Making the most of your time - Fishing Safety rules everyone should know When you are going ice fishing, there are a lot of safety rules that you need to follow at all times. Unlike the other forms of standard fishing, ice fishing presents a lot of health risks. First, you should never go ice fishing without a well built shack. The shacks provide you shelter while you are ice fishing. Without this shelter, you will be susceptible to hypothermia and other health related problems. The second thing you need to keep in mind at all times is the condition of the ice and the weather predictions. Falling through the ice while ice fishing, especially alone, is a death sentence. Being trapped on the open ice during a blizzard is also extremely dangerous, even with the shelter of an ice shack available. When you are stocking your ice shack, you need to make certain that you have enough wood for the wood stove, or heating device within the shack. This device should also be cared for and watched over at all times, so the ice beneath the shack remains stable or that the shack does not burn. If you keep these fishing safety tips and rules in mind, you should be able to have an enjoyable time fishing without high risk of injury to yourself or others, no matter which form of fishing you choose to participate in.

Choosing a Fly Reel The Drag System on a Fly Reel There are two different types of drag systems on a fly reel that trout fishermen need concern themselves with. The drag of a fly reel is what provides the tension on the line. In other words, it is what regulates how easy or difficult it is for a fish to strip line off the fly reel. If all you ever catch are tiny trout or small pan fish, the type of drag on a fly reel is immaterial as it is unlikely a fish will ever pull out line from the fly reel. On the other hand, if you get a good-sized trout or bass on your line, the story changes completely. Once a big fish starts pulling out line from your fly reel, the fly reel suddenly becomes the most important piece of equipment that you have.

Do-It-Yourself Building your own Fly Rod First, like the man said, get some books. One of the best is L.A. Garcia's Handcrafting a Graphite Fly Rod from Frank Amato Publications. The photos are excellent. Skip Morris has maybe a more comprehensive book, The Custom Graphite Fly Rod, which as I recall from scanning it at the book store, covers repairs as well as the essentials. Dale Clemens's excellent volumes are encyclopedic-probably more than you want or need to know about all kinds of rods.

Looks like Glory of the North
Mike has finally written up a report of his trip up North.. The Glory of the North.

Fishermen 'risking their lives' by trawling near undersea pipelines
COMMERCIAL pressures mean fishermen are risking their lives by trawling near offshore pipelines, a report into the sinking of a Scottish trawler warned yesterday..

September 24, 2004
  Today we were lucky enough to find a few pods of fish while  floating the river.  There was either a good number of fish or no fish at all.  I saw a few beds started, one female Salmon we caught today was almost spawnedout.  The fish are in the pools and aren't moving, some are not bite plugs well either.    The lowe.