how I had allowed myself to get in such a frustrating situation. Like all of the other miserable souls around me, I was growing more...
All Writers Are Liars

All Writers Are Liars

All writers are liars, whether reef-fishing miles offshore on the Atlantic or fishing through a hole in the north country ice. The smokestack of the hulk gloomed from the depths, barely visible when the July sun ricocheted off the surface of the sea. Halfway to the...
A Cat and His Hats

A Cat and His Hats

Other hats await, too. Hats I will someday own. I don’t read the girly magazines any longer, but I’m still dog-earing and sweating up the catalogs. The boys blew ashore just a little after four. They had started out in the wee hours aboard the Marsh Hen, a...
Voice of the Outdoors Curt Gowdy

Voice of the Outdoors Curt Gowdy

Curt Gowdy left a legacy that will never be equaled. Baseball broadcasts would run spring to fall; football carried from fall to winter and basketball into the spring. But Sunday afternoons from January to March, with snow packed at the foot of millions of doors, part...

Florida Fish Art Contest 2022

The Florida Fish Art Contest uses art, science, and creative writing to foster connections to the outdoors and inspire the next generation of stewards. The Florida Fish Art Contest was inspired in 1997 by a 5th grader’s homework assignment and has grown into an...
Fly Fishing the Salt

Fly Fishing the Salt

Experts argue about the genesis of saltwater fly fishing, but there is no question that anglers have been at it for at least 2,000 years. At that time, Roman author Claudius Aelianus described it thusly: “One of the crew sitting at the stern lets down…lines with...
Meet the $70,000 Fish

Meet the $70,000 Fish

For many, catching a bonefish on the fly is tantamount to turning the saltwater flats to holy water. As a fly fisherman, I feel naked when I wade a saltwater flat to cast for bonefish. I try and play the part of motionless heron but nevertheless feel so exposed in the...
Aloha Means Fishing

Aloha Means Fishing

In Maui, it’s not how many fish you catch, it’s how much tarragon is in the béarnaise sauce. With its gorgeous beaches, lush mountain slopes, slumbering volcanoes, swaying palm trees, gyrating hula dancers, and colorful cocktails with little umbrellas, Hawaii lives up...
There’s Always The Pier 

There’s Always The Pier 

All sorts of interesting characters frequent our fishing piers, but they all share the same thing—a passion for fishing. South Carolina’s Daniel Island is actually a peninsula of the original Cainhoy Plantation sandwiched by the Cooper and Wando rivers that...