GEAR: Some sage advice from a rookie on the bass circuit, posted by the Bass Pundit. Could apply to any type of angler, really.

SPINNER SHARKS: While this development should be scaring bathers, local anglers should be very enthused.

(To see what I'm talking about, go here.)

MONDO TROUT: Check out the pictures of these brown trout from a study on the Farmington River in Connecticut and tell me you don't want to drive there right now?

(Thanks to Stefan for the link.)

OREGON: Scientists and anglers debate the merits of MPAs in the Pacific Northwest.

PERSONALITIES: Profile on an Everglades guide.
Money quote: "Do you want to know how I know which bait to use," he asked. "The voices in my tackle box tell me what to do."

BOWFISHING: Um, what are the chances for catch and release?

BOCA GRANDE: New laws for tarpon anglers take effect this Friday.
Here's the jist: Before they can hook their first fish, anglers must follow two new laws. The first says no boat can have more than three lines in the water at once. The other prohibits the use of breakaway gear from April 1st through June 30th, when angling in the pass is traditionally at its heaviest.

BASS: Arizona Cardinals' coach Denny Green's charity tournament.

Lake Havasu Stripers

Just got back from a brief trip to Lake Havasu in Arizona. Lot's of spring striped bass activity there, if you could get away from the wind and the spring breakers. This week people were catching one-to-two pounders but last week people said they were catching more 5-7 pounders. For more in depth fishing reports, go to the link for Jim Ocker under "Cool Guides."

NEW YORK: Trout season opens on Friday, and striped bass season opens on April 15th, so my fishing opportunities should expand exponentially.

Travelling this week, so blogging will be light until Wednesday night or so.

BARRACUDA: Yet another example, the fish will get you if they get the chance.

(I post these stories every so often in homage to one of my favorite Simpsons moments, when Lisa's class watches a film strip promoting the beef industry titled "Meat and You: Partners in Freedom." The film features a lobbyist [Troy McClure] taking little "Jimmy" through a slaughterhouse. At one point the film strip shows a close-up of a sinister looking cow, and the lobbyist says, "Don't kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!")

[Editor's note: This is what you wind up posting when you haven't been fishing in two weeks.]

CONSERVATION: Colorado River cutthroat poised for a comeback.

MICHIGAN: Spring fishing is almost here. (Seems to be the general theme for the northern climes.)

NEW YORK: Opening day off trout season the best way to put winter in the past.

(NY Times online registration required.)

CANADA: In praise of the "tarpon of the north."

BOW RIVER: Horrible news about the insect population collapse on this trophy river, and the deleterious effect on its trout. (Interestingly, my wife and I were in the Canadian Rockies in 1999, and fished just days after this mudslide occurred. Needless to say, the fishing was not good.)

TRAVEL: Fishing reports from Scotland.

CHOICES: What would you rather catch, a bluefin or a bluefish? This writer makes a case for the latter.

(Link via Midcurrent.)

CONSERVATION:
Don't litter with your discarded fishing line.

ALABAMA: Buy a "Take a Kid Fishing" license plate.

NEW YORK METRO: Targeting Jamaica Bay stripers.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: A good time to target cobia and spanish mackerel.

FLORIDA: Resident freshwater anglers could benefit buying the five-year license.

TROUT: Outdoor writer Dave Richey's essay about what each species means to him.

WALLEYE: An eye-opening, and pretty funny, countdown to the season opener.

Hatchery Trout

Took my nephews to the Cold Spring Harbor Fish Hatchery while they're in town for Easter. They really loved dumping whole cups of food in at once to create a frenzy. But they also had these cool indoor educational aquariums with largemouth, smallmouth, pike, crappy, pickerel, bluegill, sawfish, garfish, perch, pumpkinseeds. One pond had some of the largest brook trout I've ever seen, but they also had a separate pond with giant pike and bass and carp. And you know, when the option to fish for them isn't even remotely available, it's pretty cool just to sit and watch them.

HUMOR: Dave Barry's take on this month's issue of Outdoor Life.

TARPON: A repost of the story I put up yesterday, about the guy who hooked a 200-lb silver king in his back yard. I found the original version, with no log-in required. Below is the money quote:
"'So the tug of war continued,' Strassel said. 'At this point, we have pulled up 20 feet from the fish and we are being towed towards the ocean. We are now 20 minutes into the fight and I realize I should have brought a lip gaff and some beer.'"

CONSERVATION: Guy Harvey's documentary on what's happening to our billfish.

RECORDS: 745-pound thresher shark caught of Kona, Hawaii.

