Silflay Hraka

Hop addicts are like heroin addicts. They keep coming up with new ways of delivering the drug.

The Organoleptic Hops Transducer, as its inventor, Sam Calagione, calls it, is an industrial-grade water filter, three feet long, that can be packed with a pound of fresh hops and attached to a draft beer line between the keg and the tap.

When the bartender pulls the tap, beer is forced through the hops, dissolving some of the aromatic resins from the flowers before the beer enters the glass. The result is a beer with a refreshingly herbaceous flavor, with notes of oregano and pine, as well as a slightly funky, swampy nose (the hop vine is in the Cannabaceae family, which includes hemp and marijuana).

A picture of the official National Park Service 150-feet-from-the-high-tide-line measurement.

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The people who invented the circle hook, 3000 years ago.

The special appeal of beer.

Mothers will generally not wish to discuss the merits of beer. Fathers on the other hand, prone to consuming some pretty foul adjunct-laced suds, are all too happy to discuss the value of a 30 pack.

You should have been here last week.

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard that–most recently at Hatteras.

High tech

He follows a path to a mid-lake brush pile with the help of a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit that pinpoints bearings from satellite signals.

And other probes and gauges indicate everything from water temperature to barometric pressure.

Low tech

When he goes fishing, he putts to his favorite spots in a 16-foot aluminum boat equipped with a 15-horsepower motor instead of the shiny fiberglass bass boat with a 200-horse motor that many use today.

About the only modern convenience he uses is a trolling motor – and he half apologizes for that.

The fish don’t seem to care.

In order to play biodefense, we’re going to have to know how to play biooffense, and at the very least we shouldn’t surrender the field to the other team in the hope it will placate them.

A short list of the recreational gamefish available around Long Island’s North Fork.

Basic rod and reel maintenance in preparation for the coming season.

Saltwater reels need a little more tender loving care, said Ken Chaumont of Stanley Jigs. Chaumont, who is also a consultant for Rat-L-Trap, is a diehard saltwater angler and advises anglers to clean their reels after each trip.

Instead, Chaumont uses a mixture of Dawn dish soap and water and puts it into a common garden sprayer. He then applies the mixture to the outside of the reel, which, he says, rids it of saltwater residue. “Once you apply the soap, just give it a very light rinse with fresh water,” he said.

Ain’t no fences on the water–something it seems Texas fishing guides have to re-learn every few years.