TECHNIQUE: Bish from "Fish with Bish" has posted an article on an oft overlooked aspect of fishing, how to land a trout once you actually hook one. Actually, he takes you through the hookset to the landing, and the techniques he describes work for many different kinds of fish.

BASS: The dark side of tournament fishing.

BOW FISHING: Just got forwarded this photo of a huge alligator gar taken with a bow. According to the email, "This Alligator Gar fish was killed on Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas a few weeks ago. It is a pending Sam Rayburn Lake Record and BAA World Record Alligator Gar...8'2", 244.5 lbs. and 44.75" girth."

NEWS: Thousands of Fish Beach Themselves in N.C.

HUMOR: From The Onion...

NEWS: Americans are not getting enough sleep. If they polled hardcore anglers, the guys who get up at 3am just to be at the offshore fishing grounds at first light, or who fish all night for striped bass and go straight to work in the morning during the fall run, these numbers would look a lot worse.

TECHNIQUE: In the spring, think shallow.

NEWS: Saltwater fly fishing is catching on internationally.

MY FRIDAY FISH STORY: The down4repairs blog has been running a fish story every Friday under the name, well, "Fish Story Friday." He encouraged other bloggers to follow suit, so I am...
We sat in the little Irish bar pondering our rotten luck. We started out at first light the morning of Halloween in search of striped bass, working our way east along the shorelines and bays of Western Long Island Sound. Little Neck, Manhasset, Hempstead...Mattinecock, Bayville, Cold Spring Harbor...We worked and worked without a sniff of a striper, bluefish, or even a lowly searobbin. The fall air had chilled us to the bone, so at noon we decided to make our way through Huntington Harbor to Northport, where Dan knew of an Irish Bar that would be waiting for us a short walk from the town docks.
We ordered a round of Guinness, for strength, and a few burgers and strategized about how to get into the fish. Tom thought we should head back west and settle for pulling schoolie bass off the docks. Dan and I conceded.
We hopped into the boat at about 1:30pm, just at the start of the incoming tide. As we were bitching about idling through the no-wake zone, Dan noticed a flock of seagulls darting and diving in the far corner of the harbor.
"They're just picking trash off the beach," I said. "It just looks like they're over water from far away."
"It can't hurt to check it out," Tom said.
We followed Dan's eyes over to the gulls, and as we idled closer, we noticed several large boils within 10 feet of the shoreline.
"Bluefish!"
I didn't have time to tie on some wire, so I cast a clouser into the fray and felt an immediate and heavy whump, and my rod doubled over as the fish took me to the reel. Tom and Dan cast out and received the same instant gratification. My fish had broad shoulders, and I was amazed it hadn't bit through the leader. When I managed to work the fish closer to the boat I realized why. On the end of my line, with the clouser hooked into the corner of its mouth, thrashed a fat and healthy striped bass.
The stripers didn't quit. This school of 30-36" bass, fattening up on the fall run, kept the baitfish pinned along that shoreline for nearly two hours, and blitzed them almost continuously. And we had them to ourselves.
A lot of factors came into play for one of my more memorable striper blitzes to date. Whether it was Halloween Luck, Irish luck, dumb luck, or a combination thereof I don't know. All I know is if you put enough time on the water you'll eventually get lucky, and that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

PHOTO: Cheney handles a fly rod better than a shotgun.
(This is an Associated Press photo.)

TROUT FLIES: The Nyerges Nymph.

ETHICS: A fishing guide apologizes for his bait suggestion. This raises an interesting ethical question, because I have seen people hook a live perch to try for pike. I've also heard of people using small trout out west to fish for pike or freshwater stripers. And locally I've heard of people using juvenile flounder to catch striped bass. To use one prized gamefish to catch another...just not the best of ideas.

FLY SELECTION: You have to ask yourself, how much more black could it be? And the answer is none, none more black...Midcurrent has a link to why black might be the best all-around color for saltwater flies. There's also an archived article by Chico Fernandez extoling the virtue of black patterns. From my striper fishing experience, I'd have to say that if I could bring only one fly with me to entice them, it would be a black clouser. But the articles linked above make a stronger case than my own circumstantial evidence.

