When it comes to fly fishing boots, most anglers’ first experiences with river footwear are wading around for summer bass in soggy sneakers or pulling on a pair of hip waders when the water temps run frigid in the early spring or late ...
Fish
Court Declares New Mexico River Access a Constitutional Right — Again
Anglers in the Land of Enchantment notched a big win in a stream access fight that saw private landowners attempt to bar the public from using waters that flow through their property. In a ruling on March 1, the state Supreme Court unanimously ...
Brown Trout: The American Badass Jekyll and Hyde of Gamefish
Brown trout in the US are two fish trapped in the same body, switching from one to the other, like Jekyll and Hyde, depending on their mood. One minute they’ll be gently sipping mayflies from the surface like they’re holding up their pinkies at ...
Rooster Fish: Get Tropical and Be Ready for a Fight
Out of the gate, I blew three shots. We rose and fell in and out of 8-foot troughs as the mate idled the boat parallel to the shore. We were about 200 yards outside the breaking surf off the coast of Todos Santos, Mexico. The captain had just cast a ...
Bonefish Junkies: Pharma Contamination Drugging S. Florida Fisheries
A recent study in South Florida discovered 58 pharmaceuticals in the blood and tissue of bonefish in Biscayne Bay and the Keys ranging from antidepressants and painkillers to blood pressure and prostate medications. OK, first of all, ...
Bill That Would Gut Vermont Fish & Wildlife Board Up for Public Comment
Next week, the Vermont Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy will hold a virtual public hearing on a trio of Senate bills that could reduce the size and power of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Board, ban hunting coyotes with dogs, and ban ...
So You Want to Go Ice Fishing? Here’s What You Need to Get Started
To the uninitiated, ice fishing can seem like a masochistic endeavor: Drag a sled full of gear out onto a frozen windswept lake in frostbite temps, auger a hole through the ice, drop a line in the water, and sit on a bucket or in a small shelter and ...
Everglades Restoration Gets $1.1 Billion Boost, But Where’s it Flowing?
Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ beloved river of grass is getting a fresh bolus of support to aid in its recovery. Thanks to a nearly $1.1 billion allocation from Congress, the US Army Corps of Engineers will be able to expedite some projects in 2022 that ...
Homemade Ricotta and Cured Salmon: Easy to Make, Delicious Together
There are a million ways to preserve fresh salmon, but sometimes the best way is the simplest. All you really need is a little salt and sugar to transform your catch into orange gold. Many cultures have their distinct variations, like Scandinavian ...
Cold Weather Trout: 4 Tips and Tactics for Winter Trout on the Fly
Standing with a fly rod in a cold, free-flowing stream full of hungry trout without another angler in sight: that’s the beauty of cold-weather fishing. Fair-weather anglers are at home warming their toes by the fire. They believe winter trout fishing ...
Key West Bouy Burning Still Unsolved, Case of Rum Offered as Reward
The iconic Key West Southernmost Point buoy is a landmark that has attracted millions of tourists — some drunken, most sun-drenched — and generated a lot of cheesy photos since its official dedication in 1983. Two men participated in this ...
Reader’s Choice: The 10 Biggest Free Range American Stories of 2021
This was a good year for Free Range American. We grew by hundreds of percentage points in every conceivable metric and covered a wide range of topics (and controversies) other outdoor media sites were afraid to touch. We broke the news on an ...
How To Make a Perfect Bowl of Creamy Grits and Crispy Fish
Seafood and grits is a southern classic. Whether we’re talking shrimp or a fried or blackened fish filet, a bowl of cheesy, buttery grits is the perfect companion. Being an inland Yankee, freshwater fish such as panfish, bass, and trout are usually ...
Oklahoma Gov. Ends Native American Hunting, Fishing License Agreement
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is under fire for canceling agreements between the state and the Cherokee and Choctaw Nations over hunting and fishing licenses because “all Oklahomans should receive equal treatment under the law.” Tribal leaders in ...
Major Volunteer Effort Underway On The Upper Madison River
A malfunction at the Hebgen Dam on Montana’s Madison River crashed water levels this week and stranded thousands of fish. But thanks to a statewide volunteer effort, disaster may have been averted, though long-term effects on the fishery are still ...
Pennsylvania State Record Walleye was Almost a Filet-O-Fish
The new Pennsylvania state record for walleye almost went to hell in a bucket, literally. Richard "The Breeze" Nelson came home from a day of fishing with the giant fish in a 5-gallon bucket and was just getting ready to cut some big, fat fillets ...
