We all have our names for big fish – footballs, tanks, donkeys, unicorns, pigs and hawgs (or the more dictionarily proper “hogs”), among others. But how do you represent those notions graphically? As far as I can tell, artist Nate Karnes, who sells his goods through Remedy Provisions, is killing it in that area.
Whether you want a pig largemouth….
Or a football smallmouth….
Or a toad brown trout….
You can get it on a decal, a shirt or other item from Karnes.
He’s also the only artist I’ve ever seen create images of the Guadalupe Bass, the state fish of Texas which is high on my bucket list of attainable species.
I’d never heard of Jessie Jessup Apparel company of Florida until I came across their peacock bass t-shirt. If I haven’t already made it clear, I’m obsessed with peacocks and can’t wait to head back to the Amazon – ideally this December, if the damn virus gets out of the way.
I caught several roosterfish in Costa Rica’s Gulf of Papagayo in August of 1995, and haven’t had a chance to catch any more since then. That’s not to say that roosters haven’t been a part of my life since then – I married a chicken-obsessed redhead, so we have a kitchen full of rooster figurines, and somehow ended up naming our hyper Australian Shepherd “Rooster,” too.
I don’t remember how I stumbled upon the shirts from online retailer Slackertide, but as an obsessive consumer of popular culture who also happens to fish, it was a godsend. Whether you want Willie Nelson, the Golden Girls, Jonah Hill, Rick James, Magnum PI or Cheech and Chong to accompany you on your next trip to the pond, they’ve gotcha covered.
The musky dudes are a different breed. I say that out of respect and a bit of worry for their sanity. I’ve only chased those figure-eightable bastards a handful of times at Lake St. Clair, and have managed to get some of their slime on my clothing, but the whole experience left me questioning why grown men would devote their lives to chasing such evil fish – and that’s on a place where they actually catch ‘em. Woe be to him who spends countless hours on a musky fishery far less fertile.
I can find no photographic or documentary evidence that famed reggae singer Bob Marley liked to fish despite the fact that he was from a country surrounded by water. In 2012 an Arkansas biologist named a small Caribbean crustacean after him,that’s still not enough to make the connection. Nevertheless, if you’ve been waiting in vain to integrate a little Marley into your fishing game, you can certainly dress the part.
This week’s favorite t-shirt comes from the East Rosebud Fly Shop in Montana, whose motto – for reasons that will soon become obvious – is “For those about to fish, we salute you.”
Subsequent to our most recent trip to Bear Trail Lodge, I’ve now fallen in love – or at least a very strong “like” -- with sockeye salmon. Due to the proposed Pebble Mine project, Bristol Bay’s annual sockeye run, the largest in the world, may be in peril. Even if you never go there (note: you should), there are ways that you can support the right side of the cause, there are ways you can support the cause or show your love of sockeyes while still looking good.
Flounder: I can’t believe I threw up in front of Dean Wormer
Boon: Face it, Kent, You threw up on Dean Wormer.
Because of my dad’s job, most of my childhood summers were spent in the back seat of a sedan driving someplace across America. I’m not sure I appreciated spending so much time with my family and seeing our great country much at the time.
Old Mark Zuckerberg apparently knows what he is doing, because one of my targeted ads last year hit me square between the temples and lured me in: Sportyfish shirts from Singapore. Their catalog reads like a “who’s who” of my bucket list fish – peacock bass, giant trevally, yellowfin tuna, sailfish and others.