Every April since 1997, Bonnier Corp.'s Sport Fishing has been doing its best to fool readers and give them something not often found in fishing magazines — some serious belly laughs. Past April Fools' issues have contained news, destinations, rigging tips, fishing facts, new boats and tournaments all designed with one thing in mind — fooling the readers.

"It gets harder and harder each year to fool readers," says Sport Fishing's editor-in-chief, Doug Olander. "It has become quite a tradition as more and more readers look for this specifically as soon as they get the April issue."

This year's hoax, more than most, grew "legs" in a hurry, turning up on forums all over the Internet as people expressed outrage or disbelief. And for good reason.

This year, Olander turned the annual spoof into a two-page advertisement for Lone Star Bluewater Fishing Ranch — the world's first big-game fishing ranch, supposedly off the Texas coast. With the motto "Give Us a Day and We'll Give You the Catch of a Lifetime!" the ad shows an aerial view of large net pens on a blue ocean with offshore fishing yachts inside them, images of men fighting fish and more. According to the ad, the pens are filled with various big-game species, hungry and waiting to take a baited hook — hence its boast that, for rates starting as low as $3,800, you'll get "the best day of action for trophy big-game fish you'll ever have. We guarantee it!"

Olander always gives readers the truth about the April Fools' gag but has always tried to disassociate it from the gag itself — usually forcing readers via a "continued on page XX" notice to go to the back of the magazine for the disclaimer. This year, Olander sent readers to the Internet, where a website told them the truth.

He thinks the 2008 hoax may rival the April 2000 "news report" of college kids getting high by licking catfish slime. "That became a genuine urban legend," says Olander. "Years later, I found that a surprising number of people out there had the notion — with no idea where it might have come from — that marine-catfish slime is a hallucinogen!"