No matter how far you live from the ocean, the lifestyle brand Salt Life reflects a love of coastal living. But they’re more than that: As we’ve found out through using their gear over the past few years, they also reflect devotion to hard core angling. They’ve developed a Charter Captains Directory. Company President Jeff Stillwell filled us in on the details.

Almost one year ago Samantha Sukupcak was notified that she had been awarded an opportunity to purchase a tag for a black bear after eight years of saving up preference points. Here’s the tale of her successful guided hunt with Wisconsin’s Hooks N Bone Outfitters.

Rick Barry is a basketball legend, not only a Hall of Famer, but a member of the 1996 list of the top 50 players of all time. Casual fans might recall him for his unorthodox underhanded free throw shooting (and resulting .900 free throw percentage), but his accolades and achievements go much deeper than that – the 6’7” Barry was the NBA Rookie of the Year, the 1975 NBA Finals MVP, an eight-time NBA All Star, a four-time ABA All-Star and the only player to lead the NCAA, ABA and NBA in scoring. Perhaps just as impressively, all five of his sons played or play professional basketball, including Scooter who won and NCAA title at Kansas in 1988 and Brent who not only won NBA championships with the Spurs, but also won the Slam Dunk contest in 1996.

While I may not have matured as a human being, I believe that in recent years I’ve matured substantially as an angler. I’ve been fortunate in my life to catch lots of different finned freaks of nature, and now I get a thrill when a newcomer gets their shot. Accordingly, as I look back on our travels during 2022, I’m glad that I can recall others’ catches fondly.

Frequently people ask me about my favorite trip or my favorite memory. I love them all – it’s like picking which one of your children you love the most. I can’t choose. Each one is special in its own way. I just love traveling, fishing and being with my people. Still, some memories stand out after a great 2022. Here are some of the ones I’ll treasure most.

We’ve never tried spearfishing. That’s not necessarily from a lack of interest, but rather because we had no idea where to start. It seems like the barriers to entry are high, but after watching one too many YouTube videos I needed to find out more. Fortunately Jon Stenstrom of Cast & Spear was kind enough to take my call, and patient enough to answer my questions.

At the end of 2021 I catalogued the preceding 360+ days. Memorializing it was a great way of keeping myself accountable while celebrating and cataloging everything I’d done. I’m back again and while things could always be better I’m pretty proud of the way things went down in ‘22.

South African fishing industry stalwart Duncan Murfin has entered the glide bait fabrication industry — with a single-jointed lure meant to imitate various species of tilapia.

On our last trip to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge, bait to plate was taken to another level. Pete caught an almaco jack. First mate Michael did an amazing job filleting that almaco. When we were back on land, I was so interested in the bait to plate process I asked Chef Eddie to be his sous-chef.

Capt. Juan Diego Gonzalez is only 32 years old, but he has the wisdom and experience of a captain twice that age, and he’s put me on several of my bucket list fish. That’s why I wanted to find out what makes him tick, and why he has seemingly boundless energy for his difficult job each day. Watch this video to hear about him in his own words.

I was honored to participate in a recent episode of Chris Woodward’s “Women in Fishing” podcast, where I had the opportunity to talk about my passion for travel and some of my favorite fishing experiences. If you have time, please listen and let me know what you think.

The highlight of any trip to Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge is of course the fishing — but thanks to Chef Eddie the food is a close second. In fact, it would be worth it to go there just to eat!

In Part 2 of her interview, Jen Kravassi of Jekyll explains what goes into a custom-painted lure, how to order the baits of your dreams, and her own plans for the future of her business.

Before the Gathering, my friend Tej Sawhney told me that one of my first stops should be at the Sherpa Swimbaits booth, owned by Passang Wong Chuu. Hanna and I got there just in time to see some of his amazing wake gills and crawler baits fly off the table. Here’s his story, in his own words.

Master craftsman Germán Pérez produces highly individualized peacock bass that look like they just came out of one of South America’s many fertile rivers, and he doesn’t stop there – his work with other exotics (and more common species) is beyond exceptional. Here’s his story in his own words.

Jen Kravassi is a full-fledged member of the swimbait community and a master lure painter — and so much more. We met her at the Gathering but if you’ve been around bass fishing at all you’ve seen her work for Bull Shad and Catch Co.

I regret that on a trip to Hong Kong in the mid-80s I did not take full advantage of the eating scene — although there are still a few things that wouldn’t really appeal.

Amy Lockhart is a 20-year Navy Veteran who loves to fish! But there’s much more to the story than that. After retiring from an official career serving our country, Amy is still helping people, one by one, except this time in the fishing industry. Here’s her story in her own words.

One of the best things about the Swimbait Universe Gathering was the diversity of the people, all brought together by their mutual big bait fetish. It was almost disarming how welcoming everyone was. Despite being a generally-misanthropic introvert, I had no trouble going up to just about anyone. One of my favorites was CJ Martin of Swimbait Hooligans, who took my interview in good spirits.

Oklahoma’s F5 Custom Rods is highly respected in the swimbait community and makes custom-quality rods at production rod prices. Owners Brad Vanderpool and Lisa Livesay put their personal stamp on every rod, including collabs and multi-piece travel rods.