Fish Talk Magazine

Whether you enjoy Chesapeake Bay fishing, casting in sweetwater for bass, or heading offshore to troll for tuna, one thing is for sure: you need gear. Lots and lots of fishing gear. Here are some of the latest items we've run across that make the grade. The Addiction Baits suspending stalker will come in handy in a wide range of fisheries.

There are a million cool center console fishing boats, plenty of totally awesome fishboats, and a handful that qualify as unequalled uber-cool utterly awesome totally SICK fishing machines. The Phenom 34 is one such boat. The Phenom 34 is a center console unlike any other fishing machine on the ocean. The 34 is the smallest in the Phenom fleet, which also includes a 37 and a 43 (which we reviewed last year in Phenom 43: Pelagic Magic). But it’s no less intensely awesome than its larger siblings.

Even if you have plenty of angling experience in different aquatic venues, attacking the deep blue ocean is like starting from scratch. And no matter how hard you work at it and how fast you pick things up there will still be days when you troll, troll, troll to no avail. When the tuna bite has dropped off a cliff, the mahi-mahi have gone MIA, and the ocean seems bereft of billfish, there’s one almost surefire way to save the day: turn your attention to blueline tilefish.

Okay, maybe striped bass don’t really go on vacation and even if they did, they aren’t exactly visiting the National Aquarium. But considering that there’s a major metropolitan area perched on its periphery, the number of rockfish that chooses to hang out in the Patapsco is utterly shocking. As is the number of white perch. And there’s also a healthy population of catfish and carp, and in upriver areas and creeks there are snakehead to be found. What gives?

Countless Chesapeake Bay anglers who enjoy light tackle fishing in the shallows look forward to spring, when the speckled trout bite cranks up. Except in Virginia waters this year, of course, which have been closed for harvesting specks due to the significant winter stun we experienced last winter. Many anglers believe the closure was a good move, preventing the taking of any specks before they had a chance to spawn. Some will disagree.

Quite a few kayak anglers have electronics on their boat today, some even with real-time imaging sonar. But what about those of us who can’t or don’t want to invest in those rather expensive devices? What are we to do? Well, we go old school. We look at the weather, read the water, and use knowledge gained from years of fishing without electronics. We’re trying to avoid blindly casting in the hope of lucking into a fish. The author hooked up while tossing jigs to the riprap.

Hey there FishTalkers! We want to thank you for being a subscriber, and our way of saying "thanks" for real is by trying even harder to deliver you even more detailed fish-catching intel. To this end, we thought it would be a good idea to produce a video series delving into the nitty-gritty details that can help you catch more, bigger fish. These videos are unlisted on YouTube so they can only be viewed by subscribers with access to this page.

Sign up for our email list and you'll get a weekly overview of the bites on the Bay, along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and in freshwater venues. Subscribe for Premium Access to FishTalk's fishing reports, and you'll get all the latest intel and location-specific info we can muster every Friday by noon. In the meantime, here’s our monthly prognostication. How will the bite for bull reds be this summer? FishTalk’s Reports Editor Dillon Waters certainly hopes to find out.

Each and every time you go fishing a properly set drag is what stands between your fish, and a break-off. But few people set their drags properly, or even understand the nuances of how the drag’s setting affects your level of success. In fact, most of us simply grab the line, give it a yank, and set the drag where we figure it’s “about right”. As a rod bends and line moves through the guides under tension, a significant amount of friction builds up.

Fiberglass boats are great for the average recreational angler running a center console boat, but have you ever noticed that the serious professionals like commercial fishermen, marine construction workers, and SAR personnel, prefer aluminum builds? There are a number of reasons why: aluminum doesn’t shatter upon impact, aluminum boats can be custom-built to meet your exact demands, and they can take workhorse-like loads along with excessive use and abuse without taking damage.