I figure it’s no coincidence that summer fishing season happens at the same time as the height of grillin’ season. After all, some of my best food memories as a kid involve Dad’s old charcoal grill and pink, juicy salmon grilled over mesquite chips.

Hopefully you’ve got both a freezer full of summer’s catch and a bunch of friends to invite over for a grill-out. If so, here are a few tips that may come in handy for cooking the kinds of fish you may catch around here.

- Don’t over-flip it: Your catch did enough flipping at the end of the line. Now that it’s a filet or steak, aim to flip the thing once. Doing more than that will likely break it apart as it cooks.

- For lighter fish like panfish, get a grill basket. It’ll make life much easier-trust me on that one.

- Marinades are excellent, and can make good sauce if you handle them right. I like to cut the used marinade with a little wine (white for the lighter fish, red for the heavy saltwater critters), then boil it about five minutes to cook down and kill any bacteria. Pour on the meat and go at it.

- If you’ve got the taste for them, crayfish/mudbugs/crawdads are made for the grill. Finish them off with a sharp knife through the head, then skewer them like you would shrimp.

Good luck on the water, and good eatin’ on the grill – sounds like a recipe for a great summer.

And I suspect I don’t have to explain which spill I’m referring to.

I suppose I’m not the only one out here who breathed a big – but tentative -  sigh of relief when BP announced last week it appears to have stemmed the flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. No more images of brown crud pumping into what used to be blue, game-rich waters.

Man, what a mess.

There are so many places I could go on this one: the collective addiction to cheap oil that has us going for the stuff in too-sensitive places, the bureaucratic mess that will likely let this company get off the hook with a lot less penalty than it deserves, the livelihoods – and lives – changed forever by something totally out of their control.

Big enough subjects for adults, but what if you’re explaining them to a kid? That can get tricky.

The ODNR recently linked to a helpful site on this very subject. It’s located here, and I suggest you take a look if you’ve got a young one in your life who wants to understand what happened. Handle this situation right, because the stakes are high: the kids watching this unfold today will be the ones who chart our future course: toward or away from another such disaster, the path they take could well hinge on how we present the facts of this case.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one.

Frabill VP of marketing Jeff “Kolo” Kolodzinski will attempt July 30 to beat his own Guinness World Record for the most fish caught in a 24-hour period. According to a press release on the event, that means he’ll have to hook and release more than 1,680 fish.

The attempt is being held in conjunction with a fun-raising event for Fishing for Life, an organization focused on promoting outdoor activities – especially fishing – as lifelong passions among kids.

It’s a good group to back, but part of me cringes at the idea of the massive hooking-fest that I suspect the record attempt will be.

I don’t want to dismiss Kolodzinski’s ability as an angler; that’s a lot of consistency to keep the fish biting for that long. But as someone who approaches hunting and fishing with an eye to their roots – methods for clawless, toothless humans to prey on food species – I don’t feel good about hooking, fighting and landing that many fish. Odds are a few will swim away injured, possibly seriously.

Catch-and-release fishing has its role in the sport, I firmly believe. It would horribly wasteful to kill every too-small or wrong-species catch, and when done right, the practice can produce bigger lunkers in a given body of water.

But where’s the sport in hooking that many fish at once? Where’s the connection to the core – the soul if you will – of what fishing is supposed to be about? 

Catch a big fish. Go to some out-of-the-way place and hook a species you’ve never seen, caught or tasted before. Prepare the catch with respect, and dine with joy. But don’t turn this food-harvesting activity into a numbers game, or a publicity stunt.

That’s a little soulless, it seems to me.

I recently received a news flash about the USDA’s decision to release $50 million to help launch “Open Fields” land access programs in the 50 states.

Here’s a FAQ provided by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. Yes, they’re an advocacy group. But they provide some good basic info here.

This is exciting news.

I’m sure many of you have run into the same frustration that I have at various times: you move to a new area, or you’re just getting into hunting, and you suddenly realized how hard it’s going to be to get access to that field just down the road that’s always full of turkeys, or that plot of woods near home that you’re certain contains a bruiser of a buck. Between finding/identifying all the landowners, contacting them and then convincing them that you’re a respectful citizen who will tread lightly on their property, you’ve got a load of work ahead of you.

Open Fields is meant to make that process a little easier. Landowners, many of whom are dealing with over-populations of deer and other game animals, receive incentives for practicing game management best practices and opening their land for hunting, fishing and other wildlife-oriented recreation.

Landowners get compensation for preserving natural areas.

Outdoors enthusiasts gain access to new land.

Another avenue opens to protect this country’s open spaces.

Sounds like a win-win-win to me.

I’m guessing a lot of you have run into the same conundrum I have in the past month: you want – need – to get outside, but not only is it hot, but there’s a good chance it’s raining cats and dogs.

Heat’s one thing to content with. Rain is one thing to contend with. And when you get the two together, it’s a real pain to stay comfortable outside for any length of time.

If you’re running into this situation, you really have two choices: let yourself get soaked, or bring the right lightweight rain gear.

The first is easy, especially when it’s nearing triple-digits outside. A good wicking t-shirt and breathable wicking shorts are key – think about how fast swim trunks dry when you get out of the pool. Plenty of clothing manufacturers make clothes that work in this manner, and often as not, it’s just as easy to wear swim trunks and sandals around.

The second option takes a little more work. You want a rain jacket and pants set that breathes (look for lots of vents in the back and underarm areas), keeps the rain off reasonably well (as with any waterproof fabric, you’re going to pay more for more protection – don’t expect a Gore-Tex jacket to cost the same as a nylon model), and packs to a small size. You want to be able to stash the gear when the sun comes back out.

Once you find the right rain gear, treat it well. Avoid briars and the various outdoor things that can puncture the fabric. If you stash it wet, air it out as soon as possible to avoid mildew. And follow the manufacturer’s instructions for how to clean and re-waterproof it; one trip through the wrong laundry cycle can be enough to wreck some lighter rain gear.

So have fun in the rain; if you prep right, summer rain showers are no worse than the drizzle you hunt in half the fall. And like that drizzle that often sparks game movement, summer thundershowers can trigger memorable bites on even mediocre fishing days.

If the user stats I’ve glanced through are correct, you probably have a dog. A four-legged friend in tow is almost as much a part of the great outdoors as the implements we carry for hunting and fishing.

With the weather thoroughly in “summertime” mode (read: hotter’n blazes for half the week, pretty darn nice the rest of the time), I thought it would be good to remind you of something very important:

When you hit the woods or lake with Fido, bring along plenty of water, and know where the shade is.

A 25-pound dog can suck down 1.25 liters of water on an average day. a 50-pounder can knock back a two-liter’s worth of water. Add hot temps tot he mix, and you can see that the owner of a full-size canine has to think about where his dog can get clean water on a regular basis throughout the day.

Add to that the fact that dogs don’t sweat through their skin, and you need to really pay attention on hot summer days. A dip in the lake certainly can help keep your dog cool, but without decent shade, that may not be enough to help your beloved mutt regulate his or her temperature. If you’re going to be out for an extended period of time, plan when and where you can stop to let the dog cool off in a shady spot.

Keeping those items in mind can make the difference between a fun day with your furry friend and potentially dangerous heat illness. It’s cooled off this week, but the summer’s fury is on its way, so do some pre-planning this week to keep Rover as happy as you are.