Infrastructure Bill Includes Big Wins for Hunters and Anglers
President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) on Nov. 15, 2021, finally pushing the hotly contested bipartisan infrastructure bill over the finish line. But it’s not all about roads, bridges, and train lines. ...
Makah Tribe Could Resume 2,700-Year-Old Whale Hunting Tradition
Whale hunting is a tradition sacred to the Makah Tribe, an indigenous people who live on the Pacific Northwest Coast. But due to dwindling whale populations and a lengthy legal battle, the Makah have only had one whale hunt in nearly a ...
Carp Crazy: A Fly-in Fishing Adventure on Lake Michigan’s Beaver Island
Forty-degree wind and spitting rain blow unabated from Canada’s northwestern territories, gusting to 25 miles per hour. The rain hits my jacket and the back of my hands with the sharp snap of firecrackers as I stand waist-deep in the murky water of ...
Record Grass Carp Caught by Idaho Angler Fishing for Smallmouth
Idaho is known as a world-class hunting and fishing mecca. Anglers make annual pilgrimages to the state’s pristine waters to fish for wild brown, rainbow, and cutthroat trout. Rocky Mountain sheep, elk, mule deer, and pronghorn are big game animals ...
Florida Man Breaks State Peacock Bass Record
A Florida man broke a 28-year state fishing record when he caught a whopper of an exotic butterfly peacock bass in Broward County. Felipe Prieto landed the 9.11-pound, 21 5/16-inch technicolor slab this week, which dethroned the previous 9.08-pound ...
Thai-Style Fish Cakes: The Perfect Freezer Clean-Out Recipe
Thai food is vibrant, flavorful, and light — and these Thai-style fish cakes are no exception. While there are many variations of these savory cakes, most tend to include fresh fish, crunchy veggies, and a generous variety of herbs. This version of ...
‘Marathon Man’ to Honor 9-11 Victims by Catching 2,977 Fish in 24 Hours
Jeff Kolodzinski is looking to accomplish a fishing feat that has never been done: catch 2,977 fish in a 24-hour period. While the number may seem arbitrary, it’s anything but. That's a fish for every person who died in New York, ...
Urban Fishing: Five of the Best Big Cities for Anglers
Brad Pitt lied to you. The best fishing isn't in Montana. If you want to experience the great outdoors in its most gritty, honest, and tough-as-car-tires-and-non-biodegradable-Dasani-water-bottles form; if you want to pick fights with fish ...
Fish Per Mile: 9 of the Most Target-Rich Trout Rivers in the Lower 48
“A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work” is probably the biggest line of bullshit in angling circles. “That’s why they call it fishing and not catching” is a close second. While even the most seasoned angler may be happy with ...
6 WWF Legends Who Love to Hunt and Fish
OK, first of all, I’m not talking about the cutsie, panda-bear-loving World Wildlife Federation here. I’m talking about the big-mouthed, big-haired, tight-tights, oil-saturated, bedazzled World Wrestling Federation of the 80s. Those WWF ...
Florida’s Captains for Clean Water: Q&A With Co-Founder Chris Wittman
Every year a huge portion of the Florida coast is choked off by harmful algal blooms (HABs), and Capt. Chris Wittman, the co-founder of Captains for Clean Water (CFCW), has only seen it get worse. Red and blue-green algae fed by ...
Blue Marlin Crushes Tournament Records, Earns Boat $1.167 Million
In 30 years of competition, the MidAtlantic Tournament had never seen a fish as big as the blue marlin that came in on Jon Duffie's boat, Billfisher, last week. The 1,135-pound leviathan not only eclipsed the Maryland State record — a 1,062-pound ...
You Can Get a Great Filet-O-Fish Sandwich Without the Drive-Thru
There’s something nostalgic about a fast-food fish sandwich, but the memory is often better than the reality. Excitement quickly turns to disappointment when you open up the wrapper and take that first bite of an oily, previously frozen, ...
Florida Man Arrested With Dozens of Illegal Spiny Lobsters
This week, Giovanni Jesus Pirez joined a long list of meme-worthy Florida men arrested for colorful and sometimes bizarre activities. In Pirez's case, he got pinched with a boatful of illegal crustaceans, no valid fishing or boating credentials of ...
