image by Podnox

Todd Kuhn writes in Outdoor Life about the magic of scratched lures, reminding me of the care that I’ve always taken to be sure a plug that caught fish ended up back in the box.  Those were the “reliables,” to be pulled out when the “preferred” lure mysteriously stopped working, and they almost always made a difference.  The same is true of flies.

“I’ll never use a bait without first taking some sandpaper to it and scarring it up. I postulate this gives the fish a visual cue that what they are looking at is wounded and not in any shape to flee. In other words, an easy meal.”

This new video from the International Game Fish Association profiles south Florida guide Steve Huff, who began guiding in 1968.   Remarkably, Steve is the only guide honored by the IGFA in its Hall of Fame–and that honor came only after years of campaigning by clients, friends and fellow fishing experts.

Tomorrow Skiff Republic will publish its first interview with Steve, who talked to us last week about skiff design history and his role in the development of some of the first technical poling skiffs.

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Award-winning outdoor writer Tom Keer recently did a quick piece on the joys of fishing out of simple skiffs in the Northeast for TakeMeFishing.org.  He mentions guides like Captain David Bitters of The Baymen, who does very well, thank you, fishing out of very simple fiberglass or aluminum-hulled boats.  ”Our group was founded around a very old concept of life lived on the bay.  Our Founding Fathers were the Pilgrims, and they fished and fouled in the intertidal zones.  Like them, we keep our rich maritime history alive by focusing more on the way that life is lived as opposed the quantity in which it is lived.”