Can You Design a Life Jacket That Boaters Will Wear? ANNAPOLIS, MD, – It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know why boaters don’t like to wear life jackets. They can be hot and bulky. Some are too expensive. Or, at least that’s what some boaters say. So here’s your big chance: design a better life jacket that more folks will wear, and you could be $10,000 richer.

The deadline for design entries with the 2015 Innovations in Life Jacket Design Competition is April 15. The competition’s sponsors, the BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water and the Personal Floatation Device Manufacturers Association, are encouraging boaters, armchair inventors, design, engineering or high school students to submit their design soon to BoatUS.org/design. Entries can be as simple as hand-drawn theoretical designs to working prototypes, and there are no rules regarding types of materials to be used or whether the design meets any current US standards. Read more

When the water’s cold, Rapala baits are red hot. If you’re not slinging Shad Raps, Husky Jerks, X-Raps, or DT’s this time of year, you might as well stay home.

So says a Who’s Who of Bassmaster Series pro anglers — Michael “Ike” Iaconelli, Ott DeFoe, Brandon Palaniuk and Pete Gluszek.

In water 55 degrees down to nearly freezing, a Shad Rap’s tight wobble “makes fish bite that won’t really bite a lot of other baits,” says DeFoe, a three-time Bassmaster Classic contender and 2011 Bassmaster Rookie of the Year. The reason? “It’s a balsa-wood bait that has a natural swimming-type motion,” he explains. “And, it still resembles a shad better than anything else out there.”

Gluszek, another three-time Classic contender, agrees. “It’s got to be one of the greatest-all-time cold-water baits ever designed,” he says. Read more

The new Fenwick® HMG® fly rods are available in six models, from the small-water 7 foot, 6 inch 3-weight that weighs a mere 3.0 ounces to the 9-foot 8-weight. The crisp, medium-fast action generates a high line speed to stabilize the line in the air. This produces effortless, accurate casts whether working up close or shooting to long distance targets. Quality materials are matched to the high modulus graphite blank, giving the angler the rod they expect with the Fenwick tradition.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (March 10, 2015) – Over forty years ago Fenwick® introduced the High Modulus Graphite fishing rod and changed fishing forever. The new Fenwick HMG® fly rod reinvents this fishing classic with the lightest, most comfortable HMG fly rod ever. These new fly rods are now available at retail outlets nationwide. HMG fly rods are designed with a crisp, medium-fast action that generates a high line speed to stabilize the line in the air for effortless, pin-point accurate casts up close and at a distance. These rods are ideal for popping bugs, dry flies, nymphs or streamers, just right for panfish, trout, bass and any other fish a fly angler chooses to pursue. Read more

The Department of Natural Resources today announced it is seeking input from anglers who fish for inland trout in Michigan. The DNR plans to use the information to assist in the development of a statewide plan for inland trout fisheries.

The Michigan Inland Trout Angler survey will gather information about these anglers, how they fish, what their thoughts and opinions are on inland trout management, and other items. Inland trout populations are defined as populations that spend their entire lives in inland lakes and streams, and generally do not migrate into the Great Lakes.

“The information we obtain from this survey will be critical in our effort to make sound management decisions,” said Troy Zorn, research biologist with the DNR’s Fisheries Division. “We hope anglers will take the time to complete it so our future management plan is reflective of their input.”

Available online, the Michigan Inland Trout Angler survey is available now until Tuesday, March 31. It should take anglers approximately 10 to 20 minutes to complete.

The Department of Natural Resources has announced the release of the 2015 Michigan Fishing Guide, which includes rules and regulations effective April 1, 2015, through March 31, 2016. Copies of the guide can be obtained at any location where fishing licenses are sold.

This year’s guide is the third year the DNR has implemented improvements geared toward the request of anglers. The 2015 guide is printed on higher-quality paper to better withstand the wear and tear of fishing in Michigan, is of a smaller physical size (better able to fit in anglers’ tackle boxes), and includes an easier-to-read font size.

This is the first year the DNR solicited photos from the public for potential use on the cover of the fishing guide. This year’s selected photo was of the Muskegon River and was submitted by Amber LeClear. The DNR will collect potential cover photos for the 2016 guide as well; interested individuals should send theirs to DNR-Fisheries@michigan.gov. The DNR is looking for photos that focus on places to fish, not so much on people or fish species.

The 2015 Michigan Fishing Guide also is available in a user-friendly, electronic format online at michigan.gov/fishingguide.    Read more

GW:  A great way to ice fish on stakeout and stay warm in the distance…

Tom Goniea credits tip-ups with converting him into an ice fisherman.

A Michigan Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist, Goniea said he’d never been ice fishing when a buddy invited him to set tip-ups. He took an immediate liking to it.

“I felt like an 8-year-old on the ice,” Goniea said. “I was happy to just get flags and I was perfectly content to catch undersized pike. Tip-ups are relatively easy to set up, relatively easy to use, and pike are relatively easy to catch.

“But I went on to research where there were lakes with populations that had larger pike in them and started chasing them.”

Goniea eventually became a full-fledged ice fisherman – walleyes, pan fish, even smelt – but says it was his early success with tip-ups that opened his eyes to the joy of ice fishing.

Tip-ups are devices designed to fish set lines through the ice. Tip-ups are equipped with spring-loaded flags that “tip up” when the bait is taken by a fish.

Traditionally, tip-ups were constructed of wood with three basic components – a pair of cross-members, which forms an X – and a third piece attached perpendicular to the cross-members. The cross-members straddle the hole in the ice, keeping the tip-up from falling into the water.

A simple spool is attached to the vertical member that is submerged (which keeps it from freezing) and a spring-loaded flag is attached to the portion of the vertical member above the ice. When a fish takes the bait Read more