What NOT to do when you hook a great white

Sympathy is the last thing I've got for this Darwin Award candidate.

Father of the Year

This happy fellow is Rob Parker, with a 42-inch long barracuda that he caught. This traumatized girl is his 14-year-old daughter, who was the bait. He made sure to get this photo before they went to the hospital.  More at Deadspin.com

original story: Field and Stream

Name that scat

Last month I did my annual trip to the Northern Sierras.  Armed with a three weight and a jonesn' for some intense hiking, I spent a lot of time wandering the elevation.  At one point I had interesting poop sighting - one that didn't resemble any bear or hoofed animals I'm aware of - that said, I'm no scatologist.

Let this serve as a shout-out to the Chum Nation for a little help.  Details:

• elevation: 6500 feet
• nearest city: Quincy, CA
• known large animals in the area: human, black bear, cougar, deer
• scat size in these photos: diameter of a medium sized dinner plate
• There were 20 similar piles of this (pun intended) crap scattered across the area of a 1/2 acre

Thoughts?

Undocumented North American Primates?

If you're open to the concept, you'll want to download this audio interview on Overnight AM Radio.  It's at least an hour long - download it on iTunes and listen to it in the car on your next fishin' mission.

July 3rd, 2010

"Overnight AM producers have been contacted by a man claiming to have found Bigfoot living in his backyard somewhere in North America ( Location: Confidential ). The evidence is substantial based on eyewitness testimony of a man whose life has been turned upside down by the creatures, a family of four; two adults and two infants, who bed down in his backyard every evening."

Mepps Squirrel Tail Recyling Program

Mepps pays hunters who legally harvest squirrels for the dinner table between $.16 and $.26 per tail, depending on the quality and quantity of the tails. Hunters may also exchange the tails for Mepps lures for a higher return value.

Mepps recycles… but we don't want your old aluminum cans or plastic soda bottles. We do, however, want your squirrel tails. We need them to create hand-tied dressed hooks that do a great job catching fish. We know this for a fact because, here at Mepps, we've been recycling squirrel tails for about a half a century, and we recycle more of them than anyone else. This makes us some kind of recycling pioneer and we're proud of it.

Be advised-

Mepps is only interested in recycling tails taken from squirrels that have been harvested for the table. They do not advocate taking squirrels strictly for their tails......or their cajones.  LINK

Bull By the Horns

This may or may not be old news by now.  Regardless, I felt the story merits 5 seconds of our time.

"The bull would stick his head under water and surface again and didn't seem to mind Jeff's presence. Odd behavior for this time of year for sure! Jeff was enjoying this site and relishing the moment, until one of the bull's dunks seemed to take too long. Curious, Jeff paddled over to the bull which had now been submerged for a very long time."  Read on at Ernie's House of Whoopass