Happy Holidays! Selecting gifts for the angler in your home can be quite challenging.  Surely with that pile of equipment in the garage, he or she needs no more.  As an avid angler, let me assure you that none of us ever has everything they need. Unless you know precisely what your angler wants, I would advise against buying rods, reels or terminal tackle.  You can ask directly what they might need, but wouldn’t that spoil the surprise on Christmas morning? Hopefully the following suggestions might assist in your purchases this year.

We have a number of retailers in our area that feature an array of fishing and outdoor equipment or clothing. Bayside Marine, West Marine, Coyote Bait and Tackle and the Kayak Connection are all good choices for an afternoon of shopping. All of the charter fishing boat outfits as well as most fishing guides in the area also offer gift certificates that can be redeemed for future fishing. 

Thermal underwear is always appreciated and is useful year-round.  This is Santa Cruz, after all, where summertime often feels like winter. For a wintertime fishing fanatic, nothing could be better than a new set of Patagonia Capilene tops, bottoms and socks. The surfcaster in your household will sing your praises as they walk the cold winter beaches wearing fingerless wool gloves you slipped under the tree on Christmas Eve.  Add wool or poly beanies to the “keep warm” list, and throw in a couple packs of hand warmers just to be sure.

The most often lost or misplaced tools are fishing pliers.  Consequently, you don’t want to spend too much money on them just to have them go into the drink (again).  A few very reasonable selections might be the Gerber Flik Fish, Leadmaster pliers for steelheading, the compact and useful Leatherman combination tool or the good old Calcutta pliers and dikes with holster. Tackle boxes are always a good bet.  A few new boxes might even have an impact on that pile in the garage we mentioned earlier.  Many anglers have shifted from the “old school” plastic tackle box with handles, to soft-sided carriers.  Plano makes a wide variety of clear tackle containers that slip inside the carrier, enabling anglers to quickly switch out their gear to pursue various game.

Of course, the Internet offers a world of choices for fishing gear.  Cabelas.com and Tackledirect.com are probably the biggest and most trustworthy on the web, and they deliver quickly too.   For gag gifts of the “Singing Bass” variety, a quick internet search will bring up dozens of ideas, some of which you might wish you could unsee.  My personal favorite fish shopping website these days is a bit more local. Check out abachar.com.  Amadeo Bachar, a Santa Cruz surfer, diver, fisherman and very talented artist specializes in marine watercolors, acrylics and prints. Formally trained in the Science Illustration Graduate Program at UCSC, Bachar creates stunning representations of local and more exotic gamefish. 

Finally, I would suggest that you, the angler, highlight or underline items from this column you’d like to unwrap at Christmas.  Or make a list of makes and models if you want to go for that specific and special piece of gear. Leave the paper open to this page where your significant other will see it, and thank me later.