TROUT: Not everybody stayed home and watched the Super Bowl.

NEWS: Angler reels in record perch--a 2.39 pound whopper.

ALASKA: Winter fly fishing on the Kenai.

MEDIA: Another review of "Gotham Fish Tales," a documentary about the culture of fishing in New York City.

NEWS: More remembrances of Curt Gowdy.

NEWS: Teaching Wounded Warriors to fly fish.

FLY TYING: Bird flu forces tyers to go synthetic.

CANAL BASS: Scrappy largemouth can be found in almost any innocuous canal you might happen upon in South Florida.

ICE FISHING: A writer recounts her first frozen trip.

GEAR: Some advice on bamboo fly rods, from a man who refurbishes them.

GEAR: Bish the Kiwi has a post about sharpening your hooks.

NEWS: The "weather" bill that must be stopped. Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has lost his mind in trying to pass this bill and deprive anyone who boats or fishes in coastal areas of information that is absolutely vital. I am not saying he's in the pocket of commercial weather companies like Accuweather that reside in his state, but his zest for this bill raises eyebrows. Write your state senators and ask them to vehemently oppose this bill.

NEWS: R.I.P Curt Gowdy, legendary not only for his broadcasting acumen but also for his prowess as a sportsman.

UPDATE: I just got back from my work trip to the Miami Boat Show, where I experienced some beautiful 80-degree days and got to tool around on a few boats. Life can be rough sometimes. Met with some people about my upcoming trip of a lifetime, which only made me more excited. And I did get in one opportunity to fish some of the freshwater canals where I connected with a couple of largemouth bass. More to come as I get settled.

TROUT: New York's Top February Trout Streams Right off the bat they list my local trout stream, the Connetquot. So I guess it's not a secret spot or anything, but from watching guys sleep overnight in their cars to get the prime wading spots in season, I knew that already. What the article doesn't share is that the Connetquot has a world-class hatchery on site, so it is continually stocked with trophy-sized brook trout, brown trout, and Kamloops rainbow trout. The fish take a while to get educated, so you can have banner days there that make you feel like a fly fishing god. The stream does have holdovers that can be very difficult to fool and far upstream there are native brookies that can be caught through very technical fishing. And of course, the sea-runs. My buddy caught an 8 1/2 pounder there drifting a hornberg as a dry fly.
Lots of guys nymph like madmen, but I find these fish willingly take rust or black woolly buggers stripped upstream or cross stream, or drifted downstream, so I rarely use anything but. With dry fly action, I usually use caddis flies or attractors like adams parachutes, royal wulffs, or royal coachmen. And using hornberg as a wet or dry can be deadly at times. But it's all real basic. You go there, and have 20 or 30 fish days of fat healthy trout, and it kind of spoils you on everywhere else. (Link via Midcurrent.)

RECOGNITION: Outdoor writer Dave Richey elected to the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame. I do not know Dave Richey, other than that he is a prolific writer on fishing and hunting. Speaking only in the context of enjoying his blog, his ability to post crisp, thoughtful essays almost daily is astounding. We should all be so industrious.

FLY FISHING: A one-fly and goodbye tournament in the UK.

EATING: I did not know you could get ciguatera from grouper.

STRIPED BASS: All you sharpies along the New England coast and out at Montauk, take note. They're claiming Lake Texoma is the striper capital of the world.

SUSPENSE BUILDER: This morning I am sitting in my den riding out a Noreaster, but it doesn't matter because last week I accepted an invitation to go on the fishing trip of a lifetime. That's all I can say at the moment, since it's for a future article for my real job, but man, does it look to be awesome.

TRAVEL: The latest Peter Kaminsky offering, about catching mondo trout in Patagonia.
(NYTimes log-in required.)

