No matter how many questions you ask before going to a new place, there’s a simple fact -- you don’t know what you don’t know. I did some homework prior to our recent first visit to Ballard’s Black Island Lodge on Lake of the Woods. The trip was terrific but Here are a few things I will do differently next time so there are not hitches and you won’t get a stitch in your britches.

After lodge owner Gary Moeller had a really great trip to Anglers Inn last April, he invited us up to fish the waters of Ontario’s Lake of the Woods, at Ballard’s Black Island Lodge. Finally, Half Past First Cast was going NORTH of the border. Our goal was to catch a new Grand Slam – walleye, musky, smallmouth and northern pike in a single day.

We’re all capable of doing stupid stuff in our home countries, so what makes us think that we’ll be immune from that problem when we’re abroad? Avoid the most costly and potentially painful miscues, but lighten up, Francis – as long as it’s not the really bad stuff.

We were unsure of what we’d experience on our Lake of the Woods smallmouth trip, but the quality of the fish exceeded any possible expectations. We had no idea we’d run across so many big specimens, but on each of the last two days it took nearly a 20-inch minimum to crack our collective top five. Here’s the photo proof.

Air travel continues to be a clusterf#%k, with staffing shortages, mechanical issues, scheduling snafus and all sorts of inexplicable factors bedeviling the supposedly “friendly skies.” We have too many places we want to fish, and not enough time to drive to many of them (especially those across the pond). We collect the links so you can get straight to the good stuff.

No one can force you go leave your homeland, but I’m here to tell you that international fishing travel will make you a better and a more fulfilled person. It will also help you to increase your appreciation of many things about your home country. Don’t delay!

Part of the reason that we go on distant fishing trips to remote locations is to “disconnect” from the electronic tethers that increasingly rule our lives. Nevertheless, I’ll be the first to admit that even when I don’t have service my phone remains an important part of my daily life, so when traveling I try to maintain cybersecurity in the following caveman-friendly ways.

I went on a tackle shop scavenger hunt, across the Chesapeake Bay, through the Maryland beaches, and up through the Delaware coast. Here is a list of some incredible shops, with a brief guide to what they all offer.

While fishing is often thought of as a pastoral and contemplative sport that benefits most from remote settings, urban fishing continues to grow in popularity in the United States. Here’s a guide to getting started on fishing close to concrete and skyscrapers.

Do you remember “Fish and Ski” bass boats? They were popular in the 1980s and 1990s, and depending on your perspective, they were either the best or the worst combination of features you could buy.

Elite athletes have increasingly realized that sufficient quality sleep is critical for peak performance. The jury may be still be out on whether fishing is a sport, but insofar as it requires mental acuity and some physical skill, I truly believe that all of us can benefit from paying careful attention to our sleep hygiene.

Who has time to read all of the great travel tips on the web? I certainly don’t, and I (sort of) do this for a living. Nevertheless, when I do come across a valuable website, app or tip, I try to pay it forward. Here are some of the best ones I’ve learned recently. Ignore them at your peril.

No one likes to wait in lines, and no one likes to have their bodies or their luggage searched, but if you’re going to fly these days you’ll likely have to put up with both waiting and searches. TSA was created post 9/11, and with it came delays and scans. Here are ten things you can do to make the process more efficient, plus some great links.

So far in 2022 I’ve been fishing all over the map and yet the trip that I have circled most brightly on the calendar is nowhere near as far away as any of them. In fact, it’s only 2 ½ hours down the road to the dot-on-the-map of Lanexa, Virginia. It's for the fourth edition of The Gathering, organized by the crew of Swimbait Universe, an event my friend Mike Bucca calls “the ICAST of swimbait fishing.”

Through the two-plus years this website has been in operation, we’ve frequently discussed the value and opportunities presented by both mid-level and “premium” credit cards. Now we’re back in the game – not with the same Chase card, or even a MasterCard/Visa product, but rather with the first American Express card either of us has carried in a few decades. It’s the AmEx Platinum.

In June of 2022, of the sixteen people in our group at Lake El Salto, seven anglers caught what I’d call the “Super Grand Slam” — trophy largemouth bass plus three unexpected species.

During our Islamorada, Florida fishing trip in May I caught SIX different species of sharks. When I did the math that means I only caught 0.01276595744680% of the world’s different species of sharks. Not as impressive as my strut, LOL. Our friend Jennifer Combs caught three different species, two of them different than the ones I caught. Our combined percentage has risen to 0.017021276595744%, slightly more impressive.

In the Keys we had a blast catching a wide variety of fish including redfish, snook, speckled trout, tripletail, mangrove snapper and all manner of sharks. Our friends Lee and Bill also added permit, which for some reason I didn’t expect, but the real surprise was that our traveling partners Duncan and Jennifer hooked and landed two smalltooth sawfish estimated at 250 pounds apiece.

If you’re like us, you’re constantly planning the next amazing fishing trip, or even one or two beyond that. That’s not necessarily easy in times of economic uncertainty. Here are seven tips to get the most bang for your buck when times are tougher than usual.

I’ve already detailed the list of baits that Hanna and I used successfully on our most recent trip to Lake El Salto. Nevertheless, I didn’t feel that particular blog entry captured everything about our most recent trip to bass Disneyland. Accordingly, for those of you who are similarly obsessed, here are some additional factoids and opinions – I hope that they help you on your next trip South of the Border.