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Superstition or just bad luck?

Superstitions abound in many of the games people play, including the ancient art of fishing, which thanks to its long history has more than its fair share of myths and misbeliefs. “The fish bite better in the rain.” “Never take a banana on the boat.” “I’m wearing my lucky underwear (or hat, shirt, pants, you pick it).” “Never whistle on a boat.” “I’m tossing a penny overboard for good luck.” You get the picture. People have noodled up all manner of notions about fish and fishing, and a good many anglers – myself included – fail to have the courage to ...

A trip to Michigan led to a love for Rapala’s products

Many years ago in a small town in northern Michigan, a 10-year-old boy on vacation with his family stood in awe in front of a sporting goods store’s shelves stacked with boxes of tantalizing slim-minnow lures. The family vacationed every summer in the same town, Indian River, between Burt and Mullet lakes, and every summer the young angler visited the store to admire the fishing lures. He lacked the pocket money to buy the beautiful balsa wood baits hand-crafted in Finland and longed for the day when he could own as many of them as his tackle box might hold. That boy was me and ...

Fall is the season for steelheads in Ohio

Chris DePaola and John Breedlove can talk for hours about their passion for steelhead fishing and the tactics they deploy in pursuit of the chrome treasures of Lake Erie. But they do not hesitate to boil it all down to one word when asked to sum up their expectations for the upcoming steelhead season. “Excitement,” Breedlove said. “Exceptional,” DePaola said. One other “E” word comes to mind as they eagerly look ahead to the first runs of steelhead into Erie’s Ohio tributary streams. Bright silver trout, fat after a summer of gorging on Lake Erie emerald shiners, ...

Browns made the right call to start Flacco

When the Cleveland Browns take the field today for their preseason finale against the Los Angeles Rams, Joe Flacco will be under center. The 40-year-old quarterback will get his first action since returning to the Browns over the offseason. But Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski named the veteran the Week 1 starter, and today’s game will be a dress rehearsal before the 2025 NFL season begins in a couple weeks. Cleveland’s quarterback room has been the headline not just locally, but nationally as well with the drafting of rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. And while the ...

Understanding each fish’s fight

In homage to this summer’s clamor for all things Superman, I have experienced a number of bass bites that I truly can describe as “faster than a speeding bullet.” Fans of Chatterbaits and other bladed jigs know that bass and other game fish love the vibrating lures and typically smash them hard. But those same bass sometimes seem to sneak up behind an aggressively reeled Chatterbait and swim directly back toward the angler. I experienced that confounding bass tactic Wednesday, and my brain immediately asked why some vibrating jig bites are no-doubters while others leave the ...

Practice makes perfect with braided lines

Braided fishing lines were on the market for years before I finally decided to give them a try on my own rods and reels. The biggest reason for my resistance to braid was my distrust of knots between the main line and leader. Braid is woven from single strands of synthetic fibers, including Spectra, Dacron and micro-dyeema. Virtually unbreakable, braided line offers great advantages to anglers who know how to integrate them into their fishing tactics. They also are considerably thinner in diameter than nylon monofilament and fluorocarbon lines of similar breaking strengths. ...