05 Thursday Mar 2020
Posted in Bio, product reviews, Writings
Tags
Fishing, kayak fishing, kbf, RedLine Lures, Sports, Tailspin Lures
My review of this clever reinvention of a classic lure design is now up on the KBF Blog.
Disclaimer: I am not on the RedLine Pro Staff. This is an article I wrote because of my interest in new interpretations of older lure designs.
Click here for more: https://www.kayakbassfishing.com/blog-reinventing-the-tailspin/
Thanks for reading!
H
17 Friday Jan 2020
Posted in Bio, Kayak Fishing Posts, Writings
Tags
Bass Fishing, Fishing, Kayaks, Ketch Product Co., science, Sports
The history of modern sports is a history of athletic feats and great stories, but it is also a history of product innovation. From Thomas Alva Edison and Samuel Colt to Stephanie Kwolek and Steve Jobs, American engineers and scientists have mustered tremendous creativity to lead American business in the modern world. Their products are artful and useful. Tournament anglers use them and depend on them in order to succeed; for example, Stephanie Kwolek’s innovations in polymers for the DuPont Corporation were fundamental to the plastics we use in fishing lines and kayak design. Over time, we trust the materials and designs. And I trust my Ketch measuring board like no other product I own.
I’ve been tournament fishing from a kayak for 8 years. During that time, I have watched many friends obtain some lucrative sponsor deals, pro staff arrangements and other agreements. In exchange, they often give their time by promoting products on-line, working trade shows and spreading the gospel of kayak fishing at paddling demos, seminars, etc. It’s easy to make fun of kayak anglers and their sponsor deals. What isn’t easy is to put in the work: build a resume’ in competition, write articles, produce videos, work the industry shows, etc. Fishing is an art and also a business; it can kill your love of the sport but it can also help you achieve your dreams. In the best-case scenario it can grow your love for kayak fishing and expand the positive economic impact of our sport. Joining the Ketch Pro Team is a best-case scenario.
30 Monday Dec 2019
Posted in Essays, Kayak Fishing Posts
Tags
Carolina Yakfish, CKA, Fishing, Henry Veggian Kayak Fishing, Kayak Fishing Posts, kbf, Largemouth Bass, Sports
When you are young, the world is your private pond. It’s stocked with fat fish and they bite every lure you throw. You can sit on the bank and eat chips, sleep and dream of adventures you had and will never have. You can wake up and dive in the pond or chase your friends around the banks until the wind gets winded. Youth is a fork and the world is your mussel.
Before you know it, you are tired, stressed and it’s all gone. If you are lucky, you have a job and your health. If you are really fortunate you still sneak out to fish sometimes and forget your troubles. The mussels aren’t quite as abundant and they cost more, but they still taste really good.
We are closing a historic decade in the artful sport of fishing. It will forever be known as the decade during which kayak tournament fishing went from a local hobby to national and international stature. The sport’s business side has blossomed, the media have portrayed us in a good light and there are more tournament options than one can count. There are kayaks on every lake, many with rods sticking out of them and looking like antennae farms floating on some extra-terrestrial settlement. In only a few short years, it appears a viable model for the sport has emerged: the technology has improved, state wildlife agencies have noticed us, competition formats have settled into some degree of normalcy and people are out there fishing and having fun, whether in tournaments or otherwise. Hell, even the venerated B.A.S.S. organization has adopted us. Who saw that coming?
18 Monday Feb 2019
Posted in Essays
Tags
Bass Fishing, Fishing, kayak fishing, mike zlotnocki, nature, North carolina, photographer thomas harvey, photography, Sports, wildlife in NC
One day last summer, at the height of the best topwater and deepwater bites of the year, I received the call asking me to attend a photo shoot and to be a representative kayak angler for an article in Wildlife in North Carolina magazine. My first thought was “I’m gonna stick a state record at the shoot.” It was a selfish impulse, but an honest one. Who wouldn’t have it? I could lie and tell you I smashed ’em, or that I lost a big one, or that as soon as it was over I went to another spot and landed a biggun. All anglers are liars, anyway, but there are witnesses in this case. Here’s what really happened at the big photo shoot: I caught a skunk. Zero bites. Not even a wayward Bluegill.
