Free Republic

Is there a worse feeling in the world than when a big fish breaks your line? But very few get a shot at redemption on the same fish. Thats what happened to this AnglerWatch as he hooks into a big gar and loses it. But he gets a second chance when they just happen to run across the float a couple of hours later… is just a crazy fishing tale! It’s great that he’s got it on video. Not many would likely believe the story otherwise. That was some excellent work to get the line re-tied without spooking the gar...

In another move to free up domestic energy supplies, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at lifting the Obama administration’s offshore drilling restrictions.For decades, bad policies have blocked access to America’s abundance of domestic resources, yet America has still managed to be a global energy leader. Trump’s executive order, “Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy,” could unleash further success in the energy sector.The economic potential sitting just off America’s coasts is enormous. The Outer Continental Shelf is awash with natural resources, containing an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.Realizing...

Youtubers Bowmars are at it again with some sweet bowfishing action! The Bowmars sleep and breathe outdoors, especially bowfishing. Here's a recent clip to show how passionate they are is some clips from their resent bowfishing trip. With bowfishing becoming more and more popular, it is always cool to see people like the Bowmars stepping out and getting in on the action. The cool thing is that it is a sport that doesn't take much money to get into at all. Picking up a simple bow kit, and making time to get out on some local water is all you...

A proposed Constitutional amendment to “Establish the Right to Hunt and Fish” drew angry testimony from the anti-hunting and anti-trapping crowd. “This bill is barbaric,” testified John Glowa of China, who called LD 11 “the worst piece of legislation I have seen in more than twenty years of coming before this committee, and I have seen some bad ones.” Glowa also called the bill “the poison fruit of the paranoia seed planted by the out-of-state gun lobby and by radical extremist consumptive users.” And yes, that was way over the top. Katie Hansberry of the Humane Society of the United...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A company that makes fishing boats plans to expand its operations in South Carolina and hire another 370 employees. The state commerce department said in a news release Thursday that Scout Boats plans to spend nearly $11 million on the expansion of its operations in Summerville. The company plans to add several new models to its product line. Scout Boats makes a variety of coastal fishing boats ranging from 17 feet to 53 feet in length....

Wal-Mart really soiled his reputation. A Montana professor is suing Wal-Mart for libel because an employee listed the academic’s occupation as “toilet cleaner” on a fishing license application. Montana State University assistant professor Gilbert Kalonde bought a state fishing license from a Wal-Mart in April 2015, and a store employee used Kalonde’s MSU I.D. when filling out an application form, according to a complaint filed in Gallatin County District Court. But when the employee entered Kalonde’s occupation into a computer database, he wrote that the professor “cleans toilets,” the complaint charges. The incident exposed Kalonde to “hatred, contempt [and] ridicule,”...

COLUMBIA – Scout Boats, a designer and manufacturer of luxury coastal fishing boats, is expanding its existing Dorchester County operations, the S.C. Department of Commerce announced Thursday. The company is adding multiple new boat models to its product catalog, bringing $10.9 million of capital investment and creating 370 new jobs. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Summerville, Scout Boats designs and manufactures a wide variety of luxury coastal fishing boats, including center-console, dual-console and bay-boat models. Ranging from 17 feet to 53 feet lengths, Scout Boats’ products can be found in more than 70 dealers across the nation and the...

Or you'll end up like this guy. Getting a good photo of the big lunker you just caught has never been easier than it is in today's age of cell phones and small digital cameras. Now you just have to remember that the big fish you just pulled out of the water wants back in real bad. Here's how you get a wet photo of your fishing buddy: To the guy taking the video and laughing his head off: enjoy it now because your time is coming. After that, raise your hand if you or your fishing partner have lost...

House lawmakers kicked off their effort to push back against national monuments designations, targeting the large swaths of ocean the Obama administration made off limits to fishing. “I don’t believe the Antiquities Act should have ever been applied to oceans,” Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young said during a Wednesday hearing on marine monument designations. “There was never intent of that.” Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources have long criticized former President Barack Obama’s use of the Antiquities Act to put millions of square miles off limits to commercial fishing with little to no input from locals. With President...

A volatile buildup of weapons and resentment along the northern Somali coast culminated in the hijack of an oil freighter this week, the first such seizure by Somali pirates since 2012, experts and locals told Reuters on Wednesday. Gunmen hijacked the Aris 13, a small oil tanker, on Monday and are demanding a ransom to release the ship and its eight Sri Lankan crew, the EU Naval Force that patrols the waters off Somalia said. Now shipping companies are scrambling to find out whether the attack is a one-off, or whether pirates could once again threaten one of the world's...

