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If you get a lot of slack on the line, then they can just bolt in the other direction and snap the line.

So you have to keep the line top, which is very hard to do when they're swimming towards you.

If you're just desperately trying to reel it in.

Author Mark Kirlanski has been fishing for more than half a century.

And yet, he says he still gets outsmarted by fish all the time.

It's Friday, May 8th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR.

I'm Chris Bentley.

Spring is in full swing, and it got me thinking about some lovely conversations we've had on the show lately about the outdoors and animals.

So today on the show, we're going to hear about bringing birds back from the brink of extinction.

Might it be impossible to really bring back birds? Maybe, but the only way we know it's impossible is if we don't try.

Also, a conversation with wildlife scientist Iorotanshi, one of the winners of this year's Goldman Prize, sometimes called the Green Nobel, about scouring the caves of West Africa

to protect rare species of bats. It's a cute fluff ball that just becomes this beautiful hand-wing animal that flies around.

But first, do you fish?

I'm not much of a fisherman myself anymore, but I did grow up fishing mostly in upstate

New York using night crawlers to bait bluegills, perch, bass, and the occasional

northern pike in lakes around the Adirondacks. This is around the time of year when lakes

in the northern U.S. are getting warm enough and fishing season start up officially. It's a really

thrilling moment when after minutes, maybe even hours if you're unlucky, you feel that

uncanny tug of a surprisingly strong little animal challenging you on the other end of the

fishing line. That thrill is one reason that people fish, but it does not fully explain the

hold that fishing has on people who do it. So what does? Mark Kirlanski has been

...