SCIENCE: Listen to the NPR broadcast about the new "Super Fish Finder" sonar. Will it be a scientific boon or a new tool to overexploit fish populations?

MISC: Get your Rivalfish today.

Wishin' I was fishin'...

NON-FISHING ITEM OF THE DAY: You could really kick some tail in these bad boys.

TECHNIQUE: When it comes to fly fishing, some purists scoff at nontraditional methods.

TECHNOLOGY: Oh, come on now, this is cheating.

HUMOR: Investigative Reporter Ruins Fish Sticks For Everybody.

MUSIC: A sample of my favorite fishing song.
(By Taj Mahal, from Tower.com.)

MORE ON PIKE: I did not know you could fly fish for them in New Mexico. (Link via Midcurrent.)

NEWS: An inspiring article about Reel Recovery, a group that helps cancer survivors recover through fly fishing.

Favorite Fish Part One: Northern Pike

People ask me what my favorite fish is to pursue, and depending on the day I'll give a different answer. Lately, I can't get enough of the butterfly peacocks down in Florida. Sometimes it's striped bass. And not many activities beat casting flies to snook under docklights. But my first obsession over a gamefish started with the northern pike.
The pike is the first aggressive predatorial gamefish that I stalked and caught on my own. I remember catching my first one on the St. Lawrence River as a kid, rowing our little johnboat into a bay and using a Zebco rod to cast a yellow Head-On Midget River Runt fitted with two treble hooks. I can still feel that shudder of terror when a big pike slammed the lure, the dread of being connected to something dangerous, that actually pulled line off the reel. When I got it to the side of the boat, its trashing length and girth, the snapping teeth, it all left me shaking. I was hooked.
Now, I love to try to get them on the fly. I'll stand at the front of a johnboat all day in a freezing spring rain in hopes of catching them during the post-spawn. I've read books and articles about pursuing them with Dahlberg Divers and rabbit strip flies on floating line, but where we go we get the best results with perch patterns. Large patterns like Puglisi perch flies or big-eye deceivers with hues of green, orange, and black. We also get them on eat-me's, big clousers, simple baitfish patterns, barracuda flies--all fished with an intermediate or full sink line. (Where we fish for them, even when they're in shallow in the spring, they're still in six feet of water or so.) I am dying to work a shallow-water situation with floating line and a diver or even a popper on the surface.

BLOG STUFF: Just a quick note of clarification. We've been getting emails and solicitations about advertising and paying for links, etc. Fishing Jones is not a commercial site. It's just a blog we do for fun, to share information about fishing, and as an outlet for it when we're not on the water. Regarding the "Cool Guide" listings, they are people we have fished with personally or had interraction with, and found them to be enjoyable, knowledgeable, and reputable. The "Conservation" links are to organizations we support or believe in. The "Fishy Blogs" and "Fishy Sites" are ones we visit on a regular basis, or at least try to. Some we just "discovered" on our own, and some we put up through link exchanges. If asked, we're happy to exchange links with other sites as long as their content has something to do with recreational fishing and is not pornographic, offensive, or looking to scam people. As for our RSS feed, if you're going to stream our feed onto your site, all we ask is that you give us credit for original content and a link on your site.

Tight Lines...

NEW BLOG: Bill's excellent adventure. Got an email from Bill Erickson, who this summer will make a 900 mile kayak trek from the source of Idaho's Salmon River to the sea. He is doing this to raise awareness for Save Our Wild Salmon as well as Idaho Rivers United. His blog about the project is titled Salmon to Sea.

GREAT LAKES: Lake Erie looks promising.

FLORIDA KEYS: In a surprising discovery, the Keys apparently attract a lot of anglers. "In 2005, the state of Florida estimated the economic impact of the fishing industry at about $8 billion, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. A survey by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council shows that about 24% of overnight visitors to the Keys engaged in fishing activities, and about 676,000 visitors fished during their 2005 vacation. "

BOOKS: The Definitive Guide to Fishing Northern California. I wish I had thought of this when I was 22. I can just imagine floating this trial balloon the day after graduation, "Mom and Dad, I'm going to fish for five years and then write about it."

