If you’ve never fished the wild coast of British Columbia, you’re missing out. Particularly for those who’ve spent years — possibly a lifetime — fishing the East or Gulf coast, it’s simply a completely different world that every serious angler ought to experience. Even when things are slow, they’re pretty darn fast. In most areas, there is no such thing as “slow” bottomfishing, by the way, so no angler need ever lack for action. Salmon runs vary in size and timing, however.

The St. Thomas blue marlin season blew up this year with boats scoring a ton of releases on the August moon. Robert "Fly" Navarro on the Reel Tight reported that his team raised 52 blues, had 46 bites and caught 25 blues in the 15-day period between August 18 and September 4. The bite continued strong during the Boy Scout tournament, which set release records almost everyday.

A study just published reaffirms why, anglers ought to be using circle hooks - unless they intend/expect to keep every fish caught.

The North American Journal of Fisheries Management published online in late July a study titled, "Catch-and-Release Mortality in Subadult and Adult Red Drum Captured with Popular Fishing Hook Types." The study looked at redfish release mortality for circle versus J hooks, noting an enormous surge in the numbers of this most-popular inshore game fish being released.

Had the chance to fish the SLAM tournament last weekend and the preceding Superfly event. The Lower Keys are addictive for saltwater flyrodders and I can say that they haven't changed much since I left. We had a great tournament, with celebrity anglers baseball hall-of-famer Wade Boggs and astronaut Bruce Melnick hosting the festivities.

The world of fish offers yet another area ripe for misinformation at the least and hoaxes at the worst. I was reminded of that today when an old buddy of mine - who does some fishing but isn't widely traveled - sent me images of a very large tigerfish, it's frighteningly oversized conical teeth protruding from both jaws.

Did you ever catch a marlin or a sailfish at night? If so, I'd like to know. So would billfish scientists.

That's because if you answered "yes" to my question, you're among what is apparently a very exclusive group of anglers to have ever done so.

By Doug Olander
Editor-in-Chief, Sport Fishing

When not running offshore (or chained to a desk in front of this laptop, as right now), I’m likely to be paddling along coastal reefs, oyster bars, grass flats and channels to fish from my kayak. For years, I’ve relied on a portable black-and-white sounder. It’s worked well within its inherent limitations (among those having to change out eight AA batteries after a few hours), but until recently I never realized how much I’d been missing.