A coalition of commercial fishing groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to challenge the creation of a national monument off the coast of New England. President Barack Obama created the monument in September using executive authority under the Antiquities Act. The monument is called the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, and it is made up of nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains. The creation of the monument closed the area to most commercial fishing and has been opposed by fishing groups for months. A coalition of the groups filed their lawsuit Tuesday in federal court....

Radiation inside one of the damaged reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power facility has reached an “unimaginable” level according to experts. Because so much nuclear material from Fukushima escaped into the Pacific Ocean, there are many scientists that believe that it was the worst environmental disaster in human history, but most people in the general population seem to think that since the mainstream media really doesn’t talk about it anymore that everything must be under control. Unfortunately, that is not true at all. In fact, PBS reported just last year that “it is incorrect to say that Fukushima is under...

A commercial fisherman in Florida made a costly mistake that could land him in prison for life. Thomas Breeding, a 32-year-old boat captain, was out fishing in the Gulf of Mexico when he came across a mysterious package floating in the water. Inside the package was 45 pounds of cocaine. Breeding reportedly said he knew the right thing was to turn it over to the police, but Breeding decided to go a different route. Instead of doing what he knew was right, Breeding gave the package – worth $500,000 to $620,000 on the street, says AL.com – to four other...

State says four inches of clear ice is needed before stepping onto the iceThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is reminding ice anglers to use caution and common sense when ice fishing across much of New York State. Four inches or more of solid ice is considered to be safe for anglers accessing ice on foot. Ice anglers should note that ice thickness can vary on every body of water and even on the same body of water. "Ice fishing is a popular sport in New York and interest in it increases every year," said DEC Commissioner...

Roman Fedortsov is a deep sea fisherman in Russia. And he’s been taking photos of OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT? Seriously, I just took a quick three-minute scroll through Fedortsov’s Twitter page, and he has photos of ocean creatures that look like they’re from the most twisted Jim Henson movie ever produced.

County officials in western Colorado have regularly lambasted Planning 2.0 and this week, Garfield County joined in with five other counties in the western United States considering suing to halt the rule, which they have criticized as a central-planning measure. The BLM this month announced that the rule was final and on Monday, Garfield County agreed to spend as much as $40,000 with the Texas-based property-rights organization, the American Stewards of Liberty, to halt it. While Garfield County is taking an active role, Mesa County officials are looking to Congress and a Republican administration under President-elect Donald Trump to deal...

The pickup line to reel in a catch. It's a classic when it comes to catching the attention of the opposite sex. There are pickup lines in every Angler walk of life. So, I asked some of my fishing buddies about some of the best lines they've heard of (or used). These guys are serious anglers that they started telling me about different types of fishing lines used for different fishes, literally. Guess that's why they're single, or haven't been on dates in quite a while. However, once I explained what kind of "line" I meant, they came up with...

A Joint Resolution Proposing an Amendment to Article 1 of the Constitution of the State of Indiana Concerning Natural and Cultural Resources. Summary Provides that the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife is a valued part of Indiana's heritage and shall be forever preserved for the public good. Provides that the people have a right, which includes the right to use traditional methods, to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife, subject only to the laws prescribed by the general assembly and rules prescribed by virtue of the authority of the general assembly to: (1) promote wildlife conservation and management; and...

Western Washington fishermen are planning a rally later this month at a state Chinook and coho hatchery on the Skokomish River, the lower end of which is off limits to salmon fishing this year because of a tribal land claim. Organizers expect several hundred anglers young and old to gather at WDFW’s George Adams Hatchery near Shelton for the 1 p.m. July 30 rally. Their goal is to reopen the river for the August fishery, and they fear that if it isn't, it may never be again. The rub is that while typically a river’s bed below the ordinary high...

In the marine world where the bigger fish you are the better. This muskie with a famish appetite goes after a trout half his size. But then again, muskies will eat just about anything that swims near them, with no prejudice to size or species. In this amazing footage below, a muskie tries to scarf down a big trout. The trout is much too big for the muskie to swallow, like snakes muskie don’t care. If i'st hungry, it eats now. While there’s debates in the Youtube comments whether that’s a Tiger Muskie or a Northern Pike (Feel free to...