Breaking News

Sports Columns

Second chances in fishing and in life

Recently I wrote that I often felt I’d left unfinished business after a long fishing day, regardless of the success of the outing. Indeed, Friday I launched my laptop computer for the first time in two weeks. I wanted to return to writing this column, but along the way I discovered a bunch of other unfinished business in my busy and productive life. The lawn needed to be cut, my two email account inboxes bulged with more than 600 unopened messages and I had no fishing experiences from the past 14 days to share with readers. The reason for my hiatus from writing, fishing, ...

Local angler has unfinished business on area waters

Every time I put the boat on the trailer after a day on the lake, I have a sense that I left a little bit undone out there. Call it unfinished business. You know, like when you leave the job knowing you could have done a thing or two more. Or when you put the mower in the garage but saved the edging for tomorrow. Or when you’ve painted the walls of the spare room but left the molding for another day. Unfinished business is the byproduct of my days on the rivers and lakes here in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Regardless of the level of success at Mosquito or the ...

Year 1 in the books, big things await in year 2

Almost a year ago, I was packing up my life in Pittsburgh, putting it into the back of a U-Haul and moving about an hour and a half to the northwest here in Youngstown. I was going from being a sports reporter at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review to heading my own sports department here at the Tribune Chronicle and Vindicator. Talk about a big change, but it was one I was ready for and one I always envisioned for myself. Growing up, I wanted to be the next Chris Berman or Stuart Scott in front of the camera on ESPN, but as I got older, I realized how important local journalism was for ...

Time to put fishing back on the radar

“One of these days …” It’s a threat, a promise or a dream. It all depends on the circumstances. Anglers often aspire to fulfill an ambition “one of these days.” Perhaps it’s to visit a faraway lake or to catch a bucket-list species. For many, however, the “one of these days” aspiration is to take up fishing or perhaps to return to the sport they loved as a kid. Ohioans who are contemplating fishing as a new hobby or to dust off their long-idle fishing tackle have their once-a-year opportunity to cast their lines without having to invest in a fishing license. ...

A strong 1st impression

Mahoning Valley athletes, you’ve got our attention. Another year has come and gone for our area’s athletes, but for nearly all of the writers in this outlet’s sports department, it was Year 1 in the Youngstown area. Talk about a strong first impression. In the fall, we were fortunate enough to see the Ursuline football make it all the way to the state championship game. Though the Irish came up just shy of the ultimate achievement to their stellar season, it was a pleasure to see the excitement that drew. As it turns out, my very first Ohio high school football game was ...

Recalling a home run fishing trip of sorts

Sometimes a fishing trip can be a home run even when the fish fail to show up. For retired Mathews High School teacher Mike Miller, a long weekend of frustration on Pymatuning Lake with his father and brother turned out to be one of the best days of his life. Mike’s dad, Gerry Miller, was a hard-working man who toiled at two jobs to support his family in Vienna. When Gerry did finally make time to go fishing, the trips often turned into three-day expeditions that were — in Mike’s words — “fish, fish, fish.” Summer was waning in 1968 when Gerry announced to Mike and ...