Why, not where, are the fish biting?

April 11, 2020

Opportunities abound for all of us to become better fishers every time we go to the water, but whether we understand what nature is telling us depends on how much we are paying attention and how keenly we analyze our experiences. Many anglers miss the clues they encounter simply because they ask the wrong questions. We ask “where are they biting?” instead of “why are they biting?” The waters I fished while in Florida recently delivered invaluable lessons, most significantly the role the wind plays in our daily fishing fortunes. While we have opportunities every time we ...

YSU coach has right mix to succeed

April 10, 2020

Skepticism is pretty normal for Youngstown State football fans, and for good reason. It’s annoying to belabor the reasons, but they’re hard to ignore. Forget that the Penguins have reached the playoffs just twice since Jim Tressel left for Ohio State in 2000. While it’s the most glaring and frustrating cause for cynicism, the underlying factors are what matter most. As a reporter who has followed YSU almost every year since 2001, I’ve watched the Penguins become an FCS afterthought. Some of it was bad luck (questionable calls, unbelievably spectacular plays, alarming snubs ...

Spring athletes deserve recognition

April 5, 2020

While we wait for word from the Ohio High School Athletic Association on the fate of high school spring sports in Ohio, the Tribune Chronicle / Vindicator sports department has decided to begin publishing our spring sports preview stories and capsules. We regularly publish at the start of each season feature stories on some of the teams expected to have good seasons or that are coming off of excellent seasons. We also publish preview capsules from every team — provided the coach sent us the information. We had begun preparation for this endeavor by sending out in mid-February forms ...

Fishermen need to use caution at the lake

April 4, 2020

Fishing remains a popular activity throughout the Youngstown-Warren area as we continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, but that’s not to say precautions can be tossed aside when we head to the water. Officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania so far have not closed public access to our states’ lakes and rivers. In fact, our states’ officials are encouraging people to fish as a way of relaxing in our stressful times. One of the big lessons out of the pandemic is that nobody is completely secure from the possibility of exposure to the virus. We should go to the water with the same ...

Area fishing is business as usual

March 28, 2020

As tumultuous as our world has become in March, it is difficult to imagine a time and place where things are normal. Remember normal? Not so long ago, people took things like going to work, the store, school, church and whatever for granted. Watching a live ball game on TV was just a click of the remote away and we could load our SUVs to the roof with toilet paper. Life for us today is far from normal. We yearn for the day when normal is normal again. But there are many places where yesterday, today and tomorrow are as normal as they ever have been. They are places many of us ...

Fans turn attention elsewhere

March 26, 2020

Now that the Major League Baseball season has been postponed indefinitely, it doesn’t seem possible that we had almost a month of spring training before COVID-19 pulled the plug. But all baseball fans need to keep the game alive in their hearts and minds. Today was supposed to be opening day for MLB. The Indians were to host the Tigers at Progressive Field. But since live human players can’t take the field, two traditions linked to the pastime — mascots and bobbleheads — help to fill the void. Today, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, in conjunction with the ...