Justin Stuller is well on his way to some kind of Floridian grand slam. After enduring a nasty alligator bite a decade ago, he was bitten by a large lemon shark earlier this month. What comes after that? Barracuda? Burmese python? Wild boar?
Stuller, guide and owner of Estero River Outfitters, took his family down to the Keys for a short lobster season. On the second day, right after they reached their lobster limit, he noticed a hogfish with its...

There’s a difference between book smart and bar smart. You may not be book smart, but this series can make you seem educated and interesting from a barstool. So, belly up, pour yourself a glass of something good, and take mental notes as we look at the largest fish to ever swim the seas.
We’re all about big fish stories here at MeatEater, and we recently came across the biggest one yet. At an estimated 70-plus-feet-long, Leedsichthys...

It was a good cast, even the veteran guide behind me said so. Forty feet in front of the largest snook I’ve ever seen and hardly a splash. The fish even stayed course along the wall of mangroves. Then he saw the fly.
Slowly, almost exasperatedly, the 40-plus-inch snook halted, gyrating his pectoral fins, then made an about-face and lumbered off in the opposite direction. No mud-billowing flush; he just did not want anything to do with the bad...

Paul handed me the rod. Fresh off shoulder surgery, he was getting worked over by what we assumed was either a large Chinook or lingcod. Whatever it is, I thought as I leaned into the rod, it’s huge and dear Lord can it pull.
Then the line went slack. I reeled fast as I could to regain tension, catching up to a belly of line still slicing through the water.
“It’s coming up!” I shouted.
“Must be a salmon!” Paul responded, going for the net.
We...

I’ve never been a fan of reality TV. I wouldn’t say I’m a big fan of television broadly, but something about the contrived competitions and manufactured confrontations of the reality genre is especially repellant. In my 30 years on earth, I’ve watched exactly one episode of Survivor, one episode of Jersey Shore, one episode of The Bachelor, one episode of Naked and Afraid and two episodes of Top Chef—none of my own volition. I’ve never been...