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When 68-year-old Sue Elcock ventured out on a deep-sea fishing trip to keep her son company, she probably wasn’t expecting to reel in a 130-pound “monster fish” bigger than herself. During an early morning excursion while visiting her son Simon and his wife Michelle at their Perth, Australia home, Elcock told The Sun she felt a tug on her line and knew she caught a “fair-sized fish.” The petite Englishwoman said she was shocked at its sheer size as it emerged from the ocean off the coast of Lancelin. After 40 minutes of reeling, her son and their fellow passengers...

A Petaluma fisherman got a big bite, but didn't expect the fish he reeled in to bite back. Juan Gallo caught a pacu fish at the Lucchesi Park pond in Petaluma over the weekend. But as he lifted the fish from the water, its teeth cut the line. A pacu is a freshwater fish typically found in the Amazon River and a relative of the piranha. While the fish is sold at U.S. pet shops, they’re illegal in California. Gallo managed to keep a hold of the fish, and plans to turn it over to the California Department of Fish...

To avoid overfishing and aid in sustainable exploitation, the status of the fish stocks has to be monitored regularly. In many cases stock assessment is based on fishery-dependent data generated from fish markets or creel surveys. The assumption is: the lower the catches in a certain unit of time, the smaller the stock of fish should be. The scientists Dr. Josep Alós and Prof. Dr. Robert Arlinghaus from the German Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin have now shown that some fish species show enhanced gear-avoidance behaviour in regions with high angling intensity compared...

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

November 02, 2009 9:18 PM Tom McLaughlin and Tina Harbuck More than 100 fishermen, family and friends showed up Monday morning at the corner of U.S. 98 and Perry Avenue carrying signs in protest of the recent fish closures by the National Marine Fisheries Service. “It’s terrible what they’re trying to do to this fishery,” said Capt. Kenny Aziz, who bay fishes from his pontoon boat, The Toonpang. The idea of bringing the Destin charter boat fishermen’s beef with the federal government to the corner of Perry Avenue and U.S. Highway 98 started out as kind of a joke. That...

October 5, 2009 - Alexandria, Va. – A sweeping oceans and Great Lakes management policy document proposed by the Obama Administration will have a significant impact on the sportfishing industry, America’s saltwater anglers and the nation’s coastal communities. The draft policy, the Interim Report of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, issued on September 17, will govern federal Pacific and Atlantic Ocean waters and Great Lakes resource conservation and management and will coordinate these efforts among federal, state and local agencies. This past June, President Obama created the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, led by the Chair of the Council...

...The original White House memo and not surprisingly the Task Force report contains multiple references to developing a national policy where Great Lakes and coastal regions are managed, “consistent with international law, including customary international law as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” - a 300-page treaty the U.S. has never ratified...

Obama White House to 60,000,000 Anglers: We Don't Need You Obama White House takes on 60,000,000 American anglers. (Hawaii Leisure) A recently released White House document could result in the closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas.Shimano reported: Feds to 60 Million American Anglers: We don't need you A recently published administration document outlines a structure that could result in closures of sport fishing in salt and freshwater areas across America. The White House created an Interagency Oceans Policy Task Force in June and gave them only 90 days to develop a comprehensive federal policy for all U.S....

The Women of Pro Bass Fishing are Making Their Mark Janet Parker accepted a commendation given to her and Aaron’s by the U.S. Army Freedom Team Salute on the Talladega driver introduction stage. Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Ga., has a shot at being the first woman to qualify for the Bassmaster Elite Series and the Bassmaster Classic in the same year. Women's Bassmaster Tour angler Janet Parker of Little Elm, Texas, lapped the entire Academy Sports + Outdoors Women's Bassmaster Tour field April 25 in Louisiana on the Ouachita River when she took her first BASS win by a margin...

The government wants to know who's fishing for fun in federal ocean waters. Recreational anglers and spearfishers would be required to be registered... NOAA's Fisheries Service said it wants to get more accurate data on recreational fish catches. Commercial fishers already need licenses or permits and thus would not have to register again... The registry ...fishing anywhere for what are called anadromous species, such as striped bass, salmon and shad, that spawn in rivers and streams and spend their adult lives in estuaries and the ocean. Registrations will include an angler's name, address, telephone number and the regions where fishing...

Oregon's 550,000 hunters and anglers spend $1.1 billion annually...the ripple effect at $1.8 billion annually. Oregon ranks No. 25 among all states in terms of total spending. Texas is No. 1 at $6.6 billion, and Florida placed second, $4.8 billion. On the national level, 34 million sportsmen...spent more than $76 billion in 2006, supporting 1.6 million jobs...

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - A giant freshwater carp nicknamed the "tiger fish" for its great fighting abilities is set to return to the fast-flowing rivers of Indian Kashmir, officials say. Scientists have built a hatchery for breeding the mahseer and hope to restock the waters of Kashmir, known as an "angler's paradise," although few foreign fishermen venture here now due to a deadly Islamic insurgency against New Delhi's rule that began in 1989. "Catching mahseer is a real sport, a real adventure. Its re-introduction in these waters will definitely see an influx of anglers," says one enthusiastic fisherman, Abdul Qayoom,...

They're not quite sea monsters, but anglers here are landing squid nearly 6 feet long, far larger than a typical catch. One Newport Landing Sportfishing boat came back Saturday with a load of squid that averaged 30 pounds each, and 5 feet in length. A 4-pound squid is typical, but the largest in the catch weighed 50 pounds and was nearly 6 feet long. "People were getting wet and trying to avoid getting inked," said Newport Landing manager Steffanie Hillerstein. The boat was fishing the waters just south of Laguna Beach. Anglers, using 10-inch long lures, needed nearly 10 minutes...

Anglers fear ban on 'cruel' live bait will spread By Jasper Copping, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:30am GMT 07/01/2007 Anglers are to be banned from using live fish as bait after politicians decided it was cruel. The ban, which will apply in Scotland, has angered fishermen south of the border who believe it has handed a major victory to animal rights campaigners calling for similar legislation in the rest of Britain. Steve Greenway, a leading angler from Staffordshire who has been on 105 fishing trips to Scotland, said: "If I thought live bait was cruel, I wouldn't use it. Where...

National Wildlife Federation Offers Free Tickets To "An Inconvenient Truth" So what's the deal with the new global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth? We want you to find out...FREE. The National Wildlife Federation is offering a limited number of free tickets to sportsmen and women to go see the movie and post your thoughts on their website: www.targetglobalwarming.org Reserve your TWO FREE TICKETS here: www.targetglobalwarming.org/movieticket After you see the movie, come back and post your opinion. Your name will be entered into a drawing for a Cabela's Outdoor Adventure. Visit an elite pheasant hunting lodge in South Dakota...fish for salmon...

Darn, we missed it. Sept. 25 was designated ``Turn in Your Tackle Day'' by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and I forgot to get it done. The animals-before-people group targeted recreational anglers for their combined wrath, and had marked Sept. 25 as the day for all of us who are feeling guilty about barbing bass, snatching snook and whacking wahoo to get it off our conscience by turning in our instruments of torture. PETA has one bureaucrat with what has to be the politically correct job title of the decade: fish empathy project manager. And readers of this...