Articles

Review: Redington VICE fly rod

Chasing reds with Redington's new fast-action value

by Johnny Carrol Sain - Monday, Dec 12th, 2016

Photo: Johnny Carrol Sain

Redington’s 9-weight VICE rod arrived on my porch in all its dapper glory about three weeks before my trip to the Louisiana marshes. Not really sure about which weight to choose, I settled on the middle option given by most experts. With the probability of high winds, the extra oomph of a nine would help in tossing a chunky offering to the red drum I’d been obsessing over for nearly two months.

Prison fishing

Life without privilege

by Kris Millgate - Friday, Dec 9th, 2016

Kitchen knives were outlined on the prison wall so staff knew if one was missing (photo: Kris Millgate).

I’m going to prison. With flies in my pocket. The prison is in California’s coastal waters. The flies are for Idaho rivers. The pairing is unintentional, but there it is all the same.

I coach youth hockey in Idaho Falls. One of the kids had his big brother tie eight flies for me. I received them at practice the night before I left town. The rink is cold so I had my coat on. I slipped the fly box into my coat pocket and that coat ended up on a plane with me on my way to prison. An old prison. Alcatraz.

Vanishing Paradise I: Pure life

Coastal Louisiana is disappearing right before our eyes

by Johnny Carrol Sain - Wednesday, Dec 7th, 2016

Photo: Johnny Carrol Sain

“Pura vida,” said Erin Brown as the boat hummed across brackish waters. Erin is the sportsmen outreach coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation’s Vanishing Paradise program. More importantly, Erin is a coastal Louisiana native in love with her home. “Pura vida means pure life,” she said. “They say it everywhere in Costa Rica.

For large grouper, a precarious rebound

The debate over the Ocean's Goliath

by Kris Millgate - Monday, Dec 5th, 2016

Ryan Kane, Southern Instinct owner and guide, releases a goliath grouper that ate a cobia, which was on the line for eating herring bait (photo: Kris Millgate).

I grew up far from the ocean so the only goliath I knew was the one David dropped with a slingshot. I don’t know how much that giant weighed on land, but the ocean beast with the same name tips nearly half a ton. Goliath grouper can live 40 years and can weigh 800 pounds. The one I’m looking at is less than half that size, but it’s still a lot of fish. Or a lot of fish to eat if that’s the side of the table you’re sitting on.

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