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College football losing luster

College football is dead. Well, at least what made it special is. I’ll just get this out of the way first. I’m a Michigan fan. Been one my whole life, and have suffered nearly every football season because of it. This is arguably the best time to be a Michigan fan in a long time. It’s one of the best, if not the best Michigan team I’ve seen in my time watching sports. And yet, I don’t really care. My interest in college football is at an all-time low. I still watch almost every game, and know what’s going on, but it’s just not the same. I’m going to try and avoid ...

Local pros dish out fishing tips

Anglers long for limits of walleyes, dream about tangling with monster muskies, wonder how to hook Erie steelhead and how to catch Mosquito Lake largemouth bass. They could hire a guide and accomplish all of the above. But first, they should check out the tips that follow from four of our region’s top walleye, bass, steelhead and muskie pros. Steelhead trout are charging around Lake Erie harbors and river mouths right now and Girard’s John Breedlove is hard at work on them. He trolls, catches and releases hundreds of acrobatic steelheads every autumn on spoons like Little ...

Poland angler Cappelli continues to learn despite success

Pro walleye angler Sammy Cappelli credits thorough preparation and understanding of marine electronics for the latest championship trophy he has brought home to Poland. Cappelli, who many know as “The Bull,” recently won the prestigious Cabela’s Masters Walleye Circuit “Team of the Year” with partner Tony Karrick of Elgin, Ill. Cappelli and Karrick outscored more than 100 other teams on the national walleye trail, starting with a stirring victory in the frigid season opener in April in Illinois. They added a second-place finish in Green Bay, Wisc., a 10th on Lake Erie out ...

Aquatic plants serve as foundation for food chains

A tiny fish last week provided a big clue about the health of one of our weedy reservoirs. Aquatic plants — some native and some invasive — have become well established in many northeastern Ohio reservoirs and rivers and serve as the foundation of food chains that are vigorous from bottom to top. The jig I was swimming last week snagged an inch-long sunfish as I pulled it through an alley in vegetation growing in two feet of water. The bass that I caught before and after snagging the tiny fish sported bulging bellies, no doubt a result of feasting on the forage fish hiding ...

Important lessons from a longtime angler

By my calculations, I’ve gone fishing more than a thousand times in my adult life, so one might guess I’ve learned a thing or two about the ways of the wily fish I target and how I might tempt them into biting my baits. I was thinking about this topic last week as I prepared the 14 rods I stow under the Bass Cat’s deck. Each rod serves a purpose — like the clubs in a golfer’s bag — so they are rigged with the right line for the job and the lures to match the task. It takes an hour and a half before each fishing trip to sort through the mayhem that results from the ...

Be observant of fellow anglers, you can learn a lot

A chapter in my book is dedicated to celebrating the pure joy of experiencing a day on the water solo, with no worries other than which lure to tie to my line and where to make my next cast. Solo fishing days are cathartic. In “The Common Angler,” I wrote, “Fact is I return from a solo fishing trip feeling recharged. It’s like my body’s battery absorbed more energy than it expended.” But I am not a creepy loner fisherman. While solo trips are good, I really do enjoy sharing the water with friends. In a chapter entitled “Fishing with friends,” I wrote, “Fishing and ...