Salt Water Sportsman covers the world of saltwater fishing. The magazine offers loads of how-to information, advice for those who travel within the greater U.S. and surrounding waters, and reviews of new boats, tackle and electronics.
In the wake of ICAST, the annual fishing-tackle trade show that’s held every year in July, we’ve been fairly overwhelmed by a load of great new stuff. Materials get more sophisticated and more durable. Designs of lures, rods and reels increasingly reflect the particular demands of a growing number of anglers. More interesting, a lot of gear has been developed for specific purposes. Gone are the days of making due or adapting existing tackle. If you have a preference or a specialty, there’s probably a mission-specific rod, reel, line and a parade of lures that fit the bill. I’m going to have to find some room in my tackle closet. I’ve deliberately confined my tackle to a single closet. Granted, it’s a pretty big closet. But it doesn’t have any…
NOAA recently confirmed that a large area of oxygen-depleted water is growing off Pacific Northwest shores. Data from local moorings, measurements collected by fishermen using dissolved-oxygen sensors provided by NOAA, and oceanic measurements collected during a NOAA scientific cruise corroborate the presence of hypoxic (oxygen-depleted) waters off the Washington and Oregon coasts. “Low dissolved oxygen levels have become the norm in the Pacific Northwest, but this event started much earlier than we’ve seen in our records,” says Oregon State University professor Francis Chan, director of NOAA cooperative institute CIMERS. Oxygen-depleted bottom waters occur seasonally along Washington and Oregon’s continental shelf when strong winds in spring and summer trigger upwellings that bring deep, cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface. These waters fuel plankton blooms, and when the blooms die off, they…
Michael Roth of Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, was fly-fishing the flats off Venice, Louisiana, when a school of baitfish moved into range with a gang of large jack crevalle in hot pursuit. He threw a chartreuse-and-white Clouser Minnow that he’d recently tied into the melee, and 25 minutes later, landed this 26-pounder. YOUR CATCH To send in your catch photo, email us at catches@saltwatersportsman.com. Got a piece of good news to share? Want to gripe? Like to see your thoughts on the pages of Salt Water Sportsman? Send your letters, manuscripts and any relevant comments to editor@saltwatersportsman.com or via U.S. mail: SWS Editor, 480 N. Orlando Ave., Suite 236, Winter Park, FL32789. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcomed but will not be acknowledged or returned unless accompanied by an SASE. We are not…
Hank Luepke 11, Montana 11, Montana An avid SWS reader and landlocked trout fisherman, Hank’s dream of tuna fishing came true on his first saltwater expedition—a recent trip to Panama with his father—where he tangled with this tuna as well as a slug of dorado. Alex Parrett 9, Indiana On annual trips to fish with his grandfather in the Florida Keys, Alex has become skilled at yellowtail snapper fishing, as evidenced by this 7-pound, 4-ouncer he caught off Alligator Reef in Islamorada. Harper Uchtmann 7, Missouri Having fished from Cape Cod to Catalina Island since the age of 3, Harper recently battled this Alabama red snapper on her own, from start to finish, while the crew just stood back and watched her get the job done. NOMINATE A KID: SWS recognizes…
In the last 10 years or so, fisheries science has been moving toward ecosystem-based management. In the simplest of terms, this means that all those flora and fauna in the ocean, and land as well, have some level of interrelationship. So, just as some movement has been made toward implementing this management philosophy, out comes a study that basically says hold your horses. The study says we don’t think the interrelationship between predator and prey is as strong as it is being portrayed by fisheries managers. Put another way, the study says there is not a strong correlation between the stock status of the prey and the stock status of the predator. This study was not done by any run-of-the-mill marine biologists, but by some of the most well-known scientists…
Chasing a hard-charging trophy fish involves foresight based on the nature of the species, its environment, and the tackle and line class. Simply watching a fish empty line from a reel, or hoping to avoid the inevitable by tightening the drag, is an angling mistake of the unforgivable kind. Stunt Driving Chasing down a long-running fish prevents it from stripping a reel, obviously. The accompanying reduction in drag pressure also keeps the line from parting and the hook from straightening or ripping free. But other factors must be considered as well. The decreasing diameter of the line on a reel spool as the fish peels it off results in an increase in drag. Combine that with the resistance created by the line being pulled through the water, and a break-off…
