Good food is not only necessary to sustain life, but also to make it worth living. That’s true when we go on fishing trips near and far – we want to be at peak performance, but we’re also excited to dive into some premium grub. Here are links that might get your tastebuds flowing. Alternatively, they might trigger your gag reflex.

Now that we’ve caught some tarpon, we’re starting to understand what all of the fuss is about. Not only are these fish beautiful to look at, but they grow big, pull extraordinarily hard and jump repeatedly. There are lots of belts and buckles to commemorate this already-memorable fish.

Captain Mark Cockerham took us to an area-that-shall-not-be-named where we proceeded to catch one snook after another after another. They bite aggressively and they pull hard. I can see why so many anglers target them – but only once I got back and did a little research did I see how many snook tributes there are on hats, shirts and jewelry. Here are some of my favorite lids.

Whether you call it a “media gathering,” a “junket,” a “writers conference” or something else, you know that you’ve been noticed as a member of the outdoor media when companies start inviting you. Once you’ve been invited and you’ve decided to attend, there are still some steps you can take to make it worthwhile for you, the company putting on the event, and the angler’s who attend.

This week my longtime friend Matt Pangrac invited me back onto bass fishing’s number one podcast, Bass Talk Live, to talk about swimbaits, the Bassmaster Opens, gray areas and fishing in your skivvies.

Sometimes I find things on the internet that need to be shared with the readers of Half Past First Cast but might not merit a blog of their own. Our industry is loaded with creative minds, and many of them are working semi-tirelessly producing products that appeal to me – which in turn means that they might appeal to you. Here are six favorites.

One of the things that I like best about fishing is the opportunity to enjoy silence. It’s why I fish by myself so often – after a week of phone calls and meetings and useless conversations I like to retreat into my own head, or completely blank out. Historically I’ve also believed that fishing in silence produces better overall results. Hanna doesn’t care about that.

As bass fishermen we don’t have a canon of literature to call our own, no “A River Runs Through It” or “The Old Man and the Sea.” With the possible exception of Carl Hiaasen’s riotous but now-35-year-old novel, there haven’t been any massively popular novels about the tournament scene. That’s why it was a pleasure to open up “They Lurk in the Murk” by Gage Peters and find a reference to SPRO frogs on the first page. I knew I was in my comfort zone.

School’s out for summer, but that doesn’t mean we put reading on the back burner. As the rest of you coat yourselves with baby oil, grill hot dogs and attempt to avoid blowing your fingers off with fireworks, we keep compiling links. Here are a dozen of our favorites from recent weeks.

Hanna’s been blogging about our long-term goal of traveling the country in an RV. While I’ve referred to that goal in passing, I don’t want readers to think that I’m not part of the research team. I’ve been doing lots of reading about the topic. Here are several recent articles that I’ve stored away.

When I first got into bass fishing, I had none of the quality clothing that signified membership in the cool kids’ club. Here are a few of the items that I coveted but never owned.

Trolling may look like “cheating” but it’s not. It’s actually a great way to efficiently cover water and requires more skill and strategy than you might think. We’ve learned to appreciate it for various reasons.

As Shark Week ends there’s no better way to celebrate than with an aptly-named drink. Perhaps because sharks inspire so many iterations of the phrase, “Hold my beer and watch this,” there are lots of brews named after them. We’ve already listed some of those honoring hammerheads, but there are many, many more.

We’ve gone swimming with sharks in Tahiti and we’ve caught them in various places including Panama, Florida and Delaware. There are 440 different species across eight orders, and while there are similarities there are also some significant distinctions. The following links are hardly a comprehensive study of sharks, but they should pique your interest as they did ours.

In Islamorada, we caught quite a number of different species of sharks. Hanna caught a bonnethead shark, one of the 9 types of hammerheads. Our friend Jennifer Combs also caught a “true” hammerhead. Whether it’s at an aquarium, on the intro to television’s “Shark Tank” or elsewhere sharks are featured, the various kinds of hammerheads are probably the second most noted after great whites. Here’s some hammertime gear.

In a few years we may need to transport our rapidly-growing fish replica collection. It’s not something we take lightly. Here are some thoughts and options for getting that job done, whether you’re looking to move a marlin, a moose or an African trophy room.

The Fourth of July holiday is just around the corner and we all want to dress to impress – even on the water. I love getting dressed up in red, white and blue. Check out some of the coolest fishing and sosrt-fishing apparel that’ll drape you in those colors from head to toe -- provided by many of the fishing tackle and apparel companies we all know, plus Amazon.

Independence Day is fast approaching and fortunately just about everyone looks good on the water in red, white and blue. The apparel and tackle companies know that, so they’re sure to provide you with plenty of opportunities to show your love for Old Glory. Here are some of our favorites for men.

South America is a continent that is near and dear to our hearts, if nothing else because it was our 2011 trip to Brazil that really jump-started our love of “exotic” fishing travel. Accordingly, we try to keep tabs on what is occurring both in the countries we’ve visited and in the ones that are still on our bucket list. Here are some of the links that have stood out to us lately.

We love to travel and we love sharing our travel “hacks” and tips with receptive readers, but we’ve never held ourselves out to be all-knowing experts. A big part of Half Past First Cast is documenting and memorializing our learning process. We read and study tirelessly and then share some of what we learn from others.