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Valentine’s, Daytona mean fishing is right around the corner

With Valentine’s Day in the rearview mirror and the Daytona 500 taking the green flag tomorrow, Northeast Ohio anglers are setting their sights on melting ice and springtime fishing. Our annual transition from the dead of winter to the promise of spring brings hope and optimism to anglers suffering from cabin fever. Dreams of big crappies, spunky walleyes and hungry largemouth bass fuel our final sprint to the day the thaw opens the boat ramps at Mosquito, Pymatuning, Berlin, Milton, West Branch and Shenango. With the thaw, however, also comes worries that winter has ravaged our ...

HINER: To the NFL, just buy a massage table

If Roger Goodell had a nickel for everytime a Pro Bowler faced sexual harassment allegations from masseuses, he’d have two nickels. It’s not much, but it’s odd that it’s happened twice. On Thursday, Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker was the center of another massage-related scandal for the NFL. This time, several alleged victims accused Tucker of inappropriate behavior during sessions over the last few years. This isn’t the place to get into the details. The Associated Press put something together on Thursday after The Baltimore Banner broke the story that ...

WOLLITZ: Fishing can be a lot like surfing the internet

People often tell me that fishing is a mystery to them because they have no clue where to start or what to look for. Fishing, I explain, is just another slice of life, plucked from the loaf of activities that define the human experience. That it happens on the water is part of what distinguishes fishing from, say, going to an amusement park, a ballgame or a book club meeting, but the reality is that fishing is more like the other slices in the loaf of life than most people realize. Consider our current relationship with the place we call the internet (not sure whether the ‘net ...

Braided lines are an adjustment, but worth it

When it comes to choosing fishing lines and rigging, freshwater anglers have had it pretty easy for generations. We spooled up with whatever strength and diameter nylon monofilament we preferred, threaded the line through our rods’ guides, and tied on our lures and hooks. It was pretty simple stuff. The line deep in our spools was the same stuff as the line at the business end. But new techniques, line formulations and angler sophistication today serve up a wide array of options for those who want to tweak their presentations and up the odds in their favor. While fly-fishers ...

Safe for another Day

Back in November, I put out there that Ohio State football coach Ryan Day needed to beat Michigan to avoid the John Cooper comparisons. Well, that win over the Wolverines didn’t happen, and it set off alarms throughout the Buckeye state. Toward the end, I said there was only one way for Day to fall to Michigan and keep his job: winning the national championship. And by George, he did it. Day got the Buckeyes to regroup in the time between the Michigan loss and the first round of the College Football Playoff. And the newly focused Buckeyes took the belt to their opponents in ...

WOLLITZ: Biding time in winter till spring fishing returns

Let’s face it. Not everybody is cut from the same cloth. Just as some people like fishing and others do not, some people will walk out on a frozen lake, drill holes and sit for hours in sub-freezing weather jigging for whatever might happen to swim within range, while others question whether ice fishing really ought to be a thing. I have several friends who love ice fishing so much that they grow overly anxious that a January thaw will ruin their winter. Fishing buddy Tyler Woak of Niles is rigged and ready weeks before the freeze and claims to love the white-out experience ...