Mundane Mondays

Monday’s are the worst. We’ve had a pretty cold and rainy weekend here and I felt we could all use a good steamy monday morning video. In this video Julie Klaz goes deep sea fishing with Captain Geza on the Akua in the waters off Kona in search of mahi-mahi and marlin.

This video could be considered borderline NSFW, there’s no nudity, but some interesting camera angles. Not that I’m complaining.

World Ice Fishing Championships: Day 1

I wasn’t even aware of the World Ice Fishing Championship until recently, but this year it’s being hosted in Wisconsin and the rules are quite interesting. For instance competitors are not allowed to use electronics such as cameras, GPS, even powered augers. 11 countries are competing with some of the strongest being- Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Latvia. The US hasn’t ranked so well in the previous years, but this year on Day 1 of the tournament the US is in first place!

Technique, skill and equipment play big roles, as well as a bit of luck. “Out stuff is excellent, but their equipment is extremely sensitive,” says Michalak, NAIFC media rep and long-time Rhinelander area resident and businessman. “Our strike indicators typically are spring bobbers. They use a piece of X-ray film which is slivered and extremely sensitive. This is truly a science. They use half-pound or quarter-pound test line, special little rods, jigs up to 1/80th of an ounce, 24 karat, poles that are, no pun intended, completely foreign to us. It’s tremendous the way it works. We have technology on this side of the pond and the expertise with power augers, GPS, depth finders and fish finders. But you can’t use any of them here.”

I’m sure home ice advantage is a big factor too.

via News of the North

Stay tuned for updates!

Kopper’s Live Target Lures Look Real!

The 2010 season is slowly beginning here in Ontario and other parts of North America and the new lures and equipment are starting to hit the shelves. One of the things you may have noticed over the last few years is that fishing lures are getting more and more realistic, not just in looks but some companies are now accurately producing the swimming dynamics of fish with high-end swimbaits. We’ll be covering the new 2010 gear through out the spring and hopefully carry some of them in our OpenSky store.

One of the new lures, and companies, that I’m most excited about this year is based right here in Ontario. Koppers Fishing was created by Grant Kopper who has been making his own lures since the age of eight, and now thirty years later his company is now selling in Canada and the United States. Koppers lures spare no expense in detail, these are some of the most realistic crankbaits I’ve ever seen and their Live Target System makes it easy to find the lure that fits your applications. The new Blueback Herring is one lure I will definitely be picking up this year, this bait looks like a solid contenterd for monster bass and big pike. Lures sell for between 10-12 dollars each.

Check out this video from WFN featuring Grant Kopper and one of his Live Target Crawfish crankbaits.

Japanese Rainbow Trout From Adam Guy

Our good friend and long-time contributor Adam Guy wrote me to say that he’s recently picked up fly fishing and has been getting his practice in on a locally stocked pond where he can also keep a small portion of his catch to bring home and eat. Of course no post of his would be complete without something to get you salivating..

1. The French dish truites aux amandes; made with just butter, lemon, parsley and almonds, it is simplicity itself.
2. Seared trout fillets with a sauce of Marsala wine, cream and Japanese shimeji mushrooms.
3. Good old fish and chips, made with trout in a beer batter; it tasted better than some sea-fish I have eaten.

Once I have gained a little skill, I fully intend to hit the mountains and coasts of Japan with my fly rod. There is plenty of game here such as several species of native char and trout, a version of the famous taimen, Hucho perryi, called “itoh” in Japanese, and even our very own Asian salmon, the cherry or masu salmon (“sakuramasu”). Of course these creatures would probably not end up on my dinner plate, as perhaps due to my increasing age I feel less inclined to kill and eat my catch, but I will be sure to send you a photographic record of my fishing trips here.
Cheers,
Adam

Obama Is NOT Banning Fishing, So STFU!

Yes, believe it or not this story was reported to me by several sources as true. No Obama is NOT banning sportfishing! Geez, with all the problems in the world, not to mention all the problems in the US right now, you’d think that people could focus on progress, the platform their legally elected president ran under.

Apparently, the story was started by an opinion piece on ESPN Outdoors which then caused a massive uproar in conservative bloggers and spread like a virus of stupidity across the internet. Such as, Obama’s Latest Assault on Freedom– New Regulations Will Ban Sport Fishing.

The only problem is that these “regulations” don’t exist. What Montgomery was writing about is the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force that has been charged by the White House with developing a comprehensive federal policy for managing the nation’s waterways. Yes, they are interested in conservation and they are interested in setting new guidelines for fishing policies—commercial fishing policies that are threatening to deplete our food supply. Except they haven’t even gotten that far yet. All they’ve released is an interim report [PDF] that discusses what their goals are, none of which involve a ban on fishing. In fact, from what I can tell it’s completely generic legalese that contains no actionable policy recommendations in it all. It says zip about recreational fishing, never mind any sort of plan to curtail it.

No longer accepting input doesn’t mean it’s being banned. I saw how the recent input (read: filibuster) on healthcare went, and if I were Obama I’d be tired of hearing other peoples input. Heck, as an American citizen I’m tired of watching him listen! For once someone needs to stand up and make the right choices for America, not just the popular ones.

via Dead Spin

Update: March 11th, 2010

The Obama administration is trying to dash rumors that it planned to ban recreational fishing in marine waters and the Great Lakes in the wake of a series of Internet posts warning that such a prohibition was imminent.

But with rumors flying yesterday, Reps. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) and Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pa.) both expressed concern about the issue in a House Science Committee hearing. They asked the NOAA chief if the administration is considering a ban on recreational fishing.

“Will you please reassure me and the angling public, whether commercial or recreational that their issues are going to be taken into consideration?” Broun asked.

“Both commercial and recreational fishing are vitally important to this nation,” Lubchenco said. “We are not proposing any blanket ban on recreational fishing. I would strongly oppose that, and it is not in the works.”

ESPN outdoors editor Steve Bowman issued an apology yesterday afternoon, saying the article should have been clearly identified as commentary, not news, and should have had more balance. The Web site has since altered the article and added a header identifying it as an opinion piece.

via NY Times