Magnify

If there's anyone who will be under a magnifying glass this NFL season, it's Michael Vick. This illo is for Associated Press's annual NFL Preview page. Our original concept was to have the eagles tearing Vick apart (saying basically nature hates him) but we changed it up a bit to give the guy a chance.

Another fun little note is this illo was completed in just one afternoon (about five hours). Its far from perfect in my eyes, but anyone who's in the business knows sometimes you need to make things work in the time your given. Ironically these type of gigs are usually the most fun and I wouldn't want it any other way.

More moleskin sketches

Lately I've been pushing myself to do 20-30 minute drawing exercises in my pocket moleskin sketchbook just for kicks. The sketches aren't planned, I just put the pen to paper and see what happens. No erasing either... if I make a mistake part of the challenge is to work right through it. Of course what usually results is series of comical what-have-yous from within the surf fishing culture. Here are a few creations below:
(ARTIST NOTE: Disappearing Rod was linked to illustrationfriday blog for the subject "Caution". Enjoy fellow artists)

Glow Sticks
If you fish Montauk Lighthouse at night, you'll know immediately what this is all about. If you don't, listen carefully: Bass DO NOT need glowsticks on your line to see you your lures at night. They hunt by movement and silhouettes. Any given night you'll see dozens of these glowsticks casting through the air. I imagine when a school of bass swim around the point, they take stories of UFO's and strange happenings with them all the way down to their southern relatives at the spawning grounds.


Snags
We've all been there before... late at night, your buddy says he gets a monster hit, lifts his rod and he's snagged on a rock. Usually the joking begins and he'll hear about the said experience the rest of the night, or recieve a comic illustrating his experience the next week just to keep him honest. The victim will ALWAYS stick to his story though, swearing it was a trophy bass. Maybe he is right... and just maybe, it was the fish's plan all along.


The "disappearing" rod trick
This is a common thing in New Jersey during the warm summer nights. A fisherman drags his gear out deep into the twilight, baits his rod with a nice chunk of fresh bunker, casts his rig out, and rests his rod in a sand spike near the waters edge. He turns away and continues the same ritual with his second rod a bit further down the beach. Suddenly his other setup unknowlingly rockets out of the sandspike and disappears into the rolling surf. The next morning you may find this fisherman at your local tackle store telling stories of world record stripers ripping surf rods out of the ground like godzilla but truth behold, there's a 99 percent chance a brown shark caught him sleeping. They take the rods to their winter grounds where they show off and laugh hysterically. Seriously.

Spring is finally here (even though it is snowing while I type this) and the striper run is just around the corner.

I recently spent a week in Sarasota Florida to break up my winter doldrums. Fishing was excellent to say the least. I hit all of my old spots from the beaches to the mangrove-lined intercoastal and Sarasota Bay Flats. I caught a healthy mix of bluefish, jack, and spotted sea trout, and battled a few nice snook and redfish.

Heres a nice little trout with a big heart ... and a giant zara spook breakfast.



After spending countless hours on the water in the 5-odd years I lived there, I still feel like there's a big part of me that I left behind stalking the flats and bays (I sometimes wonder if we can switch places and that "other" part can shovel some snow and take out the garbage).

My trip wasn't all fishing though, as I also stopped by to see some old coworkers at the St. Petersburg Times, and visited a few illustration classes at Ringling College of Art and Design. (thats a whole other post entirely)

In other fishing related news, check out this month's issue of Field & Stream. I did a few pieces for the cover story "Fishings Cutting Edge" with the talented FS staff. This is a great issue overall as always.


Good luck to everyone this season, and hopefully I'll see you on the water soon.

Fishing Cheat Sheet

Check out Feburary's issue of Boating Life for a 4 page fishing cheat sheet feature. I worked with a talented Rob Stave on the package, which was a lot of fun. Enjoy.

Auto Bailout CEOs' wild ride

Here's a illo for the recent U.S. auto's bailout crisis. I had a few different ideas for the vehicle, but chose the hummer since it can be considered the symbol of sales fall. Enjoy.

Season to remember

2008 was an interesting fishing season for me, not in the quality or quantity of my fish catching powers (or lack there of this season), but for learning an entirely new area, and meeting some good people along the way. I tried to get out as much as possible between work deadlines and gigs, which resulted in some weekends spent working from my laptop in a hotel room. I always promise myself when I get out I will take pictures, but since I do 90 percent of my surf fishing at night and alone, sometimes these are hard to come by. Out of an entire season I only have a handful of pics this year. Here are a few from an afternoon of fishing in Montauk. Enjoy:

Fisherman lounge around the light waiting for the fish to come in. I usually don't post pictures of an exact spot, but Montauk lighthouse is no secret (this picture is from a Monday afternoon).

Bass and blues soon push the beach and "combat" fishing takes over. Its quite a site to experience.

After a few minutes of watching I took a 15-20 minute walk to beat the crowds. Here a handful of us have the fish to ourselves before the night tides roll in. I landed around 30-40 fish in 90 minutes before the sun went down on pencil poppers and bucktails. Largest bass was around 15-17 lbs, and the blues averaged 7-10 lbs. After a short break and bite to eat at the car, we slammed fish the rest of the night alone.

Fish all night, sleep all day-or at least when you can. Here's to taking a nap on the beach after fishing the night tide:

Dan perched on a rock around 3:00 a.m like a champ... A few day's later he moved into a new home and job in Montana. Lucky guy:

Company Holiday parties?

Here's a little spot illustration for a business economy story on companies pinching holiday parties this year.