June 17, 2013
There aren’t too many things capable of grossing out a 12-year-old kid on summer vacation. I wouldn’t count these among my proudest moments, but I can vividly recall doing such things as: running over a bloated day-old roadkilled cottontail with my bike with disgustingly predictable results; performing more stomach-content analyses on largemouth bass than most fisheries biologists would care to (by the way, they mostly eat bluegills and can carry eggs the entire summer) and putting down a giant rain frog (the thing had to weigh 5 pounds) with a sledge hammer in order to protect the lives of my cousins. But then there were the giant jelly sacks from hell! On the revolting scale, they rated a 15.
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June 12, 2013 by

The Lakers might have had a disappointing season, but their center, Dwight Howard, seems to be having a pretty good fishing season.
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June 11, 2013 by

He won the first Bassmaster Classic in 1971 and repeated in '78, but Bobby Murray is no one-trick pony. He holds a fondness for catching walleyes on his home waters of Arkansas's Lake Ouachita. Options are many but when 'eyes suspend over timber, here and in any deep reservoir, Murray said it's time to spoon-feed the fish – literally.
Favoring ½- and ¾-ounce Cotton Cordell jigging spoons, Murray knows that when bait balls move down the lake, they'll tarry over the humps, submerged islands, long points, etc. and walleye will leave the timber with appetites ablaze.
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June 7, 2013 by

When it comes to floating rivers, Western anglers are split into two camps: drift boats versus rafts. Both types of watercraft have their virtues and vices, but a key selling point of a raft is that it can take a tougher pounding than a drift boat while also being more affordable. Outcast Sporting Gear, which builds its boats in Meridian, Idaho, has a longstanding reputation as a maker of top-notch inflatable watercraft that cost as much as some drift boats. I spent last fishing season testing an Outcast PAC 1300 inflatable raft ($5,299) on the rivers in my home state of Montana in an attempt to determine whether the raft was worth that kind of coin, and if it really could take a beating.
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June 6, 2013 by

Fugitives and various other bad guys dread the sound of a K-9 unit in hot pursuit. Now, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources adds zebra mussels to the list of miscreants to be targeted by those skilled noses.
In its ongoing battle against aquatic invasive species (AIS), Minnesota has become the second state (following California) to use trained dogs to sniff out zebra mussels during the open water season. Earlier this year, conservation officers Todd Kanieski and Travis Muyres traveled to California to learn about the country's first program successfully utilizing mussel trained K-9's to prevent the spread of AIS.
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June 5, 2013 by

Midwest
Great Lakes Slam Species: Lake and brown trout, chinook and coho salmon, steelhead When: June–July Where: Ludington, Michigan Tackle: Orange spoons, black Bombers, alewives, herring strips Why: There are few places in the country, or the world, where you’ll have a better shot at so large a variety of species in a single summer day.
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June 5, 2013 by
Nothing tempts fish to strike faster than a fresh natural bait, particularly when water and weather conditions are not optimal for angling. These four species-specific rigs fit that description. When they’re used with quality baits, they can be counted on to dupe bass, trout, walleyes, and panfish when other presentations don’t.
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June 3, 2013 by
Bull sharks are known for being the deadliest man-eaters in the seven seas. It turns out that they're pretty good at eating tarpon too.
Check out this crazy video uploaded last month of two bull sharks thrashing a big tarpon boatside.
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June 3, 2013 by
It’s the ultimate evolution of angling ambition. First, we aspire simply to fish, then to catch a fish. Next, we aim for our personal best. Before you know it, we’re eyeballing state record fish and finally… world record fish. The most competitive anglers in the world are chasing after angling immortality. But all fishing records are not created equal. Some records, near-records, and old records are almost too amazing to be believed – almost.
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May 30, 2013 by

Anglers throughout the Gulf of Mexico share a common interest in the aggressive and delicious red snapper; but when the season opens June 1, not all Gulf States will share the same time frame in which to keep these crimson beauties.
Essentially, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) manages red snapper in federal waters, while states have sovereignty inside their marine boundaries. Some states have chosen to mirror the federal red snapper season, which concludes at midnight July 4, while others have taken other routes. At the request of its Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, NMFS implemented an emergency rule on March 25, 2013, which allowed for state‐specific closure authority of the federal exclusive economic zone off states not adopting consistent federal recreational red snapper regulations.
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