MORE ON BAROMETRIC PRESSURE: I recently posted two articles on the effects of barometric pressure on fishing. Stefan forwarded me this page from Humminbird that attempts to further explain what happens when the pressure drops.
One nugget: "An incoming weather system and falling barometric pressure rapidly cools the lake’s surface water and the action of the raindrops pelting the water increase oxygen levels. This sudden mix of cooler water and increased oxygen triggers most fish and game to become quite active, which generally enhances their feeding instincts."

ALBIE VIDEO: Here's another video from our false albacore expedition in Florida last summer. When Stefan makes the comment, "I wish I had another fly rod right now," he is referring to a person who shall remain nameless (Mike), who broke the only other long rod onboard off at the butt fighting an albie. (To Mike's credit, at this point he is off camera fighting a 50-pound cobia on conventional tackle.)

CARP: An expose on fly fishing for the golden ghost of the flats.

SCIENCE: Yesterday I posted this article about how barometric pressure affects fish. Today, I received an email from Tony Bishop of Fish With Bish, who pointed me to an article on Midcurrent titled "The Pressure Myth." This great piece, by Dr. David A. Ross, basically debunks that whole notion.
Yet Bish points out in his email (reprinted with his permission), "But like trillions of fishermen I know that when barometric pressure starts to fall the fishing often comes on, my diaries prove it, in fresh and salt water - so what is going on? If the scientific evidence is correct and it seems there is nothing to refute it, then other factors associated with falling pressure must come into play - changes in light, wind speed and direction, rain, strengthening currents etc." If anyone else has any insight, I'd love it if you sent an email.

CHARTER FISHING: Nick Schulz is an idiot. At least that's what I thought when I read the nut of his article: "Sport fishing is deeply, irredeemably lame." But then I read his article, and what he is really complaining about is paying for a charter where the guide and captain do all the work, and you're basically paying to be a human winch. There is truth in his words. I hate it when I take a trip and the mate insists on working the rod and handing it over only after the fish is securely hooked. I know why they do it, they want to make sure a customer gets that big fish he paid for. They also don't want to risk a big bird's nest that they'll have to unravel while you drink beer. But I'd rather attempt to set the hook myself and lose it than have someone else do it for me. I'm not dumb enough to think I could have hooked it without the work of the captain and mate in finding the fish, but it's more satisfying to work a fish from the start. As opposed to entering the game when it's all over but the reelin'.

GEAR: Apparently, there's a new spray for lures that attracts fish via ultraviolet light. Hmmm...just another gimmick?

FLORIDA: Treasure Coast anglers might find a resource in the TCPalm fishing blog.

SCIENCE: Noreast has an article on barometric pressure and fishing.

WEATHER: No ice, no fishing.

GREAT LAKES: Is the revived lake trout population exclusive to sportsmen?

ALBIE VIDEO: Here's the first of a couple of albie videos we hope to post in the next few days. This is from a trip where Stefan, Mike, and I went fishing with Scott Hamilton. We used 12 weight rods to subdue the false albacore more quickly and avoid shark problems. Obviously, this time we weren't successful.

MUSKIE: Outdoor Life has an article about fishing for them with buzz baits.

TROUT FISHING: My local trout stream opened for business yesterday, on a catch-and-release basis. With today projected to be in the 40s and sunny, I took a personal day and dug the waders out of the garage. The thermometer actually reached 50, and as the day heated up so did the rainbows. Every fish I hooked succombed to a rust-colored beadhead bugger, stripped s-l-o-w-ly. I had a waterproof digital camera with me that could shoot a few minutes of movie underwater. If anything comes out even halfway decent, I'll try to post it.

NEW LINKS: Jaiem, the master tier from the website ArtsNFlies, reposted my peacock bass report from January. They've got a lot of other good articles and supplies, especially if you're a striped bass fanatic.