HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY: I'll post again on the fifth.

GEAR: Midcurrent's got a post up about fishing bling.

CONSERVATION: Mark over at Blogfish has a post about the success of the Tortugas reserve off Florida. I know the idea of MPAs is a real hot-button issue, particularly with anglers in California. I tried to take a balanced look in an article I wrote three years ago. I wish it had an online link, but it doesn't. Here are a few points from it...
--Biologists I spoke with said that sanctuaries benefit anglers in surrounding areas via spillover and "seeding effect," meaning that bigger fish will eventually move out of the sanctuaries due to food competition, and that protected females will produce more eggs, some of which will naturally drift away from the preserve. But evidence from the Mosquito Lagoon sanctuary suggests that more fish move in than move out.
--No-take zones actually make up less than one percent of protected waters in the country at this point. Some scientists advocate closing off 25-30 percent of marine habitat, but the more practical-minded ones I spoke with said that's just a pipe dream. So there's a lot of panic about the issue that's unfounded. (Recreational advocates have championed the Freedom to Fish Act to curb MPAs. So there is a contingency working to ensure that the "25-30 percent closure" advocates don't get their wish.)
--Anglers in California DID get screwed with the Channel Islands Sanctuary, because their voice seemed to be blatantly ignored in the process.
--Strong fish management practices WITHOUT no-take zones successfully rehabilitated striped bass and redfish stocks. But studies of no-take zones around the world (as with the Tortugas study linked above) DO show that MPAs have a solid success rate in increasing biomass, density, and invidual size of species within three years of implementation.
Here's my conclusion from the article, which I still believe makes sense. "It's not fair or practical to exclude anglers from large expanses of public water. But science shows that no-take zones do have a valid role in fish conservation. So why not set up a network of small reserves, giving [recreational] fishermen access to some of the best spots while implementing strict management practices? This way everyone gets what they say they want: more fish."

SHARKS: The world record hammerhead caught off Boca Grande was pregnant. This is an unfortunate development.
(Thanks to JR Absher of ESPN Outdoors News Hound fame for the link.)

TOURNAMENTS: Cheaters charged with felonies.

FLY FISHING: Sometimes the fun is just being out there.

FLY DEBATE: Let me preface this by saying I'm a part-time trout fisherman. I do enjoy trouting, but because I spend most of my time pursuing warmwater or saltwater species, some if its subtleties are lost on me. So when I posted the other day about drifting a hornberg as a dry, one of my buddies commented, "Must have been on the Connetquot," meaning that it worked because I was fooling hatchery fish. (The Connetquot River is my local trout stream that's stocked with ridiculous browns, brooks, and rainbows.) But an Orvis guide actually recommended the practice of drifting a hornberg as a dry to me, saying it made a great attractor pattern. So I'm turning on comments to ask this question, has anyone else ever drifted a hornburg as a dry fly attractor? Anyone had any success with it on non-stocked streams? Just curious.

UPDATE: I received one comment via email that is a satisfactory enough one for me. I'm turning off comments again because a) I don't need any herbal Viagra or the money that is supposedly coming to me via Nigerian lottery and b) looking at all the "0 comments" underneath the posts is depressing. Here's the response about fishing the hornburg...

"Look on sites about Maine and northern NH fishing, and it's the A #1 fly of choice.  I think the snooty types dismiss it, and adhere to the Catskill school of having a bunch of more specific flies instead of a general type of thing."

FISH STORY: Trout Underground has a post about an encounter with one of those pushy interloping types that can ruin your fishing. If that happens to me, I'm coming back with "jerkstore." Jerkstore's the line.

TROUT STUFF: Fished at sundown today and hooked into my best brown of the season, a 17-incher with some shoulders. I forgot my camera, which is why I'm showing a pic of a hornburg, which I drifted as a dry fly to entice that tubby brown.

TRAVEL: An entertaining read about bass fishing in Mexico.

SEATTLE: It's "salmon city."

MAINE: Taking a guided freshwater trip.

FLORIDA KEYS: Three fish stories.

PERSONALITIES: Andy Mill retires from tournament tarpon fishing. I saw this on Midcurrent this weekend, but reread it this morning as part of my clip search. The dude is one of those people who's just got it all working--Olympic caliber skiier, one-handicap golfer, married to Chris Evert--that's not too shabby. I used to watch Mill's show on OLN and always envied the guy's athletic casts. I could practice every day for five years and still not cast like that, which is why it drives me nuts when people say there's no athleticism involved in fishing.

VIDEO: Carp on the Fly blog has posted a cool video showing a hookup and the ensuing line clearance.

PERSONALITIES: North Carolina's Eddie Pinkston.

MAINE: It's striper time on the beaches.

TRAVEL: And continuing with the international theme, fly fishing for nile perch in Egypt.

TECHNIQUE: Photographing jumping fish.
(Today's links have an international flair, as I found this Global Fly Fisher link on the Bish On Fish blog.)

SCOTLAND: A fellow fishing blogger, of Urban Fly Fishing on the Kelvin fame, got a nice write-up in his local paper.

TROUT: Fishing at night.

TROUT FISHING: One of the benefits of living relatively close to a trout stream is making the spontaneous decision to fish the sunset. And what a good decision that turned out to be. I have three observations from last night's session.
--Watching a rainbow slurp a size 16 Adams parachute is pretty cool every time it happens.
--Last night marked the first time I've ever had a seagull steal a trout from me right after I hooked it. Has anyone else ever had that happen?
--Nothing is more romantic than coming home from an evening's fishing and having the wife give you a tic check.

FISH STORY: Emergency room docs describe some fishing related cases, many involving big muskie lures.

HISTORY: How fly fishing may have helped do in Custer.

