This article comes from the Bent Fishing Podcast’s “Fish News” segment, where hosts Joe Cermele and Miles Nolte go head-to-head to find and report the most interesting and amusing fishy stories across sources far and wide—from respected scientific journals to trashy tabloids. A few years ago, our...

This article comes from the Bent Fishing Podcast’s “Fish News” segment, where hosts Joe Cermele and Miles Nolte go head to head to find and report the most interesting and amusing fishy stories across sources far and wide—from respected scientific journals to trashy tabloids.  On Jan. 16, Jon Kuznia...

Chances are, you haven’t given freshwater eels much thought. I mean, sure, they were a staple food of the native tribes that lived on the East Coast and fed the starving Mayflower voyagers upon reaching the New World, but for some reason these 4-foot-long, slimy, bug-eyed, snake-looking fish didn’t...

Long river trips might be my favorite adventures. They’re like backcountry pack trips without pack animals. Rivers can take you deep into some wild places aboard a vessel that will carry far more than the basic necessities, doesn’t require feeding, and never bucks you off—at least not intentionally...

Revisiting a favorite fishing spot that you haven’t been to in awhile can be a fraught experience. What if it’s not as good as you remember? What if some yahoo buddy of yours blew up your spot on social media and everybody and their sister started fishing it? What if the fish are still there, but...

A writer I dig, John Gierach, once wrote, “There are only two types of anglers: those in your party and the assholes.” While I’ve cursed plenty of people on the water, I also have full confidence that, were I in need of help, a fellow fisherman would put himself in harm’s way to do so. I’ve seen it...

Okeechobee: The Heart of Florida The center of Florida’s circulatory system sits right in the middle of the state. Lake Okeechobee spreads across 700 square miles of freshwater and grass. Oh yeah, and bass. Lots of largemouth bass, some of the largest and most notorious bass in the country, prowl...

The journey continues… Wildlife refuges aren’t always well understood, but they represent one of this country’s greatest ideas. Game species are more resilient than we sometimes give them credit for, and populations can survive and rebound from major setbacks if they have the right habitat. Contrary...

Most great cities are situated around water. But urban landscapes aren’t what most of us think about when we imagine great fishing trips. Cities have a history of polluting their adjacent waterways, but many American population centers have worked hard over the past generation to clean up their...

It all started with a boat. A 1955 Lund, to be specific—pea-green paint sloughing off in sheets, tethered to a listing dock on a 15-acre lake. I caught my first bass out of that boat, and countless others after. Its equally-aged outboard provided my first lessons in mechanics and, when I couldn’t...