Great news! Joe Cermele over at the great Field and Stream Fishing Blog has inaugurated a new feature on vintage tackle and its history. I've been asked to help out. The plan is to do a weekly feature where people send in their tackle pictures for identification, and in return those pictures that are run will get some very neat free tackle courtesy of F&S.
So head on over and submit your photos of unidentified, unappraised fishing tackle. You might win a prize…and discover you have a piece of real treasure!
But please, only send in tackle that needs to be ID'd!
-- Dr. Todd
Showing posts with label Breaking News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breaking News. Show all posts
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Happy Birthday, Dad!
It's my dad's birthday, and to celebrate it, every year I write a story for his birthday. This year, ESPN/Bassmaster was kind enough to run my dad's birthday article. Many thanks to Ken Duke for finding this worthy of publishing.
Read A Perfect Day Fishing by Clicking Here.
-- Dr. Todd
Read A Perfect Day Fishing by Clicking Here.
-- Dr. Todd
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
BREAKING NEWS: Mitchell International Meeting Feb. 25-27, 2011
BREAKING NEWS
This just in: Mitchell collectors from around the globe will be congregating from February 25-27 in Daytona Beach, Florida!
Convening as part of the unbelievably great FATC Daytona Beach Winter Show, the Mitchell International Collector's Meeting is the brainchild of a number of the biggest names in Mitchell collecting, including Wallace Carney and Mike Read of the Mitchell Museum, Keith Elliott of Classic Angling, and Dennis Roberts.
I personally believe this will be a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of Mitchell enthusiasts, and with the added attraction of the FATC Daytona Show and the ORCA contingent that will be there, this promises to be one of the most amazing shows of all time.
You can read the full press release by Clicking Here.
Stay tuned here for more information as it becomes available!
-- Dr. Todd
This just in: Mitchell collectors from around the globe will be congregating from February 25-27 in Daytona Beach, Florida!
Convening as part of the unbelievably great FATC Daytona Beach Winter Show, the Mitchell International Collector's Meeting is the brainchild of a number of the biggest names in Mitchell collecting, including Wallace Carney and Mike Read of the Mitchell Museum, Keith Elliott of Classic Angling, and Dennis Roberts.
I personally believe this will be a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of Mitchell enthusiasts, and with the added attraction of the FATC Daytona Show and the ORCA contingent that will be there, this promises to be one of the most amazing shows of all time.
You can read the full press release by Clicking Here.
Stay tuned here for more information as it becomes available!
-- Dr. Todd
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
EDITORIAL: Four Questions to Ask About the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force
EDITORIAL: Four Questions to Ask About the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force
As many of you know, I have been following the developments concerning the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force very carefully. For those who haven't taken the time to read about it, you can catch up on it here and here and here.
Basically, it is the most sweeping reform of coastal fishing regulations in memory. The White House's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force is a plan, in the words of Robert A. Miller, noted angling writer and geologist, "fraught with serious implications, not the least of which relate to recreational fishing." The most serious of these include the edict to join the Law of the Sea Convention, which would basically put coastal waters under international jurisdiction.
What has many, many sportfishermen and women worried is the almost insane pace at which this massive reform is being carried out. What has many, many anglers of all stripes up in arms is the lack of say from both anglers and the sportfishing industry in the drafting and refining of this proposal. Add that to the recent breaking news via ESPN that public input has been cut off and you have the recipe for a disaster.
Now, I would like to think I am an informed person, which, of course, is very different from an educated person. Some of the least informed people I know have the most education, and some of the least educated are the most informed. I have worked hard to inform myself on this issue, and everything I've seen from the manner in which the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force has conducted its affairs has thrown up one red flag after another. Why the break neck speed? Why the almost ludicrous lack of input from a multi-billion dollar recreational sport industry? Try as I might, I have yet to find a convincing answer to these two questions.
I would like to think I am also a reasonable person. I want to give this administration the benefit of the doubt, but I've taken a long, hard look at their track record, and am troubled. As a friend of mine pointed out, if I sit back and hope for the best, "what if you're wrong? What if, in two years, the entire Great Lakes fishery is closed to sport anglers? How would you live with yourself?" At the risk of being far too rhetorical, I'm going to list what I think any reasonably informed person should ask about the Task Force and its work.
Is it unreasonable to cast doubt on a plan so hastily put together?
Would a reasonable person question the merits of any task force in which anti-fishing advocacy groups numbering at best thousands of members have far more say than a sport fishing industry numbering millions?
What has this administration done in its first year to give us any reason to believe this plan has been thought through in a rational manner that takes into account the economic consequences of sweeping government reform as well as the very real environmental concerns facing our coastal waters?
Can we afford to trust our future, OUR OUTDOORS, to a task force that willfully makes little or no distinction between commercial and sport fishing?
