Survey results are in and AnglerSurvey.com has announced the top fishing equipment for 2013.

The overall top rod is Shakespeare (the company also got honors for top ice rod – Orvis and Redington tied for best fly rod).

The Shakespeare Ugly Stik was named the 2013 best rod brand by AnglerSurvey.com. The ladies edition is shown (of course).

What’s your favorite fishing gear? Leave us a comment to tell us!

See the full list of winners below:

• Top rod brand: Shakespeare (Ugly Stik, Sturdy Stik, etc.)
• Top reel brand: Shimano
• Top combo brand: Shakespeare
• Top fishing line brand:  PowerPro
• Top hard bait brand: Rapala
• Top soft bait brand: Berkley Gulp
• Top spinner bait brand: Strike King
• Top jig brand: Strike King
• Top sinker brand:  Eagle Claw
• Top swivel brand:  Eagle Claw
• Top rigs brand: Eagle Claw

The Tale of “the Sisters McGregor”

Merrill and Christie McGregor on Phantom Canyon

We’ve often been referred to as “the Sisters McGregor”. We work in the same professional field, share the same friends and are both avid outdoorswomen. Although we’re 10 years apart, we both have distinct memories of fishing off our grandparents dock in Charleston, camping with our parents and siblings in KY and WI, or hiking with friends across the southeast. 

We’re also pretty inseparable – living together off and on for over 10 years –or at least we were until Christie, the older/wiser one, decided to up and move from South Carolina to Washington DC for a new job (note: the younger sister, Merrill,  is NOT bitter and is DEFINITELY not harboring any resentment against her older sister who left ...

Whitney on the Chesapeake Bay with a Rockfish

We are excited to announce Whitney will be participating in Backcountry Hunters and Anglers 2014 North American Rendezvous on the “Women and Hunting Panel” in Denver, Colorado, on March 22.  For more information about the weekend, check out the schedule here. Hope to see you there!

Reuters reported that a three-year-old child can unlock unsafe gun safes and security experts warn that children can access vulnerable safes using paper clips, straws, etc. It’s important for every gun owner to ensure the safes they use for gun storage can restrict children from breaking in. It’s the gun owner’s responsibility to prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands.

Unprotected guns in the home pose numerous risks, including:

• Suicide cases are more possible as a result of the lack of safety measures.
• Crimes are more likely to occur.

It’s in children’s nature to be curious. They often like to do the things their parents or other adults ask them not to. In other words, they  are simply talented in finding things which their elders think are hidden...

Sally

As an only child of two very active and outdoorsy parents, I was probably a disappointment. Rather than kayaking the Finger Lakes with my mom, I wanted to go to the mall.  Instead of training for a bike race with my dad, I went to dance lessons.  Fishing, now that was the biggest long shot, except for the yearly family vacations on Lake Champlain.

Every year we got the same house; a family reunion outdoor utopia, between the Green and Adirondack Mountains on the island of North Hero, Vermont.  With limited cell service and no cable, the dock and rickety paddle-boat served as our family’s personal waterpark, and fishing poles and some bait were the ultimate ride...