Maybe I’ve been fishing for too long and the sun’s worn through my skull, but I just don’t care if I don’t catch fish. I’m just grateful to be alive and that’s usually enough to make my day. But the article attached to the cover shot in this post represents our sport so well that it made me grateful for something far more important, something much bigger than the little thrill of seeing my grizzled mug on a magazine cover or the disappointment one might assume when looking at a cover that is, in some way, a reminder of a bad day of fishing. I’ll come back to that point…
24 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in Fishing for Bowfin
Here is a well illustrated and informative post from Isaac’s Fishing Corner, a fishing page I follow. In it Isaac describes fly fishing for Bowfin (note his use of larger flies and a strong leader, but also a lighter 5 weight fly rod). There is not much available about fly fishing for Bowfin in the fishing literature so this was a welcome sight from Bowfin Country.
I can clearly remember the first time I ever saw a Bowfin: I was fishing a little irrigation ditch that ran through some corn fields when this strange looking fish slowly surfaced and gulped some air before disappearing back into the muddy water. As soon as I saw that fish I knew a new obsession […]
09 Friday Jun 2017
Posted in Field Reports
Tags
Bowfin, Bowfin fishing, Fishing, kayak fishing, Shearon Harris Lake, Tarpon 130, topwater Bowfin
June, 2017. Bowfin from the kayak.
20 Monday Mar 2017
Posted in Fishing for Bowfin
Tags
amia calva, Bowfin, dogfish, Fishing, grinnel, living fossils, native species, primitive fishes, rough fish
The latest issue of Outdoor Life magazine (April 2017) contains a short feature about Bowfin fishing. The article is largely based on an interview with yours truly. For some reason, the editors chose to place it on a page entitled “Ugly Fish.” Look at the Bowfin I am holding in the photo – it’s a beauty. Nonetheless, it’s always good to grab some positive press for this under-rated and misunderstood native species, and I am particularly honored to be included in a magazine that I have read since I was a child. Thank you, Outdoor Life!
15 Wednesday Mar 2017
Posted in Fishing for Bowfin
Here is a link to an excellent recent article written by Joe Cermele, Fishing Editor at Field & Stream magazine. The quote below gets my vote as the early favorite for Bowfin (a.k.a. dogfish) quote of the year. Why? Because if native species like the Bowfin weren’t in our lakes the fishing for other species would not be as good as it is.
“The funny thing is that in a fishing culture so worried about invasive species and preserving native fish, the bowfin is often falsely touted as a bad guy. The truth is that they were around millions of years before every gamefish we love. They have remained largely unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs, and I only had to catch one to decide I’d take the fight of a dogfish over that of a bass any day. I’m not alone.”
Nice work, Joe!
Here is the link to the full article:
http://www.fieldandstream.com/under-dogfish-why-bowfins-should-be-on-your-hit-list
09 Friday Dec 2016
Posted in Bowfin in Journalism, Writings
Tags
amia calva, Bob Frye, Bowfin, Bowfin Country, Fishing, living fossils, Pittsburgh, primitive fishes, Tribune Review, yinz
Here is a rare Fossil Friday post: on Sept. 21, 2008, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review printed an article about a Bowfin that was caught in the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, PA. The newspaper still ran a print edition then. Hence, the digital copy below is the fossil, a crude impression left by the extinct print copy. The print edition also ran the attached photograph; I include it here for historical reasons. That photo is everywhere now, and I want people to know where it first appeared in print.
The article’s history: it began when Bob Frye, the outdoors writer for the “Trib,” contacted Chuck “BAGman” Meyer at the old Bowfin Anglers group site. Chuck sent Bob my way, and Bob and I had a nice long chat. We spent a good part of the time talking about Myron Cope and the Steelers.
Bob somehow managed to turn my ramble into a great article – Bob is a professional journalist, after all. Looking back on it now, I was happy to draw some attention to my favorite fish and invite some folks into Bowfin Country.
A side note: the tackle shop mentioned in the article apparently had so many requests for the mount that they took it down, or so I was told by a friend who went there.
Here is the article, for your paleontological reading pleasure:
http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/outdoors/s_589149.html
28 Wednesday Sep 2016
Posted in Essays, Kayak Fishing Posts
Tags
Bass Fishing, Fishing, Fishing tournaments, Kayak Bass Fishing, Kayak Fishing Posts, KBF Magazine, Largemouth Bass
My essay about tournament kayak fishing, from the Fall 2016 issue of KBF Magazine. Click on the 1st link below for the pdf file of the article only. The 2nd link contains the full magazine (the article begins on page 73).
Thank you for reading!
Welcome to Bowfin Country 