My Bags Are Packed

Actually, nothing is really packed. I’m at work for another hour tonight, but once I get home I’ll start packing. I travel pretty light generally, fishing equipment and cameras are the only real bulk I’ll be taking with me. We’ll be on a flight to Toronto tomorrow morning to spend the night with my family before we head south to Cuba. It hasn’t really sunk in yet that I’ll be sitting on a beach very soon. I really love to travel, especially traveling to a tropical island. It’ll be nice to take off this winter jacket tomorrow!

The best part about traveling south, the weather!

I haven’t decided if I’m going to take my laptop with me yet, but there will be at least a few updates while I’m gone, so visit again soon!

Happy Halloween!

Close-up and Personal

I’m not sure I’d ever get this close to such a huge animal, but it does make for a great photo op!

via reddit

The Largest Marlin Ever Caught On a Rod and Reel

The only possession I have left that belonged to my father is his fishing album. He spent a lot of time on the water and was a fishing charter captain in the Caribbean for many years. In the 1970′s, long before I was born he was helping people catch marlin, tuna, sailfish and more. My father knew a lot of fishermen, but perhaps none as renowned as Capt. Cornelius Choy. Choy was one of Hawaii’s greatest sport fishermen and holds the record for largest blue marlin caught on a rod and reel, weighing an incredible 1805 pounds!

As any good fisherman would, Choy took the opportunity to brag to my pops about record fish…

This massive fish was never acknowledged as a record by the IGFA since it was reeled in by more than one person. The only marlin ever caught that was larger than Choy’s Monster, was caught by a commercial fisherman. This giant marlin is said to have weighed over 2200 pounds!

It’s sad to think that the likelihood anyone will ever catch a marlin over 2000 pounds on a rod and reel is basically non-existent. Overfishing of these incredible fish by commercial fishermen could easily lead to their extinction in the not so far off future.

The Worlds Toughest Boats

With a boat like this, who needs a trailer?

via OFNC

Record Ontario Sheephead

I’ve never known any one that actually held an official fishing record before, but that may change soon. Mike, a friend of a friend who I’ve fished with a couple time recently caught massive freshwater drum (or sheephead) in Ontario, that is set to be the new provincial record! Check it out.

Fished Picton area on Saturday fishing was good weather was bad, a lot of rain…we managed 3 walleyes and my biggest weighed just shy of a 11lbs and was 30.25″!!! I also tagged into the biggest sheephead I have ever laid eyes on and it topped the scale at 22.2 lbs. I tried to release it after fighting it for 20 minutes pulled drag at least a dozen times for 20 foot stretches similar to a salmon fight but she wouldn’t go down so I looked up the Ontario record and it was 20.6 lbs. I’m in the process of getting this verified !!! I respect sheephead more then LM bass, very proud to take the record that’s been there for 17 years!!!! – Mike

via Angling Fanatics

Fish Braiiiiiins

My buddy Oliver (Gillian’s sisters boyfriend) is a scientist and a great photographer. I don’t know exactly what he does, but its all very scientific with microscopes and big words and such. He does a lot of work with snails, and occasionally fish. He gets to work with some pretty impressive toys, including a confocal laser scanning microscope which he used to take this image of a fish brain!

See more of Oliver’s photos on flickr, including a couple more shots of fish!