Anglers Journal celebrates the best writing, photography, illustration, design and sporting art on the topic of fishing. Come join some of the most prolific fishing editors and writers in the industry for the best angling experience on the water.
“When the bait schools shatter the surface and spray upwards in the sun, they make a sound like the tearing of a cotton sheet.… The gluttony ends with the same unity it began. Another coded message stills the sated school.”John Cole Striper: A Story of Fish and Man “Every once in a while, angling provides an episode one can keep for life.”Thomas McGuane The Longest Silence “The casts were mellifluous and silky on calm days, determined on windy days. I no longer felt a discord between my hands and my desires; the rod simply ceased to exist.”Guy de la Valdène On the Water…
Stepping into Gene Taylor’s Sporting Goods on the main drag in the small Western Slope town of Gunnison, Colorado, I made my way to the fly-fishing section. My fingers slid across neoprene waders and fishing vests as I cruised the aisle. I imagined standing in a river, casting in rhythm with the moving water. A Zen master like the anglers who from the road looked like little trees in the mist. I’d just received my student loan and reserved some cash for my first fly rod. I’d made the same pilgrimage the semester prior to purchase a new pair of ski boots. I was embarking on a different kind of secondary education, one that would shape me more than any late-night study session. I lifted a rod by the cork…
Joe Cermele is the host of the Cut & Retie podcast and has been in fishing media for nearly two decades. He’s authored three books and written more articles, blogs, scripts and voiceovers than he can count. The former host of Field & Stream’s Hook Shots video series and podcast, he lives in eastern Pennsylvania and fishes for anything that swims. Joe writes about a once-in-a-lifetime fishing trip in “Over the Lips Past the Jaws.” He also wrote “Counter Culture.” M. Robbins Church is a retired research aquatic chemist/ecologist who now writes stories, rather than peer-reviewed research articles. His work has been published in such periodicals as The Loop, Backcountry Journal and the 2022 Swing the Fly Anthology. When he is not messing around with words, he messes around with…
SOUTHERN VISITORS My son Andy snapped this photo after landing this southern visitor just 16 miles off Newport, Rhode Island, in 76-degree water last August. It was an unusual place to find these water temperatures and this fish. It is amazing to see the movement of bait and pelagics into our inshore waters. Anglers have been catching giant tuna three miles off Point Judith, Rhode Island, for the second year in a row. Cobia are being caught for the first time, and yellowfin are closer to shore than ever. As anglers, this is exciting, if only there were no other effects on our environment from global warming. I have been an avid Anglers Journal reader since its inception and eagerly await its arrival each quarter. I read each issue cover…
JOIN THE ANGLERS JOURNAL BOOK CLUB The editors of Anglers Journal will host a quarterly book club get-together via Zoom. Books will vary from new titles to classics, the discussion will be informal, and anyone is welcome. The first book we’ve chosen is Norman Maclean’s seminal work, A River Runs Through It. Pick up a copy (or reread the one you’ve got) and join the discussion, which will take place in early March. Scan the QR code to receive emails with more information or visit AnglersJournal.com. Seasons of the Striper By William Sisson Rizzoli Good fishing books are seldom solely about the fish. While Bill Sisson’s Seasons of the Striper is obviously an ode to the striped bass that has assaulted the bait ball of his mind for most of…
Florida’s transplants come from every corner of the world. They move here for the climate. The easy living. They sometimes stick out from the crowd with their exotic skin tones, but they’ve made themselves at home and proliferated. Every time someone dumps a fish tank into a canal or smuggles a live fish across the border, an opportunity for another non-native fish population emerges. Whether these fish were brought in as a potential food source or to plow money into the aquarium trade, once they hit the vast network of freshwater canals, retention ponds and drainage ditches, they are afforded the same opportunity as any outlander who comes here looking for a new life. And they’ve taken advantage of it. The environmental impact is debatable, but no one can deny…
