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Welcome to Outdoor Life
The days before braided fishing line and Gulp! were filled with the innocence of youth. Here's a look back at fishing as it used to be.
![]() | Summer Fishing SpotsNorth America is loaded with great and diverse summer fishing opportunities, and every... |
![]() | No More Road RageStuck in traffic again? Well, at least make it entertaining! Check out these... |
Nasty Fish FacesCatfish Sutton’s top 10 meanest, ugliest fish on the planet! These fish have a face... |
![]() | Well-Dressed PanfishPanfishing isn’t all fun and excitement. At the end of the day, anglers must clean... |
Hot New Fishing GearThe 2009 iCAST Show is now history. Here’s what we found after walking the show floor... |
![]() | 14 Must-Have LuresOver many years of fine-tuning tackle companies have devised a wide array of lures that... |

From APP.com...
New Jersey fishermen could see a shutdown of the summer shark fishery - and the suspension of big-money shark fishing tournaments - because a two-year-old revision of the state's marine fishing regulations was not approved before former governor Jon Corzine left office, industry advocates say.
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Here is a picture of my foot with a hook in it.
I got it stuck in my foot on the last night of a fishing trip at Lake Amistad along the Texas/Mexico border. It had been a long day. I’d caught a lot of fish, gotten some sun, and had a good time with my buddies. I had just showered and was getting ready to put on some clean clothes when I stepped on a hook buried in the shag carpet of the cabin I was staying in. It was a large hook and it embedded itself deep into the muscle of the ball of my foot. It hurt like hell. Try as hard as I could though I couldn’t move the hook forward or backward and there was no way in hell I was going to let my buddies touch it. I did however let them drive me twenty miles into Del Rio, Texas to the emergency room to have the hook removed by... [ Read Full Post ]
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has issued an emergency executive order which extends the closed harvest seasons for snook statewide and establishes temporary statewide closed harvest seasons for bonefish and tarpon.
Record cold temperatures across the lower half of the state hammered the populations of these economically important species. The temporary closed seasons provide time for the FWC to evaluate the impacts to fish populations that occurred because of the recent prolonged cold weather in Florida. FWC officials reiterate that anglers can still practice catch and release fishing for these species. However, many anglers are voluntarily choosing to keep pressure off the species entirely.
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It’s hard to look for Quint when your fishing buddy is pale white and on the verge of puking his guts out over the side of the boat. I mean, who could concentrate on finding someone reminiscent of a movie character with a show like that on the verge of…exploding?
It was my third shark fishing trip with good friend Champe. The first time we had gone out in search for Quint we found ourselves on the beach with a foul-mouthed racist sea turtle activist. The second time we went searching we found a captain whose blood contained at least 10% real fruit juice and 80% pure cane sugar. The remaining percent was hemoglobin or plasma or something – hell, I don’t know. I’m not a doctor. For our third trip Champe and I decided to forgo our hunt for Quint and instead return to our second captain, Mr. Sugar Daddy. [ Read Full Post ]
Fishing buddy Capt. Devlin Roussel just e-mail me a photograph of this ugly beast caught on a jig in the Gulf the other day. Care to guess the species? Sure makes a great addition to our gallery of uglies... [ Read Full Post ]
From the IGFA...
After nearly six months of waiting, Japan’s Manabu Kurita is taking his place alongside Georgia, USA angler George W. Perry in the International Game Fish Association’s (IGFA) World Record Games Fishes book as dual holders of the All-Tackle record for largemouth bass each weighing 22 lb 4 oz and caught 77 years apart.
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NBA all-star legend Karl Malone, who also happens to be an avid hunter and support of gun rights, weighs in on the stupidity that took place in the locker room of the Washington Wizards when one player allegedly brandished a number of firearms in front of his fellow players.
Malone (a finalist in the OL 25 awards program) rightly worries about the impact this has on the image of responsible gun owners:
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He was the second shark guide I’d booked with my fishing buddy Champe Carter in our never ending search for Quint. Again, I won’t tell you his name but I will tell you that he was large, maybe 300 pounds, with a basketball-sized head and Popeye-like forearms. He was also quiet, soft spoken, very polite, and consumed enough sugar during our seven hours together to drop five diabetics dead in their tracks. [ Read Full Post ]
Quint was a hard man.
Obsessive and self-destructive.
Maniacal and psychotic.
Uncompromising and sentimental.
Foul enough to make the Devil cringe and charming enough to…well…he wasn’t charming. Nor was he apologetic.
Quint was the best there ever was (even though he got eaten at the end).
There’s never been anyone like him.
And probably never will be. [ Read Full Post ]
Illinois hunters and anglers can expect to pay significantly more to enjoy their outdoor pastimes in 2010 with Friday’s signing of fee-increase legislation by Gov. Pat Quinn.
The measure, which becomes effective Jan. 1, was passed by the state legislature earlier this year.
With the state facing an enormous budget deficit and a Department of Natural Resources with huge financing shortfalls, Quinn and other proponents of the increase said the fee hike was overdue and necessary. The increases are projected to bring the DNR an additional $3 million a year, spokeswoman Stacy Solano said. [ Read Full Post ]
Investigators in Ohio believe rising unemployment and a tough economy is driving some ginseng diggers in the state to illegally harvest the root on private land and out of season.
