The Tackle Box

By Chris Justice

In from the Fog: Monstrous Fishermen in Popular Culture

[29.Oct.09] :. To paraphrase Nietzsche, when fighting monsters one should be careful not to become one, but that’s a major reason why many people fish: to slay the proverbial dragon.
 

A Beatnik Tuna (Fish)

[8.Sep.09] :. Charlie the Tuna fish is an homage to the Beat generation’s playfulness and experimentation with language.
 

Oceans of Fear

[13.Aug.09] :. Brace yourself: this is a fish tale that can silence – like the great white shark itself – all of its competitors.
 

Snagged by Bishop—Hook, Line & Sinker

[24.Jun.09] :. Like the lakes we fish in, there are great treasures lurking in those depths, and great depth lurking in those treasures.
 

Missing the Boat while ‘Fishing with John’ (Lurie)

[30.Apr.09] :. Imagine a 'Seinfeld' episode on a boat with rods in Jerry and Kramer’s hands … you get the picture.
 

The Jester in the Fisherman

[1.Apr.09] :. Lines tangled and broke, feet tripped and slipped, rods and tempers snapped, and sometimes, even anglers fell overboard. It wasn’t funny … unless you were sober.
 

Les Claypool: Where Fish Congregate

[23.Feb.09] :. Quite simply, like the sturgeon itself, Claypool is the Maestro of the Bottom.
 

Presidential Angling

[8.Dec.08] :. Now that Barack Obama is America's 44th president, in the spirit of his predecessors, he might want to take up fishing.
 

Getting the Creeps from the Deep

[30.Oct.08] :. Deep, dark water – and that which swims within -- inspires our most primitive fears
 

The Poetry of Fishing: James A. Emanuel

[27.Aug.08] :. Fishing and writing are typically solitary crafts that offer fishermen and poets sweet opportunities for introspection.
 

Myth-Making Dolphins

[10.Jul.08] :. They're transporters of the souls of the dead, per Dante, transporters of tools and messages, per the US military, and friends to man, per the popular dolphinariums.
 

The Real Creel

[30.Apr.08] :. Creels contain volumes of wonderfully imaginative “catches” that, unlike the box’s contents in the myth, unleash a swarm of positive stories and memories that continue life’s flow.
 

Shad: An Undeniably American Icon

[27.Mar.08] :. Emerson spoke of it in a eulogy for Thoreau, not long after, it fueled Doherty and his cavalry in their relentless pursuit of Booth -- no wonder McPhee calls it America's "founding fish".
 

Trout Fishing in America

[22.Feb.08] :. Richard Brautigan’s minimalist prose wove hallucinations into social commentary, pastoral meditations into cultural satire, and journalistic reports about mundane existence into nihilistic, punkish sirens.
 

Some Thoughts on the Holiday Season’s Über Pop Icon

[21.Dec.07] :. Imagine sitting down to a fish dinner with Ernest Hemingway, Izaak Walton, Norman Maclean, and the ultimate Fisher of Men.
 

Hooked by Antique Lures

[27.Nov.07] :. Who is more captive to the prized antique fishing lure, fish or fisherman? With fishing, what you catch, or what catches your fancy, is not always in the water.
 

Fishing, Fathers, and Sons

[2.Nov.07] :. We’re all mythical creatures created from stories that blend fact and fiction, myth and reality, into a magical whole, and no tale does this the better than the fish story.
 

Beware the Kraken from the Deep

[14.Sep.07] :. Giant eyes, rows of large teeth, and emitting a nasty stench, amorphous, ugly, enormous, and ravenously hungry, the kraken is the perfect antagonist, and makes many appearances in film and literature.
 

Giant Catfish…Only a Noodle Away

[1.Aug.07] :. Catfish are strong, eccentric characters that have for many years snubbed their bottom-feeding whiskered noses at the angling establishment. But still, they're suckers for a wiggling finger.
 

Predatory Nature

[29.Jun.07] :. Sharks, the legendary "terrors of the deep", are at the complete mercy of the fiercest predator of all. Let's show some mercy.
 

The Kings of Crabs

[23.Apr.07] :. The Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catchgives one reason to pause and reflect between savory bites of Alaskan king crab.
 

Ed Zern: The Fisher King of Droll

[3.Apr.07] :. Like any curmudgeon, Ed Zern criticized everything, including himself, the sport, and other anglers because they all periodically blocked his path to the river.
 

Defying Extinction and Celebrating the Strange

[26.Feb.07] :. Some might say the elusive coelacanth, in spite of its primordial ugliness, has attained rock star status in the popular imagination.