Anglers Journal celebrates the best writing, photography, illustration, design and sporting art on the topic of fishing. Come join some of the most prolific fishing editors and writers in the industry for the best angling experience on the water.
I wanted it badly. For months, I’d been waiting tables at a high-end seafood restaurant on the Connecticut waterfront, dealing with hard-to-please octogenarians who’d send back perfectly delectable lobster: “What’s that black gunk? Tell the chef I want a fresh one!” I wanted a magazine job. The idea of working for a boating publication made me drool. I grew up around boats. I fished long summer days by foot and boat. My favorite possessions were a bucket, a clam rake and a small seine net I’d drag around with my friends at the beach to catch silversides. The inflatable dinghy for my dad’s 40-foot sportfish took me on adventures around the harbor and the Hammonasset River. I’d inspect every turn, dropoff and ripple till the gas ran dry on the 6-hp…
Owen James Burke grew up fishing and working on Long Island Sound and has chased fish, waves and stories around New Zealand, Fiji and Southeast Asia as a freelance writer. He has written for several publications, including The Atlantic, Outside, Surfer and Men’s Journal, and is a contributing author of The Ocean: The Ultimate Handbook of Nautical Knowledge. Owen profiles pro surfer and tarpon nut Evan Geiselman in “Surfing to Fish.” Michael Carr is an English teacher and writer from New Jersey who chases stripers with a fly rod whenever and wherever he can. He is working on a collection of fishing essays in the off-hours between hikes, pond trips and driveway hockey with his sons. Michael meets author-angler John Gierach to talk about fishing, friends and the written word…
Great to see some of the best people in the sport of fishing and art featured in this outstanding magazine. Stephen Desisto FLIPPING OVER FLIP Picked up the Winter issue in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, airport on my way to Key West with my fishing bride, Sherrie. I really enjoyed Charlie Levine’s story about Flip Pallot [“The World According to Flip”]. But I mega-enjoyed Joe Sills’ Kevin VanDam story [“Taking a Bow”]. And the photos are great. Alan McGuckin YOU ASKED FOR IT At the top of Page 22 in the Winter issue — Charlie Levine’s “Weighing In” column — there’s a note that says: “We want to hear from you.” Here goes. I carried my magazine to the Virgin Islands and enjoyed reading it as much as I expected. Your…
Tributaries By Ryan Brod Islandport Press Good prose is like a good cast: You feel it when the lure sails at the right angle, squeezing between the overhanging limb and landing in the plate of shadow beside the drowned log. It appears good and right, and at the same time difficult to replicate. How often does that cast find a limb? Ryan Brod writes prose that finds its mark with every sentence. The words are sturdy and build images the reader trusts. From his musky, carp, trout and salmon fishing in Maine to the tarpon and snook that peel off his line to the backing in Florida, Brod is a writer who captures angling and inevitable introspection with intense clarity. In this collection of essays, Brod folds the relationships between…
“When I started tarpon fishing, I realized right away that I needed to have a guy that can find the fish that don’t want to be found. And I needed to be the angler that can catch a fish that doesn’t want to be caught. There’s always a moment that will flip that switch that will make you jump off a cliff to do it again. It’s like the first time you have sex. You’re like, I’m going to do that again. I’m going to do it a whole lot! That’s what the first tarpon I brought to the boat was like. You have to take the knowledge that you’ve learned from your mentors and expand on that. I think we live vibrantly when we’re chasing dreams, not dreaming dreams…
AS WATERS WARM INTO THE 50S, anglers watch for squid boats along the Rhode Island coast. Talk of “tubes” — sharpie slang for chunky 12- to 18-inch squid that pounce on jigs — breaks the long winter silence for the saltwater sect. The fishing cracks open in May or early June when darting squid zip through lights shining down on Newport Harbor. Whether fishing day or night, the cold requires heavy bibs pulled over pants and waterproof deck boots. The foul-weather gear also provides a shield from the stink and stain of the squid’s black ink. Acres of squid flood in on the moon. It’s a good push, and the jiggers slip out into the darkness. Capt. Max Dispoto, fresh-faced and bright-eyed, has eagerly awaited the arrival of squid since…