SNOOK: Confusion with the new tail-pinch measuring system.

BONEFISH: More on the the Rosensteil School study.

FLORIDA: Catching a 200-pound tarpon in your backyard.

BASS: An angler on the fringes of the tournament trail.

MONTANA: Local nonprofit group works to restore sections of Pattee Creek.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: Red tide, weather slow fishing.

TECHNIQUE: Applying casting tips from Lefty Kreh.

FLY TYING: Science, art, or the sign of an anxious angler?

SAN FRANCISCO: Expect a great year for salmon and striped bass.

PENNSYLVANIA: State to stock fewer, but larger trout.

CONSERVATION: Saving Long Island's Great South Bay.

BOCA GRANDE: Divers clean debris, snags out of pass.

Connetquot River Brook Trout

NEW JERSEY: Guys are catching striped bass in the Atlantic City surf.

(Oh yeah, oh yeah. It's only a matter of time before it starts around NY Metro.)

TECHNIQUE: Marc Poirier recommends red hooks for walleye.

TECHNIQUE: Giving action to dry flies.

TECHNIQUE: How to catch finicky steelhead.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Waiting for the shad.

DISNEY WORLD: Lunker bass in the land of Mickey.

MONTANTA: Trout struggling to survive drought.

FLY TYING: The neverending quest to match lifelike colors.

FLORIDA: The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wants your opinion about local waters.

PERSONALITIES: Words about a Maryland fly tyer.

SEATTLE: The trout fishing should get hot if the cormorants don't eat all the stockies.

Casting Practice/Fish On

My first trip to the Connetquot this season started inauspiciously. The beat I selected in the morning wasn't happening. I flailed around in the water hoping for a trout to miraculously appear. This made apparent the limitations of fishing via a beat system. You get your own private stretch of water, but if nothing's doing, you're SOL. I was reduced to four hours of casting practice.

I took a different beat in the afternoon and it started slowly, too. I watched a guy at the edge of my beat 100 yards away catch four trout in ten minutes drifting a caddis emerger. I switched to a nymph but it didn't help matters. I went back to slow-stripping a rust colored woolly bugger and what do you know, a rainbow nailed it. Then another and another. Finally, the fish turned on.

FLORIDA: Urban bass fishing.

(Washington Post Log-in required, unfortunately.) If you can't log in, here's the money quote: "If you want to look at birds and alligators, I can take you to the Everglades and we can ride around in the boat," bass fishing guide Don Marks said last week. "If you want to catch fish, we're better off right here." ("Here" being Ft. Lauderdale.)

I have to say, one of the best bass fishing days I've ever had was on a golf course in my old hometown of Boca Raton. One of my buddies who lived along the course and I walked the water hazards with five-weight fly rods and poppers, and jumped a nice bass with almost every cast.

FLORIDA KEYS: The tarpon are rolling in Key West.

FLY TYING: Article on a salmon fly master.

(Link via Angler Wannabe.)

CALIFORNIA: A hot smallmouth bite.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: The red tide has finally abated, and anglers are being rewarded with pompano.

CONSERVATION: Florida attorney general rebukes challenge to net ban.

(I hope nobody has the gall to mess with the gill net ban, the best thing to happen to Florida's recreational fishery.)

CONSERVATION: Yellowstone to hold meetings about the fate of its native cutthroat.

Back in Business

Just back from a weekend ski trip and a work trip to Orlando (no fishing). Hopefully, though, I'll have some actual fishing news from a trout fishing trip real soon.

PERSONALITIES: The hoops coach seeks more trophies in streams.

(Yes, it's about Bob Knight.)

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA: A hidden freshwater treasure.

TEXAS: When tough conditions make for great redfishing.

(Reminds me of a striper day from last fall.)

FLY TYING: Prepping for the new season.

Transition...

This weekend I am going skiing for the last time this season, and next week I'm going trout fishing for the first time. (The Connetquot, the stream I usually fish, has catch-and-release fishing until the season officially opens on April 1st.) Historically, at this time of year, I have my most success using woolly buggers on a slow, erratic retrieve. A lot of guys do very well nymphing, which--honestly--I get bored with very quickly. Either way, I'm psyched to pull on the waders again.

WISCONSIN: The chance for trout too much to resist.

CONNECTICUT: For the CT anglers of this site (Mike, Marshall, Stefan), a report.

ANGLERS' RIGHTS: The Freedom to Fish Act comes to New York

(To learn more about the Freedom to Fish Act, go to Freedomtofish.org<