Get the Most Out of Your Fly Line! - Ethan
When your fly line gets old and dry or you don't plan to use it for a while, (over the winter) there is one simle step which will revive it and protect it. Simply put some Armoral onto a rag, and pull your line through it so that it gets a good coating. You may have to apply more armorol onto the rag every once in a while before you're done. Armoral is less expensive than having to replace your line!

Garbage to Some, Flies to Others. - Ethan
Why go into stores to buy expensive fly tying materials when any house is full of them? Chip bags and tinfoil add some great colour and flash, and wires double as ribbing and other things too. Sauder is a bgreat substitute for lead wire and is better for the environment. Around Christmas there's tinsle and all the ribbons from presents. Elastic bands are great for just about anything. It is well known that bead chains are good for eyes. Even pipe cleaners can be used if you're inventive enough

Our all-fishing message centre is in place to give you the chance to ask any fishing related questions you may have to other online fisherpeople. This also gives you the chance to help out other anglers as well.
This message centre also allows you to share your stories as well as post pictures of your trophies. We encourage you to post tips and tricks that you have found to be productive so that other anglers can put them to use.

Muskie fishing can be an extremely strategic sport. From the first cast to the final struggle there are 3 simple steps you can take to make that "fish of a thousand casts" seem a bit more catchable. However more importantly it assures that you, and not the guy from across the lake, lands the trophy!

The first step in Muskie hunting is locate. You can do this with fast retrieve lures such a bucktails, spinnerbaits, buzz-baits and spoons. Four to six inches is a good size because they are not too big to attract a muskie who just ate. Even though your favorite lure may be a 10" slow moving jerkbait or plastic, fast baits can cover water much more quickly so you can fish a larger area which is necessary in big lakes and rivers. A seven foot medium-heavy rod and baitcast reel will provide the necessary control to work your lure around weeds and away from obstacles which will help to lessen the time your pulling off weeds.

Cast in a circular pattern around you until you feel that you have covered the water fairly thoroughly. It is vary useful two have a second person in the boat so that you can cast all around more quickly. Jordan and I even assign each other different sides of the boat to fish. It may mean less fish for the individual, but more for the whole.

As my callused hands after a season of rowing would tell you, a trolling motor both cuts down on the time that your not fishing and lets you keep moving while you cast. It should be set at a pace which will let you cover the area thoroughly but quickly. The main point of this is to locate a muskie.

The one thing which will ruin you and make you have to start all over is if you get a hit and have the fish on for a bit before it gets off. After a muskie has had a taste of hooks he will move out immediately into deep water and you might as well stop chasing it and look for another. If one just hits the lure and you're sure it didn't get hooks then you still have a chance. It still, however, depends upon what it felt. If it felt the cold unnatural steel of a spoon it might be deterred, but the soft bushy bucktail might feel more realistic. If you believe that it wasn't scared away, mark the area where you saw it on a map or on GPS. Usually a follow-up which sees you is not enough to scare it away because it doesn't know that the lure is a fake.

The next day you're out fishing, preferably with the same weather conditions as when you first spotted the fish, go to the same area. However, this is the time for slower more enticing lures, such as plastics, stickbaits and jerkbaits. work the area very slowly and carefully. At first cast the skirting edges of the area and slowly work your way in. Make sure you cast all of the water that you are moving into before you move there. Work the baits throughout pockets and growths of weeds and around logs and stumps. Basically cover any and everywhere that a 'lunge might be hiding in ambush!

If the same thing happens as the first day, come back tomorrow! Jordan and I came back four times to get a muskie in a heavily fished lake and each time had a strike! Only stop doing this when you fish the area without any sighting of the fish, or it's in the boat.

If you are still stuck on this fish you can try the last step and that is fishing deep water around the area where it was first sighted. It has been proven that after a muskie gets frightened it heads for deeper water and safety. Whitefish imitating crankbaits are the best for casting these deep areas and a depth finder will help to show where productive looking spot are to concentrate on, otherwise you're shootin' in the dark. Trolling back and forth around the area is also productive and lets you cover deeper water more quickly.

Good luck with finding and catching that hidden monster through these three strategic steps.

• The fastest fish clocked is a sailfish. It was traveling over 70 kilometers per hour.
• Pickerel, the name commonly used for walleye in Canada, is actually a pike-like fish species which lives in the shallow weeds and does not grow as big as its cousins.
• The largest minnow in North America is the Colorado Squawfish which may reach 1.5 m (5 ft) in lenghth, and weigh more than 36 kg (80 lbs)!

Caught Me a Big 'Un... -Jimmy Houstan

This book is full of great info and tips about bass fishing as well as some good humor along the way, but if your looking for great literature, Jimmy Houstan is famous for his fishing skills, not writing.

Overall, a good book. It's one of those books that it doesn't matter if you put down for a week or two or more because it is designed to be read by readers that may not have the patience to read for an hour at a time every day. It has many chapters that are then subdivided into short tips and stories that are anywhere from 1/2 a page to 4 pages in length. I recomend it.

- Jordan