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Fly-fishing isn't lmited to standing in a stream
Most people associate fly-fishing with standing in a clear, cold stream catching trout. Jim Laing thinks that's a mistake. "There's a whole other world out there that people just need to discover," said Laing, who is teaching a fly-fishing class at Southwestern Illinois College this month with his fishing partner, Brad Eilering. The pair are on a mission to catch as many species of fish as they can -- from buffalo to muskie to walleye to striper to carp to catfish --within a two-hour radius of St. Louis by using fly-fishing techniques. Laing caught a striper, buffalo, drum, gar, carp and striper on the Big Muddy River below the dam at Rend Lake during a recent trip. His exploits are chronicled in an article on sexyloops.com, the world's premier fly-fishing Web site.
Web site gives peek at aquatic insects
Fly fishermen who chase freshwater trout throughout North America now have the ability to get a new detailed peek into the world of aquatic insects which form the forage base for the likes of rainbows, brookies and browns. The web site www.troutnut.com was re-launched in late August and it offers a detailed encyclopedia of mayflies, caddisflies and stoneflies. Site developer Jason Neuswanger has gathered thousands of color closeup photographs of trout stream insects. Neuswanger says the web site offers much more than can be found in the hundreds of books on the subject. "The best books were written before I was born," said Neuswanger, a Cornell graduate, "and since that time technology has lifted some big limitations." Neuswanger covers the behavior of the stream side insects, which vary as much as their appearances.
Fishing is escape from war
Von Hagen spent a year as a civilian contractor stationed in Iraq, where he refused to let the fighting disrupt his fishing. His favorite fishing hole? One of Saddam Hussein's private lakes. "I was stationed in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown," said Von Hagen, 38, who attended Hillsboro High and Western Kentucky University. "When I arrived, I discovered three fairly large lakes in a walled-off compound that contained about 30 of Saddam's palaces. Being a fisherman, I immediately checked them out and found that the lakes were full of big fish, mostly carp and shad." Von Hagen wrote home, asking for his fishing tackle to be shipped. "The biggest fish I caught weighed 25 pounds," he said. "I caught it on spinning tackle. Then I started fly fishing, catching fish weighing three, four pounds.
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