Here is a gorgeous film about Korean carp fishermen, which I think captures everything that’s great about the sport. Despite the fact that the anglers are casting on an urban river right next to a highway, they seem to be lost in the natural world of the current, the insect life, and the fish. After watching this, you’ll have no doubt that fly fishing is an international language. Some of the strikes, fights, and releases are so cool that, if this film doesn’t make you want to go catch a carp on a dry fly, I don’t know what will.
Here’s a good update on last week’s “striper massacre” story from the Coastal Fisheries reform Group’s blog. The offending trawler—which “accidentally netted between 3 and 4 thousand striped bass” on Sunday the 15th— has been identified as the Jamie Lynn, out of North Carolina. In response, NC Division of Marine Fisheries has changed the rules for commercial fishermen, adopting a weight limit of 2,000 pounds rather than the old 50-fish limit.
In other striped-bass news, NPR reports that some researchers now believe that weather cycles, not overfishing, are responsible for the decline of stripers along the East Coast in recent years.
If you enjoy reading the excellent conservation articles by Ted Williams (not the baseball player) in Fly Rod & Reel and Audubon, one of his fans has collected them all, dating back to 1995, in an online Ted Williams Archive.
If you’ve been wondering if you should shell out the $100 bucks for Andy Mill’s new book, A Passion for Tarpon, Tom Chandler offers and honest review at The Trout Underground. (Spoiler alert: he likes it.)
