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 – as soon as this damn virus gets out of the way.
Perusing the catalog online, I found that most of JJ’s gear is tailored to a saltwater market, and especially (but not entirely) to species found in Florida, like Mahi Mahi, Sailfish and Hogfish. Their designs are clean and the lineup includes shirts, hoodies, hats, jewelry, neck gaiters and even pet gear.
The shirt that stood out the most, only because I’d never seen anything like it, is the one with Gulf of Mexico fishing regulations on it. Combined with a ruler running down the sleeve, if you wear it you have no plausible excuse for breaking the rules — regardless of your gender, because they come in both mens and women’s versions.. Simply brilliant. I suppose there are all sorts of similar info you could put on a shirt, but adding in the allowable blood alcohol content or the states’ age of consent might invite all sorts of moral hazards.
Nature Boy Designs, a company that produces a variety of kickass products, including customized rod cases, offers a similar shirt (known as “Size Matters),” which includes a ruler up the sleeve.
I am not a fan of the necktie in any form – conventional, bowtie, ascot or otherwise. I feel that it’s an antiquated social signifier that has outlived its usefulness, but as I’ve written previously, “if you’re going to wear a tie it might as well be a fun one.” Nothing’s more fun than tuna.
We’ve already told you how to spruce up your look with billfish-themed shirts, shorts and neckties. Now we’ll help you complete the look with matching socks.
I’ve worn a tie for more hours than many of you have been alive. I’m neither proud nor ashamed of that fact – it’s the price I’ve paid to earn certain things I want, like Japanese crankbaits and trips to the Amazon.
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.”
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.