The Honest Angler

I used to go skiing a lot until my knees got too wobbly with advancing age. Now I tie flies or even go winter trout fishing instead. That inclination was substantially reinforced by some news this week from Colorado.

Some poor guy was skiing at Vail when he got tangled up and dumped by a chairlift seat. As reported on The Smoking Gun website, he was left not just hanging upside down from the lift, but also with his pants pulled down around his ankles...bare-assed in the wind.

Of the many accidents I've suffered while fishing, hanging upside down and naked has not been among them. There's some pretty good winter trout action available not far from Vail, which obviously is what this guy should have been doing instead of skiing. He might get cold and wet in the river, but at least he'd be able to keep his pants on.

As problems go, this might not seem too significant but it's still a pain in the neck. I have a large collection of gimme-style ball caps that have come from various tackle companies over the years, and virtually all of them are too small. Because I have a larger-than- normal head size (no comments, please), I have a difficult time finding hats I can wear comfortably and that won't blow off when I'm running the boat.

I finally found a company called the Big Hat Store in Troy, Michigan, that sells oversize ball caps. So I bought a bunch of their hats, which turned out to be the first I've owned in years that actually fit well.

This also got me thinking that perhaps because of my large skull that I must be of equally large talent and intellect. But then maybe not. In searching around, I discovered that both Winston Churchill and Abe Lincoln had relatively small hat sizes--both were 7-1/8. Henry Ford's was even smaller at 6-7/8. ( For more about hats, hat sizing, and history, click here.)

So much for my dreams of grandeur. Anybody else have trouble finding a fishing hat that fits?

Fifteen degrees and snowing hard here in the North Country this morning, a very wintry New Year's Eve.

Today brings thoughts of New Year's resolutions, of course,  but I have to say I'm not big on resolutions I already know won't be kept. So instead of promising myself things like weight loss or more rigorous exercise in the new year ahead, here's my one resolution: Fish more, work less.

Sounds pretty good, huh? I have not yet figured out just how I'm going to make that work, but I'm going to try. It's not that fishing is necessarily so important, but, as the late John Voelker once said, that so many other things are equally unimportant and not nearly as much fun.

Don't party too hard tonight, folks, and drive safely. Happy New Year!

This is just incredible. Here's a video of an encounter  between some kayak fishermen and a very large great white shark off  the coast of Australia. It was originally posted by BBC News on Sunday. As a kayak angler myself--sometimes in saltwater--it just scares the bejesus out of me.

It also reminds me of a very sick and very old joke. Why do  sharks like kayakers? Because they're crispy on the outside and soft  and chewy on the inside. Funny, I suppose, unless you're a kayaker like these guys!

While our crippled economy is making headlines every day, its painful effects on field sports do not. They should, though, and the current state of the boating industry is a good example.
         
Those same boats we as fishermen depend on are generally viewed as expensive luxury items. A fairly simple walleye boat with a 75-horsepower outboard, for example, runs $10,000 to $20,000 or more now when new. Major-brand center consoles in the 20- to 22-foot range are hitting $75,000 or so fully rigged. And when a high-end freshwater-bass boat tops $50,000 then I'm really scratching my head in wonder.
         
Afford them or not, many people were buying such things until the recent credit crunch put the boating industry into a dramatic downward spiral. Home-equity, once often used for boat-buying, has evaporated. Major companies such as GE Capital that financed boat-dealer inventories, meanwhile, are rapidly pulling back.
         
As an angler, I don't think a boat is a luxury. But at the same time I don't think this is the year when I'll be trading in my fully-paid-for skiff for a newer model. As a matter of fact, maybe I'll look for a new pair of waders instead. Waders get really good gas mileage, too....

Just a day after I posted the news that a new federal saltwater fishing license was being postponed, the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a release stating that implementation of their "Angler Registry" will begin on January 1, 2010. It had been set to begin in just a few days, on January 1, 2009.

