Chris Justice

About Chris Justice

A salt- and freshwater angler for more than 30 years, Chris has been fascinated (or obsessed, depending on your temperament) with the sport ever since he caught his first sunfish in Lawrence Brook with his grandfather, Leo. He is an avid catch-and-release angler, and enjoys both spin and fly-fishing. Although he’ll pursue anything with gills, his favorite targets are rockfish, trout, and shad. His PopMatters monthly column, The Tackle Box, explores the confluence of the sport and popular culture.

Features

“Home” Is Where the Zombies Are

By Chris Justice

The farmhouse in Night of the Living Dead shatters the illusion of our most trusted institution: the American home is as dangerous as the evil outside its walls. [27 October 2008]

Columns

Squanto: The Ultimate Guide

By Chris Justice

Even anglers like myself yearn for guides with fishing IQs as rich as Squanto's, a Patuxet Native American who taught the Pilgrims how to fish. [24 November 2009]

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In from the Fog: Monstrous Fishermen in Popular Culture

By Chris Justice

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. [29 October 2009]

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A Beatnik Tuna (Fish)

By Chris Justice

Charlie the Tuna fish is an homage to the Beat generation’s playfulness and experimentation with language. [8 September 2009]

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Oceans of Fear

By Chris Justice

Brace yourself: this is a fish tale that can silence – like the great white shark itself – all of its competitors. [13 August 2009]

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Snagged by Bishop—Hook, Line & Sinker

By Chris Justice

Like the lakes we fish in, there are great treasures lurking in those depths, and great depth lurking in those treasures. [24 June 2009]

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

By Chris Justice

Imagine a 'Seinfeld' episode on a boat with rods in Jerry and Kramer’s hands … you get the picture. [30 April 2009]

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The Jester in the Fisherman

By Chris Justice

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. [1 April 2009]

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Les Claypool: Where Fish Congregate

By Chris Justice

Quite simply, like the sturgeon itself, Claypool is the Maestro of the Bottom. [23 February 2009]

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Presidential Angling

By Chris Justice

Now that Barack Obama is America's 44th president, in the spirit of his predecessors, he might want to take up fishing. [8 December 2008]

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Getting the Creeps from the Deep

By Chris Justice

Deep, dark water – and that which swims within -- inspires our most primitive fears [30 October 2008]

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The Poetry of Fishing: James A. Emanuel

By Chris Justice

Fishing and writing are typically solitary crafts that offer fishermen and poets sweet opportunities for introspection. [27 August 2008]

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Myth-Making Dolphins

By Chris Justice

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. [10 July 2008]

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The Real Creel

By Chris Justice

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. [30 April 2008]

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Shad: An Undeniably American Icon

By Chris Justice

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". [27 March 2008]

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Trout Fishing in America

By Chris Justice

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. [22 February 2008]

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Some Thoughts on the Holiday Season’s Über Pop Icon

By Chris Justice

Imagine sitting down to a fish dinner with Ernest Hemingway, Izaak Walton, Norman Maclean, and the ultimate Fisher of Men. [21 December 2007]

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Hooked by Antique Lures

By Chris Justice

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. [27 November 2007]

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Fishing, Fathers, and Sons

By Chris Justice

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. [2 November 2007]

(more The Tackle Box)

Beware the Kraken from the Deep

By Chris Justice

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. [14 September 2007]

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Giant Catfish…Only a Noodle Away

By Chris Justice

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. [1 August 2007]

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Predatory Nature

By Chris Justice

Sharks, the legendary "terrors of the deep", are at the complete mercy of the fiercest predator of all. Let's show some mercy. [29 June 2007]

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The Kings of Crabs

By Chris Justice

The Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catchgives one reason to pause and reflect between savory bites of Alaskan king crab. [23 April 2007]

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Ed Zern: The Fisher King of Droll

By Chris Justice

Like any curmudgeon, Ed Zern criticized everything, including himself, the sport, and other anglers because they all periodically blocked his path to the river. [3 April 2007]

(more The Tackle Box)

Defying Extinction and Celebrating the Strange

By Chris Justice

Some might say the elusive coelacanth, in spite of its primordial ugliness, has attained rock star status in the popular imagination. [26 February 2007]

(more The Tackle Box)

Blogs

Sources Say: Table Scraps #2 – Mr. Edwards, Stop Blaming the Media [29 January 2008]

Sources Say: The Campus Beat #7: Reflections on Student Media [2 September 2007]

Sources Say: The Golden Rule #7 [14 August 2007]

Sources Say: The Campus Beat #6 [1 August 2007]

Sources Say: The Golden Rule #6 - To Catch A Predator [17 July 2007]

Sources Say: The Campus Beat #5 [3 July 2007]

Sources Say: The Golden Rule #5 [19 June 2007]

Sources Say: The Campus Beat #4 [30 May 2007]

Sources Say: The Golden Rule #4 [24 May 2007]

Sources Say: The Campus Beat #3 [16 May 2007]

Sources Say: The Golden Rule #3 [10 May 2007]

Sources Say: The Campus Beat #2 [30 April 2007]

Sources Say: The Golden Rule #2 [17 April 2007]

Sources Say: The Campus Beat #1 [10 April 2007]

Sources Say: The Golden Rule #1 [2 April 2007]