Man, oh man...I think I'm going cross-eyed. No joke....seriously hypnotized by staring at our 24" flat screen monitor. This is the time of year that we process all the film we shot for Fishful Thinker TV and DVD's during the peak seasons. Its a ton of vid...like 6 TB's worth on our HP Workstations. As much as I'm not a computer guy, these workstations have impressed me with handling huge amounts of data and high end Avid editing software with speed and reliablilty, even in my novice hands. It takes me a ridiculous amount of time to rough edit a single 30 minute show, and then I have to get it to All Terrain Video ( http://www.allterrainvideo.com/ ) for post production. Without the HP's, there'd likely be no Fishful Thinker TV. For whatever reason, I have a very hard time handing over rough editing chores because only I really know what I'm trying to communicate. Its a weakness that I need to get over, but so far, I've been able to overcome with help from HP Workstations. Imagine how well they'd in the hands of a true expert. I'm learning quick, though...now I need to work on the control freak thing.      read more...

Hard work. Determination. Resolve. Patience. Desire. Oh, and a little Luck. These words all describe what makes a good outdoorsman, either hunter of fisherman. If you apply all of them to your fishing, combined with a bunch of research to gain knowledge faster then actual experience alone, you will be more successful and your success will be more satisfying. Mrs. Fishful, otherwise known as Stephanie, has been working towards her first deer for several years now and each time something hasn't been quite right. She'd get close, but no cigar. Her goal was to practice selective harvest with a very clear standing shot on a mature deer on public ground, and that is not easy to do as anyone who hunts can attest to.    read more...

   Lets face it - the warmer weather is slipping away day by day! Along with that, our water temps are sinking like an anchor.  A major player in producing fish of any kind is building a pattern and presenting your lure or bait to that fish.  There is something to be said about those last 2 sentences.  Take a Pike for example. This is a fish that loves to bake in the sun on a warm summer day.  When these water temps are cold, these fish start to move to deeper water and start to pout about the cold.  A lot of anglers think these cold temps are a sign to stop fishing, but I look at these cold times as a time for these fish to gather and stay in one place.  I love it. I leave one day, and the next the fish are still there waiting to be caught.  You have to learn to take advantage of all situations that you encounter.     read more...

So, what is the problem with catch and release (C&R) fishing in “no-take reserves”?  The fish are released to fight another day, right? It turns out things are not clear cut. The authors concluded that C&R fishing was incompatible with “no take” reserves as an unacceptably large number of fish could potentially be killed.  They based their conclusion on the review of numerous C&R studies that showed, depending on fishing methods and species, total morality(initial and post) due to C&R averaged 18 %, ranging from less than 1% to over 80%.    read more...

Fall brings us gorgeously colored foliage, crisp morning air, bugling elk, and exceptional fishing.  Many species go on feeding frenzies in preparation for winter.  This makes for fast action with little competition, as many are hunting, watching football, or otherwise engaged.  Plus, now is when the kokanee make their annual spawning run.    read more...

For me one of the original attractions to Fish Explorer was the amount of information available, especially “current” information on lakes and reservoirs.  While not always, it frequently was and still remains some of the best.  Why?  It’s due to you, the members making contributions and the monitoring by the lake skippers and Mark, our Reports Editor.  So when I saw Mark’s forum posts concerning lake updates and the need for skippers, I emailed him and requested permission to reproduce them in a blog.     read more...