When you hear the term salmon burger, you can’t help but think of some overpriced menu item at a pretentious restaurant or some flaccid, flavorless recipe out of a weight-loss magazine. Some of us can even still taste the metallic canned-salmon ...
Saltwater
Penn Fishing Reels: 90 Years of Tackle For Anglers of All Stripes
I first used a Penn reel while fishing for flounder with my dad and our friends in Big Assawoman Bay. As a 10-year-old, I had no idea where the reel was made or what its history was. I just knew it worked smoothly and enabled me to catch a bunch of ...
Luke McFadden: A Young Crabber on the Cutthroat Chesapeake
It’s 5 a.m. when Luke McFadden pulls into the gravel parking lot of the Locust Point Marina. He grabs a small cooler of water from the bed of his white pickup and walks the few steps to the stern of F.V. Southern Girl — his 34-foot fiberglass ...
Fishing Panama, Part 4: Epic Tuna Dive
The sun makes its ascent on the group’s final day in Panama. With clear skies and great weather, they decide to make the most of it. The day starts with fresh-caught early-morning tuna cut into strips and draped over an open campfire to ...
Why Your Fishing Reel Gear Ratio Matters
As anglers, why should we care about the topic of fishing reel gear ratio? Good question. First, let’s be clear about one thing: You can catch plenty of fish without knowing anything about the gear ratio of your fishing reel. If ...
Watch Spearfishing Champ Justin Lee in ‘By Way of Black Sands’
Justin Lee knows precisely who he is: a spearfishing champion, bowhunter, conservationist, and dedicated family man. Studded with jaw-dropping images of Hawaii’s wild places and narrated by Lee himself, SITKA Films’ new feature By Way of Black Sands ...
How To Choose the Best Fish Cleaning Table
Beyond essentials like a filet knife and a scaling tool, a dedicated fish cleaning table should be in every angler's arsenal. Catching fish is a lot more fun than cleaning fish, and at the end of the day, when you grab your stringer or pull up to the ...
Angler Shoots Epic Vid of Breaching Whale Inches from Boat
A father and son were enjoying a successful day fishing for stripers off the Jersey Shore on Oct. 12 when they captured video of a serious lunker that almost took them under. Doug and Zach Piller of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, were fishing near Belmar, ...
Hawaiian Cast ‘N’ Blast, Part 2: Hunting Hogs and Spearing Giant Trevally
The second chapter of our cast 'n’ blast adventure (check out Part 1 here) follows Free Range American editor Mike Shea through Hawaii as he does a little bacon harvesting followed by some epic spearfishing in some truly heavenly blue ...
Cutts, Cutties, and Cutthroats: America’s Frontier Trout
There is a magic hour on the South Fork of the Snake River — maybe only a magic half-hour actually — when cutthroat trout seem to spontaneously appear in the long sweeping riffles that spill into the river’s deep emerald green troughs. The ...
Fatherhood, Sammy Hagar, and Salmon Fishing in Alaska
My son, Cam, had a pretty short list of what he wanted out of our trip to Alaska. “I just want to see one bear,” he said. “If nothing else happens and I see a bear, I’ll be happy.” Running a jet boat back down the Naknek River toward camp ...
Don’t Screw Up Father’s Day: Get Dad Cool Stuff He’ll Actually Use
Shopping for Father’s Day is hard. It’s tempting to just get dad a gimmicky barbecue tool that will be used once before getting hung in the garage for the next decade. Or maybe a new pair of Crocs. But, this year, you don’t have to be that lame. ...
Mahi-Mahi: So Strong They Say It Twice
In Hawaiian, mahi-mahi means “very strong” — but through a linguistic process called reduplication, the Hawaiian people say the word twice to signify greater intensity. In other words, these fish will beat you up. Mahi-mahi, aka ...
Free Fly Fishing Video Series Sets Up Beginners for Success
If you’re one of the tens of thousands that tried fly fishing for the first time during COVID as something to do that also allowed you to social distance, or if you’re “fly curious” because you watched A River Runs Through It, there is a new series ...
Meet Justin Lee: Spearfishing Champ, Bowhunter, Cancer Survivor, Role Model
You’ve heard the saying “like shooting fish in a barrel.” When Hawaiian spearfisherman Justin Lee dove into Lake Powell for the National Spearfishing Championship held the last two days of April, fish in a barrel might’ve actually had a better chance ...
Joining The Spring and Summer Cobia Craze
Standing on the bow of a boat fishing for cobia through the hottest part of the day is no picnic. The sun is high and cooking you head-first through your hat. Clouds are thin and disappear too fast to offer any shade breaks. The breeze does nothing ...
7 Ugly Fish and Why We Love Them
The perfect proportions and irresistible charisma of a trout will never be overshadowed by a catfish. Nor will a black drum ever outshine the prehistoric, chiseled-silver elegance of a tarpon. No, ugly fish are not heirs to the throne of “finest ...
New Can’t-Miss Fly Fishing Accessories
The American Fly Fishing Trade Association’s International Fly Tackle Dealer Show, or IFTD, has wrapped up after a three-day run for the first time since 2019. With the show came a host of new products unveiled to the fly fishing public. We covered ...
The Best New Fly Fishing Packs, Wading Boots, and Apparel
The American Fly Fishing Trade Association’s International Fly Tackle Dealer Show, or IFTD, is officially underway for the first time since 2019. With the show comes a host of new products being unveiled to the fly fishing public this week. We’ve got ...
New Fly Fishing Reels for 2022
The American Fly Fishing Trade Association’s International Fly Tackle Dealer Show, or IFTD, is officially underway for the first time since 2019. With the show comes a host of new products being unveiled to the fly-casting public this week. ...
New Fly Fishing Rods for 2022
The American Fly Fishing Trade Association’s International Fly Tackle Dealer Show, or IFTD, is officially underway for the first time since 2019. With the show comes a host of new products being unveiled to the fly-casting public this week. We’ve got ...
Striped Bass: The Phish of the Sea
Striped bass fishing is not an activity for those with addiction issues. The true striper faithful never fully recover from losing their minds during the season. The off-season is essentially one long hangover waiting for spring migration’s ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
Father-Son Duo Catch Huge, Pregnant Tiger Shark off Florida’s Gulf Coast
Michael Braun and his son, Nicholas, didn't expect to be wrangling a nearly half-ton tiger shark last weekend, but that's exactly what they did on a wild charter fishing trip. Their fish turned out to be one of the largest sharks ever caught off ...
Surf Fishing Starter Kit: North Carolina’s OBX and Beyond
From the isolated and undeveloped barrier island of Cape Lookout to crowded tourist destinations like Nags Head and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina has hundreds of miles of spectacular shoreline. In summer and early fall, hundreds of sportsmen and women ...
Potential Hammerhead Shark Nursery Discovered off the Coast of Miami
Tourists usually flock to Biscayne Bay for fishing charters, water scooters, and windsurfing, but the vacation destination seems to also be the perfect place for endangered great hammerhead sharks to do some reproducing. A nursery for these ...
5 of the Best Shark Fishing Spots in the Nation
Tarpon guides on the South Florida and Texas coasts can’t stand sharks. Same for mahi, striped bass, marlin, and tuna guides on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In all fairness, when a 10-foot hammerhead or giant blue shark decides to crash your ...