The answers to those questions will differ from person to person, but I don't think for one moment that the queries are unreasonable.
I guess the most frustrating thing for me is that, as a dedicated angler and a historian of Outdoor America, I feel like I am being painted by the administration on this issue as at best a nuisance and at worst an enemy of their plan. I feel like I'm being told smarter people than myself are being put in charge of this, and that whatever they come up with will by definition be the right answer. I sense an infuriating tone of condescension coming from the Task Force, as if they only deigned to hold a public forum to quiet "the masses" before going off and doing exactly what they wanted to do in the first place. I get no sense they really want to know what the average American has to say on the subject.
For years the exploits of hunters and anglers in protecting the environment have been virtually ignored by governments, schools, and academics alike. Don't believe me? Go get yourself a copy of any of the standard reference works on the ecological and environmental history of America and try to find the accomplishments of hunters and anglers within their considerable pages. I'll save you the time: you won't find much, if anything, about the incredible work sportsmen did to help protect and conserve the environment. Since the entire ecological movement in America was basically founded, promoted, and staffed by avid hunters and anglers, this omission goes well beyond glaring.
Why the history lesson? You may think that as a history professor, I never pass up an opportunity to lecture an audience. That may very well be true. However, there's a far more grave reason for that anecdote. As sportsmen and women, we've already let others write our history for us. Will we let them craft our future as well?
I urge everyone to familiarize yourself with the issue, and if you come to the same conclusion that I have, take the time to write the administration about your reservations concerning the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force.
History is waiting to judge us all.
-- Todd E.A. Larson, Ph.D.
As many of you know, I have been following the developments concerning the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force very carefully. For those who haven't taken the time to read about it, you can catch up on it here and here and here.
Basically, it is the most sweeping reform of coastal fishing regulations in memory. The White House's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force is a plan, in the words of Robert A. Miller, noted angling writer and geologist, "fraught with serious implications, not the least of which relate to recreational fishing." The most serious of these include the edict to join the Law of the Sea Convention, which would basically put coastal waters under international jurisdiction.
What has many, many sportfishermen and women worried is the almost insane pace at which this massive reform is being carried out. What has many, many anglers of all stripes up in arms is the lack of say from both anglers and the sportfishing industry in the drafting and refining of this proposal. Add that to the recent breaking news via ESPN that public input has been cut off and you have the recipe for a disaster.
Now, I would like to think I am an informed person, which, of course, is very different from an educated person. Some of the least informed people I know have the most education, and some of the least educated are the most informed. I have worked hard to inform myself on this issue, and everything I've seen from the manner in which the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force has conducted its affairs has thrown up one red flag after another. Why the break neck speed? Why the almost ludicrous lack of input from a multi-billion dollar recreational sport industry? Try as I might, I have yet to find a convincing answer to these two questions.
I would like to think I am also a reasonable person. I want to give this administration the benefit of the doubt, but I've taken a long, hard look at their track record, and am troubled. As a friend of mine pointed out, if I sit back and hope for the best, "what if you're wrong? What if, in two years, the entire Great Lakes fishery is closed to sport anglers? How would you live with yourself?" At the risk of being far too rhetorical, I'm going to list what I think any reasonably informed person should ask about the Task Force and its work.
Is it unreasonable to cast doubt on a plan so hastily put together?
Would a reasonable person question the merits of any task force in which anti-fishing advocacy groups numbering at best thousands of members have far more say than a sport fishing industry numbering millions?
What has this administration done in its first year to give us any reason to believe this plan has been thought through in a rational manner that takes into account the economic consequences of sweeping government reform as well as the very real environmental concerns facing our coastal waters?
Can we afford to trust our future, OUR OUTDOORS, to a task force that willfully makes little or no distinction between commercial and sport fishing?
The answers to those questions will differ from person to person, but I don't think for one moment that the queries are unreasonable.
I guess the most frustrating thing for me is that, as a dedicated angler and a historian of Outdoor America, I feel like I am being painted by the administration on this issue as at best a nuisance and at worst an enemy of their plan. I feel like I'm being told smarter people than myself are being put in charge of this, and that whatever they come up with will by definition be the right answer. I sense an infuriating tone of condescension coming from the Task Force, as if they only deigned to hold a public forum to quiet "the masses" before going off and doing exactly what they wanted to do in the first place. I get no sense they really want to know what the average American has to say on the subject.
For years the exploits of hunters and anglers in protecting the environment have been virtually ignored by governments, schools, and academics alike. Don't believe me? Go get yourself a copy of any of the standard reference works on the ecological and environmental history of America and try to find the accomplishments of hunters and anglers within their considerable pages. I'll save you the time: you won't find much, if anything, about the incredible work sportsmen did to help protect and conserve the environment. Since the entire ecological movement in America was basically founded, promoted, and staffed by avid hunters and anglers, this omission goes well beyond glaring.
