Outdoor Life Ranks Top 200 Hunting and Fishing Towns
Lewiston, Idaho has topped Outdoor Life's top 200 list of the best hunting and fishing towns. Marquette, Michigan came in second. You can see the Outdoor Life feature here.
Lewiston, ID
Marquette, MI
Idaho Falls, ID (tie)
Rawlins, WY (tie)
Pocatello, ID
Bismarck, ND
Sheridan, WY
Pierre, SD
Rochester, MN
Carbondale, CO
Outdoor Life has also made available an Excel file you can download of the 200 towns.
There are worm vending machines in Poland that dispenses live worms. Reuters says it's a prototype on trial beside Nielisz Lake in the Lublin province of Poland and that it's popular with local anglers. Just don't bring worms to your daughter who is expecting a candy bar. Take a look:
Missing Class Ring Turns Up Inside a Bass Twenty Years Later
The AP reports that the class ring a man lost 21 years ago while he was fishing has been returned to him. A fisherman found it - inside an 8-pound bass!
The fisherman who discovered the tarnished ring inside his catch contacted Richardson on Nov. 28 in Buna, about 100 miles northeast of Houston, after tracking him down with help from the Internet.
His fisherman hero asked to remain anonymous.
Richardson, 41, said he lost the ring about two weeks after his 1987 graduation from Universal Technical Institute in Houston. His mom had bought it for about $200 and wasn't pleased when it went missing.
What a hilarious story. At least Richardson's mom won't be mad anymore!
Gizmodo reports that a man lost his iPod in the river while he was fishing. The water destroyed the iPod so the man decided to make a fishing lure (see photo above) from the broken iPod's components.
"Seeing it was the river that took it from me, it's gonna at least catch me some fish," says Maker Captain Ahab (perfection in a handle). He used the screen polishing cloth for the body, the USB logicboard connector for the legs, touchscreen inreface wires for the head and wings, and various other harvested components to craft this beauty.
It might be flashy enough to attract fish. Even if it does work it's way too expensive of a lure to make repeatedly.
The Unionreports that 24-year-old Michael Bennett recently became the youngest champion in the Forrest Wood Cup. He won $1 million.
Team Duracell pro Michael Bennett, originally from Grass Valley, caught a two-day total of nine bass weighing 24 pounds, 15 ounces to win $1 million in the Forrest Wood Cup presented by BP and Castrol on Lake Murray Sunday.
Bennett is the youngest champion in the history of the Forrest Wood Cup and topped his closest rival, Team Kellogg's pro Dave Lefebre of Union City, Penn., by more than five pounds to become the sport's second instant millionaire.
"This hasn't sunk in at all," said Bennett, who became the youngest angler to reach $1 million in career earnings and has banked $1.4 million in FLW Outdoors events. "I mean, I'm excited and have an unbelievable feeling inside, but overall it hasn't sunk in. It's incredible."
Bennett said he targeted fresh shallow water and his bait of choice was Snag Proof Fred Frog Custom Color. You can read a Q&A with Bennett here.
The Pacific Chinook salmon population of Oregon and California is suddenly on the verge of collapse after years of decline. Federal fisheries managers are considering a ban on salmon fishing from Oregon to the Mexican border.
The fishery council is expected to decide which action to take in April during its meeting in Seattle.
"I think the likeliest outcome this year is no one will put a hook in the water," said Humboldt County fisherman Dave Bitts, who was attending the weeklong meeting in Sacramento.
The Sacramento River chinook run is usually one of the most plentiful on the West Coast, providing the bulk of the fish caught by commercial trollers off California and Oregon.
But this year's returns - even with no fishing allowed - are expected to reach less than half the council's goal for spawning a new generation. It marks the third straight year of declines, and the outlook for next year is no better.
John Larson reports on the dire situation in the NBC video below.
Lewiston, Idaho has topped Outdoor Life's top 200 list of the best hunting and fishing towns. Marquette, Michigan came in second. You can see the Outdoor Life feature 
The Union 