(Link via Ass Hooked Whitey.)

NORTH CAROLINA: Send your kids to fly fishing camp.

BOCA GRANDE EXPERIENCE: My trip to fish Tarpon Central two weekends ago proved to be a wild ride. I am used to hunting for fish. The thrill and satisfaction is as much from finding fish to catch as it is catching them. But in Boca Grande from May to July, everyone knows the tarpon are there.
During the day, the Pass is a traffic jam. Some guys drop live crabs, others drop jigs. (The Boca Grande Guide's Association disdains the jigs, preferring everyone in the Pass fished live crabs, or shrimp.) It can be insanity. Especially when people hook up in the middle of the herd. There is a generally accepted etiquette, but it seems like one in every ten boats disregards it. (With hundreds of boats out there, that causes a lot disruption.)
We found the Pass much more enjoyable after sundown. As our guide put it, the big tarpon feed primarily at night, and look to rest during the day. With a guide and on our own, we encountered far fewer boats under the moonlight, and had far more hook ups. When the flats and bay boats started heading out the Pass to cruise the beaches, we knew the sun would soon rise, and the fly anglers they carried would be looking for their shots (Unfortunately, I never got to be one of them). That signaled time to reel in.
We fished elsewhere during the day. With most anglers in a tarpon craze, we had little competition for everything else--snook, reds, trout, ladyfish, jacks, spanish mackerel, and so on. This was my fourth trip to Boca Grande, and by far the most enjoyable. It didn't leave much time for sleep, but that's what the flight home is for.

TOURNAMENTS: Fishing for fame, fortune.

NEWS: Meet the Fishin' Chix.

(Not to be confused with Ladies Let's Go Fishing.)

TECHNIQUE: Midcurrent has an article posted explaining some key fly casting components, as taught byLL Bean instructor Macauley Lord.

PERSONALITIES: Fishing with a bass legend.

STORY: Exploring the lure of fly fishing.

NEWS: They're trying to ban fishing along the Tamiami Trail south of Naples! I plan to follow suit and write a letter in the fashion posted here on Flies and Fins South.

Here's the article link they're referring to.

MICHIGAN: Return of good muskie fishing on Lake St. Clair.

TRAVEL: Fishing for bonefish in Los Roques, Venezuela.

PERSONALITIES: Blair Wiggins.

PHOTO: Birds take up residence under the gill plate of the tarpon hanging over the Boca Grande Outfitters.

CONSERVATION: An article on global warming where actual scientists discuss whether carbon dioxide really is a culprit.

NEW JERSEY: Fishing the state's artificial reefs.

PERSONALITIES: The Steeler's guard who loves to fish.

NEWS: Instapundit has a photo documentingAlberto's devastation.

GEAR: The fly line with racing roots.
(Link via Moldy Chum.)

TECHNIQUE: Midcurrent has two articles about swinging wet flies.

NON FISHING ITEM OF THE DAY: The next time the wife complains after I've had 18 beers or so, I can honestly say I'm just protecting myself.

BOCA GRANDE CRAZINESS: Back on the blog after spending an insane amount of time on the water chasing fish in Boca Grande. Tarpon are, and always will be, the main story there in June. Fished for them at night with Capt. Steve Ahlers and on our own, and fished all day for everything else. Details to follow.

NEWS: Fly angler survives a lightning strike. Ouch.

(Link via ESPN Outdoors NewsHound.)

GEAR: Outfitting an angler for under $100.

CONSERVATION: Mark from Blogfish has a great post about how farming in Iowa affects the fish in the Gulf of Mexico.

NEWS: Recreational anglers have three times the economic impact of commercial fishermen.

SOUTH FLORIDA: Now's the time for big dolphin, and a lot of other things.

NEWS: Are waders deadly?
(Thanks to JR Absher of ESPN Outdoor Newshound fame for the link.)

TARPON: Check out what happens in this wild fight.

BABY GOLIATH: Just got back from a trip to Florida for work, where I spent a day fishing off Marco Island. We concentrated on fishing some nearshore wrecks and humps--none deeper than 15 feet--to see what we could catch. This was pure jig fishing, bouncing bucktails around the structure and seeing what we could get. In most places, the spanish mackerel were so thick, they'd hit the lure before it could sink. We also caught sea trout, jack crevalle, bluefish, blue runners, small grouper, and little sand sharks. But the most exciting, and encouraging, part of the trip came from the goliaths.
The goliath grouper had nearly disappeared from Florida waters when, in 1990, the state banned commercial fishing for them. Recreational anglers also were--and still are--not allowed to keep them. Since then, they've made a remarkable recovery, so much so that the NOAA fisheries service removed them from its species of concern list in February. (They also got a name change a few years back, but you'll still here some old timers refer to them by their traditional name of "jewfish.")
I will not go swimming or snorkeling if I know goliaths are in the water. I say this because I hooked a 2 1/2 to 3-foot sand shark, which gave an excellent fight that suddenly felt as if I hooked a Chevy Yukon. I looked into the water to see that a HUGE goliath had risen from the wreck and inhaled my shark. He seemed annoyed when I tried to pull back. I feebly fought this fish for ten minutes, never gaining an inch of line, before he spit out my shark. (We released the shark and it actually swam away.)
Later I caught the small one pictured above that more appropriately matched our tackle but still gave a tremendous fight. We released the little one unharmed so it could grow to 600 pounds and maybe some day swallow a skin diver.

WORLD RECORDS: A really interesting article on Marty Arostegui and his puruit of Herb Ratner's total records number. (Note, if you don't have ad blocker, this article appears in an alternative newspaper with some "colorful" banner ads.)

(Link via Midcurrent.)