Why the history lesson? You may think that as a history professor, I never pass up an opportunity to lecture an audience. That may very well be true. However, there's a far more grave reason for that anecdote. As sportsmen and women, we've already let others write our history for us. Will we let them craft our future as well?
I urge everyone to familiarize yourself with the issue, and if you come to the same conclusion that I have, take the time to write the administration about your reservations concerning the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force.
History is waiting to judge us all.
-- Todd E.A. Larson, Ph.D.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
BREAKING NEWS: BUD STEWART BOOK AVAILABLE (Limited Time Only)
BREAKING NEWS: BUD STEWART BOOK AVAILABLE (Limited Time Only)
I field a lot of inquiries about tackle books here at the Whitefish Press, and at least once every couple of months someone e-mails me about the availability of the book Bud Stewart: Michigan's Legendary Lure Maker. Sadly, I inform them that not only is the book out of print but that it is exceedingly difficult to find -- owners being reluctant to part with them. This is why I am very happy to let everyone know the contents of an email I got from the book's co-author, Raymond Carver, stating that a few new copies of the book are now available. Here's the entire email:
"BUD STEWART, MICHIGAN'S LEGENDARY LURE MAKER"
The good news is that I have discovered and purchased the publishers "over run" of our first edition, autobiography and pictorial history of Bud Stewart. This hardcover, 228-page book contains over 500 excellent color photos of his fishing lures, decoys and folk art items. It also identifies each piece and offers a unique value guide for the collector. I have a VERY VERY LIMITED number of these FIRST EDITION, QUALITY NEW books. I am going to offer them on a "first come -- first served" basis, for $95.00 each (plus shipping)....
The current demand for Bud Stewart fishing tackle and folk art has proven his life long work equal to any other craftsman in his field. His fishing lures and spearing decoys continue to rise in popularity and value as more and more collectors discover his hand crafted folk art. We believe that this book has been the catalyst that helped spread his fame worldwide among fresh water sports fisherman and folk art collectors. Every serious collector of fishing lures decoys or folk art will find this book to be a vital edition to their library. The book offers a true insight into the life and times of Bud Stewart as well as presenting over 500 color photographs with complete descriptions, dates of manufacture, and history of his most popular pieces. Also included is a very complete and unique 2010 value guide, specifically formulated to current market values. This publication is the most comprehensive guidebook written to date for any person interested in the history of Bud Stewart Tackle. Eight years of research are consolidated in this colorful book that truly interprets and reveals the amazing talents of Bud Stewart.
Ray can be contacted via the NFLCC Directory or by emailing to: revracr AT aol DOT com. Better get one before they sell out again!
-- Dr. Todd
I field a lot of inquiries about tackle books here at the Whitefish Press, and at least once every couple of months someone e-mails me about the availability of the book Bud Stewart: Michigan's Legendary Lure Maker. Sadly, I inform them that not only is the book out of print but that it is exceedingly difficult to find -- owners being reluctant to part with them. This is why I am very happy to let everyone know the contents of an email I got from the book's co-author, Raymond Carver, stating that a few new copies of the book are now available. Here's the entire email:
"BUD STEWART, MICHIGAN'S LEGENDARY LURE MAKER"
The good news is that I have discovered and purchased the publishers "over run" of our first edition, autobiography and pictorial history of Bud Stewart. This hardcover, 228-page book contains over 500 excellent color photos of his fishing lures, decoys and folk art items. It also identifies each piece and offers a unique value guide for the collector. I have a VERY VERY LIMITED number of these FIRST EDITION, QUALITY NEW books. I am going to offer them on a "first come -- first served" basis, for $95.00 each (plus shipping)....
The current demand for Bud Stewart fishing tackle and folk art has proven his life long work equal to any other craftsman in his field. His fishing lures and spearing decoys continue to rise in popularity and value as more and more collectors discover his hand crafted folk art. We believe that this book has been the catalyst that helped spread his fame worldwide among fresh water sports fisherman and folk art collectors. Every serious collector of fishing lures decoys or folk art will find this book to be a vital edition to their library. The book offers a true insight into the life and times of Bud Stewart as well as presenting over 500 color photographs with complete descriptions, dates of manufacture, and history of his most popular pieces. Also included is a very complete and unique 2010 value guide, specifically formulated to current market values. This publication is the most comprehensive guidebook written to date for any person interested in the history of Bud Stewart Tackle. Eight years of research are consolidated in this colorful book that truly interprets and reveals the amazing talents of Bud Stewart.
Ray can be contacted via the NFLCC Directory or by emailing to: revracr AT aol DOT com. Better get one before they sell out again!
-- Dr. Todd
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