The reason for the delay, as I was first told, was a hang-up in getting the proposed rule approved by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). That OMB problem isn't mentioned in the release, which instead says the delay is intended to give coastal states that don't have saltwater licensing--generally from New Jersey north to Maine--time to develop a way of accurately counting their saltwater anglers. That will for the most part mean adopting their own saltwater licensing systems before the feds do it for them.

Read the links above for an excellent explanation of the federal plan. Understand also that if, for example, you live in Illinois or Ohio and travel to fish stripers in Massachusetts, then the licensing requirement will also apply to you.

Our local streams and lakes are locked in ice, and deep snow covers the pines and spruces outside my window. Two cats are curled quietly sleeping in front of the woodstove. There's a wreath on the door. The tree is trimmed and sparkling in the living room. Welcome to Christmas eve in Vermont.

Family smiles and joyous wishes brighten these short winter days. We'll take some time, too, in wishing devoutly for peace on earth and good will toward men--especially those who fish!

Merry Christmas to all of you....

A federal rule that would have required most unlicensed saltwater anglers to join an "Angler Registry" by Jan. 1, 2009 has been postponed. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has developed the proposed rule as required under law by the Magnuson- Stevens Act. Anglers fishing in federal waters as well as those fishing in (inshore) state waters for anadromous fish such as striped bass were to have registered as such with NMFS, creating what amounts to a federal saltwater fishing license. The exceptions were those anglers already holding a saltwater license from states that require them. Northeastern coastal states from New Jersey north to Maine do not (yet) require a license.

When I asked NMFS spokesman Forbes Darby last week what happened to the rule, he explained that NMFS had submitted the proposed rule to the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. This has to happen before the rule is made official by publication in the Federal Register. OMB has yet to reply, Darby told me, which means the new licensing rule can't be implemented by the planned January 1 deadline. Darby had no guess as to when OMB approval might happen.

Saltwater licensing is a hugely contentious issue in the Northeast. The question remains not if it is going to happen--it will--but when.

The other day I wrote about the damage mice sometimes do to  fishing gear. Then I remembered the following and figured you might  get a kick out of the photos.          

One of our several kayaks had been outside and in upside- down storage for a couple of years. There was a tightly fitted cover  over the cockpit to keep critters out.          

When my son Jason and I turned the boat over last summer,  there was a little chewed hole in the middle of the cockpit cover. The  cockpit itself was full of chewed, dried leaves and bits of old fabric  and feathers and general mouse fluff. Just a huge collection. But in  digging around and cleaning out, we found no mouse.

Then I noticed a small hole that had been chewed in the  bulkhead behind the seat, which seals off--or used to--the rear hatch  compartment. So we pulled the hatch off and found that compartment to  be full of mouse debris, too. I mean, there were just bushels of  stuff!

So we started pulling that out, and finally found just a  single white-footed mouse cowering in the extreme rear of the boat. We  carefully caught the mouse in gloved hands and let it go. I didn't  have the heart to stomp on it. Just an old softy, I guess....

Mice. They are sort of cute but just unbelievably  destructive. They have chewed holes in my fishing vests. And in my  waders. Once I had left a box of saltwater streamer flies open, and  mice chewed all the wings off. I just hate the little buggers.          

Many of my car or truck problems have come from mice, also.  Mostly they chew wires. Once, though, some mice made a nest between  the carburetor and the intake manifold on my truck engine of the time.  Eventually, the nest caught fire, probably because of wires that were  chewed and exposed. I was able to extinguish the fire okay, but the  replacement wiring harness was really expensive.

Because of mice, we keep cats. Two of them. I make sure the  cats have ready access to the barn area where some of my tackle is  stored. The cats have also been shown how to climb under my boat cover  so they can patrol the cockpit over the winter. That's the best  solution I've been able to come up with, but I'm sure it's not the  only one. Lots of people have mouse problems. What's your answer?