Blogs

The year is 1968. Dick Sternberg is pulling his 14-foot foot aluminum boat out into Lake Michigan for the first salmon run the lake has ever known. Water extends to the blue horizon. Even the giant lakes of his Minnesota home don't begin to compare.

In those days, at least where Dick and his fishing buddies were launching, there was no ramp, so he and the boys had to carry the boat.

Today's high-tech salmon gear didn't exist yet. Armed with just their walleye rods that these Minnesota kids spooled with heavier line, they shoved off into the Great Lake.

Today, king salmon swim in those waters, but in 1968, it was just cohos – silver salmon.

"I remember firing up the motor and flipping out a Tad-Polly from Heddon," says Sternberg. "Couldn't have gone 100 feet...

DATELINE: Lake Waukewan, New Hampshire. Springtime. Sunrise.

Standing on a boat ramp is 83-years-young Jim Hughes.

He's impressed by the precision – the organization – demonstrated by the anglers as they jockey boats and launch them for the day's bass tournament.

But Jim's not there as a spectator. A longtime Selectman for the Town of Meredith, he's got a new mission, defend the lake. Jim's one of New Hampshire's "lake hosts" – a band of volunteers and paid staff who stand on boat ramps across the state to make sure "obnoxious weeds" never make their way into the lakes.

And it's working. In the past 10 years, they've pulled invasive weeds – mostly milfoil – off more than 1,000 boats that could have infested the lakes.

They see a lot more than weeds...

A very handsome barstool chatters on the floor as it's pulled up by its sitter at Alewife, Baltimore's best modern American beer hall. Forty beers on tap makes for some tough decisions, and the menu doesn't make it easy, either. Lots of good options, including some food that makes a difference.

This fish story starts and ends in these walls, because Chef Chad Wells, who runs the place, has fished since he was a kid. The thing is, the fish that live in his waters? They've changed – and he's got a plan to save them.

"A lot of areas near Baltimore – especially south – where you could have gone 5 years ago and might have seen a Northern Snakehead, if you caught one, you'd be considered lucky, because anglers like to catch them," says...

Towering overhead are steep bluffs, decorated in the explosive colors of fall.

The river's clear enough to see the bronze flash 50 feet away, as the smallmouth peels line off the reel.

On the oars of his historic longboat, Kyle Kosovich coaches his young client, whose rod is bucking against the infuriated smallmouth as Kosovich holds the craft in the current.

"I didn't realize until I built an historic boat what I'd brought back to the area," says Kosovich. "I put something together that was different, and it's caught on."

Kosovich runs Longboat Outfitters, where guests take historic-style trips with modern amenities down Ozark rivers that have seen a lot of change.

Massive dam builds...