For the past month, State Wildlife Officers from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife have been contacting many Ohio ginseng dealers and diggers as part of an ongoing investigation. [ Read Full Post ]
The Martha’s Vineyard (Mass.) Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby committee voted last week to disqualify the heaviest bluefish entered in its competition after it was found to contain ice cubes weighing 1.8 ounces in its stomach.
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For the rest of his life, Caden Smith will probably relish the time he caught a catfish weighing more than himself—a feat he will quite likely never surpass. That’s because last weekend Caden, a 40-pound 4-year-old, caught and released a 45-pound flathead catfish from Texas’ Trinity River. [ Read Full Post ]
Probably no genre of angler is more obsessed with casting accuracy and prowess than fly fishermen.
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The day I was to leave for Alaska to tape the last episode of the season for my show, The Best and Worst of Tred Barta on Versus, I woke up with a gimpy left leg. My toes had no power, and I could lift my leg only halfway up. I went to my doctor who immediately ordered an MRI.
Shortly thereafter, my problem worsened, prompting me to drive straight to the emergency room.
Approximately six hours later, I lay on a gurney, paralyzed from the waist down.
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New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis today announced that beginning Friday, Sept. 25, recreational marine fishing licenses will be available for sale.
Recreational marine fishing licenses http://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/6101.html can be purchased via the DEC website, ordered by mail or telephone at 1-86-NY-DECALS (1-866-933-2257) or by visiting any one of DEC's 1,500 license sales outlets statewide. [ Read Full Post ]
After being without a truck for some months, I finally bit the bullet and bought a used 2001 Chevy Blazer LT. While I'd prefer a truck, the Blazer fit the four requirements I had: four-wheel drive, big enough to haul the dog, room/a place to put the kiddo's car seat and within my budget (those aren't listed in any particular order, by the way...).
What accessories have you SUV (and truck/car guys) enjoyed the most? Are there certain brands you like better than others? Are there budget-saving brands/ideas out there? I want to hear some thoughts on how best to outfit this baby for hunting, fishing and dog training.
Below are some ideas on things I might want to add on, please let me know what, if anything, I'm missing and/or things that really aren't worth it.
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On this, the last day of Outdoor Life’s epic fly fishing trip, photographer Troy Batzler and I have a summit meeting on the front porch of a picturesque cabin overlooking a tributary of the Yellowstone River. [ Read Full Post ]
Road Trip Trout Adventure – Day 2
>>SEE PHOTOS FROM TODAY HERE!<<
For all its relentless visitation, Yellowstone National Park has some of the finest fishing in America.
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Road Trip Trout Adventure – Day 1
>>SEE PHOTOS FROM TODAY HERE!<<
After a late start from Red Lodge—our departure delayed by the acquisition of fishing licenses, lunch fixings and bear spray—photographer Troy Batzler and I turned our Ford Flex south, up the winding, switch-backed Beartooth Highway.
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Road Trip Trout Adventure – Intro
>>SEE PHOTOS FROM TODAY HERE!<<
Out on the baking prairies below dust swirls around wheat harvesters. To the north a wildfire that closed Interstate 90 yesterday throws up columns of black smoke.
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Internet message boards throughout Michigan are abuzz with word of a possible world record brown trout taken on the Manistee River yesterday morning. Tom Healy of Rockford, Michigan caught the huge brown which weighed in at 41 pounds, 7 ounces and measured 43.75 inches long. Biologists have reportedly taken scale samples of the fish to verify the catch. [ Read Full Post ]
Sharks will always draw a crowd and the one that 20-year-old Taylor Sears of Scituate, Mass. hung on the dock scales the other day was no different. But it was really quite different—perhaps the biggest male mako shark ever caught on a rod and reel.
Sears, a summertime charterboat mate, and crew were fishing for bluefin tuna in the southwest corner of Stellwagon Bank on Thursday when they hooked into a tuna. After a 45-minute fight, the big shark decided that it was time to eat and chomped the tuna in half. A quick re-rig and Sears was shark fishing and hooked the mako within minutes. It took two-hours to boat the 624-pounder. [ Read Full Post ]
In the late summer months, it’s not unusual when motoring along the banks of Lake Erie in northern Ohio to have some pretty substantial flying objects go splat! on your windshield: like junebugs, dragonflies and the occasional hard-hitting bumblebee.
An 8-pound fish, though? Well, that’s somewhat unusual.
Messy, too. [ Read Full Post ]
“I made it in the hospital through the bleakest, worst times of my entire life. I was in there for 90 days. I made through 80 of them before they broke me! I just couldn’t do it anymore,” says Tred.
According to Tred’s wife Anni, the last high dose of chemotherapy destroyed his kidneys and some liver function. He suffered major depression. Anni and Tred finally decided it was more important to get his head turned around than anything. So Tred—at long last—returned home. Since then, things have brightened dramatically. His kidneys look like they’re responding positively. His most recent blood tests show improvement in his Waldenströms. The local Shaw Cancer Center is trying something new – a milder treatment that can be done at home one day a week for several months, then once a month forever.
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