When the bite turns tough, turn to your tried-and-true baits
When daylight’s fading, or tournament time’s expiring, fishermen desperate for a bite often fall back to a handful of tried-and-true baits in which their confidence rests. It may be some old-time favorites or a lake-specific selection. In any case, the proverbial “panic box” can be the make-it-or-break-it element when anglers struggle.

Tips and tactics to improve efficiency and effectiveness of underwater rigging
When bass play hard to get – either with deep inhabitance or bad attitudes – the drop-shot proves its merit as a bona fide tough-bite negotiator. This effective finesse tactic consistently appeals to green and brown fish coast-to-coast, but a handful of tips for tweaking your rig and perfecting your presentation will make a significant difference in your productivity.

Making the most of those blustery days of fishing
We’ve all heard that angling axiom: “Wind is your friend.” A truth, no doubt; but just like human interaction, this relationship depends on understanding habits, playing up the positives and navigating – sometimes creatively – the negatives.

Gear up for second half heroics
If we compared the southern spawning season to a football game, mid-March finds two quarters of play completed. But while the first part of the season has been stellar by most accounts, the second half of the spawn promises some highlight reel moments as well.

Jerkbaits ideal tools for catching bass in late winter, early spring
Borrowing a familiar theme of stage and screen, this is art – make that “artificials” – imitating life. Sounds obvious, right? That’s what lures are supposed to do. But as we move toward the time when winter begrudgingly yields its icy grip to spring’s still-distant arrival, jerkbaits can be one of the most effective offerings for bass in cold water.

2009 Forrest Wood Cup runner-up Mike Iaconelli articulates why rocks are key to locating bass in all seasons
“Rocks are essential” said FLW pro Michael Iaconelli. “The two key elements of bass fishing are structure and cover. Structure is the actual contour break of the bottom composition and the cover is some kind of physical object. Rock is one of the most common things we see everywhere we go – east coast, west coast, Midwest, clear mountain lakes, lowland reservoirs.”

Drop-shot tactics offer diverse strategies for bass anglers
Not so long ago, the fishing world thought that weights always belonged above baits. Over the past decade or so, the drop-shot tactics introduced by Japanese anglers have turned that thinking upside down (no pun intended). Today, this finesse rig’s progressive design has been adapted, modified and employed in a variety of scenarios with widespread success.

Driving baits through heavy vegetation often yields big-time bites
The notion of “What lies beneath,” can captivate even the most seasoned bass angler when staring at a stretch of matted, clumpy or otherwise largemouth-shielding vegetation. However, while the prospects of catching a behemoth bass hiding under grass mats is enticing to say the least, most savvy anglers know that the real challenge is a technical one.

The art of locating bass with Carolina and Texas rigs
It was a big bass bonanza and the only thing that could have made the trip better would have been electronics. During a three-day visit to El Salto Lodge on Mexico’s Lake El Salto, I and a dozen others found piles of hefty fish over deep rocky structure and many more along rocky shorelines with flooded timber and well-defined points. The only problem was that the guide boats lacked sonar units.

Shore-casting for bank-prowling walleyes of the dark
I used to kid one of my friends, a night-fishing devotee, that fishing at night was only for people who couldn’t catch walleyes during the day. He’d say, “Just try it. The biggest walleyes in the lake go on the prowl after dark. Don’t you want to be out there when they’re biting?”

Fall smallmouth movements in rivers and small reservoirs
We used to say “stacked like cordwood” when walleyes were tightly grouped. But now that we know how smallmouths behave in late fall, “stacked like smallmouths” is an even better analogy. Bronzebacks pile into dense schools come autumn.

How do you catch bass in crowded conditions?
Let’s have some fun. Let’s say you’re in a 200-boat bass tournament. The body of water is totally new to you, but it isn’t that big – a 16,000-acre chain of natural lakes located somewhere north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Some of the lakes in the chain are clear; others are quite murky.

Nautical misfortunes yield fishing gold mines
From 20-foot depths within eyesight of the beach on out to 200-plus feet, wreck action can be fast and furious during summer’s often flat-calm conditions. Geography and depth governs specific selections, but a handful of predators comprise a fairly predictable cast of wreck denizens.

Don’t be intimidated by vast expanses of water
Big-water smallmouth fishing intimidates on two levels: the size of the water and the size of the waves.

Marble ’eyes will be coming up shallow when the sun goes down
Is there a better place to grow up than Waterloo, Iowa? For pro Tommy Skarlis there sure wasn’t – Waterloo was the perfect setting. As a kid, he could fish walleye lakes and rivers in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota or Illinois. Even better, during the sticky dog days of July, when fish sulked deep and clear summer water meant no one could dupe them, he learned to walleye fish at night.

Reef chumming is an efficient and effective way to generate action and keep the gamefish hunt going
Anthony Cellemare liked what he saw behind the transom, but he figured it couldn’t hurt to lay the sauce on the dark figures ascending through the water column. A couple shakes of a ventilated sack sent a cloud of ground fish particles and oil wafting downcurrent and the mangrove snapper responded by stepping on the gas.

New techniques produce impressive results
Biologists say form follows function, and with smallmouth bass, it’s certainly true. Its general shape – extremely muscular make-up, wide, powerful tail, blunt nose and vice-grip jaws – allows the smallmouth to forage in shallow water on the bottom, rooting crayfish from rocks. Yet, at the same time and just as effectively, it can swim off structure to attack and hold on to large, suspended baitfish.

Patterning smallies may not be as hard as once thought
Each year, as major bass-tournament circuits continue to expand their geographic coverage, the smallmouth bass as a target fish is coming more and more into prominence. On waters like Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake St. Clair, Green Bay, Lake Champlain and the like, 19-pound-plus five-fish limits of brownies are common fare.

The timing of bass moving to main-lake drops may surprise you
No matter where you live, largemouth bass follow a consistent pattern every spring. They move up from deep water into shallow water to spawn. After spawning, they leave their shallow nesting areas and move back to deep water, where they orient to topographic structure such as ledges, points and channels.

In spring, on freewheeling rivers with heavy current, vertical jigging for walleyes is a delicate dance. Its most ballet-like maneuver: a heel-and-toe tango on the foot pedal of a bowmount electric trolling motor.

Seeking largemouths during the spawn
Another spring is upon us. Tournaments are raging full-swing, the shallows are warming up, and the trees are budding. To avid largemouth fishermen, particularly in temperate Southern climes, this time of year means one thing – sight-fishing.

FLW Tour pros offer up tips and techniques for capitalizing on the spawn as it migrates north during changing seasons
Round up a half-dozen bass pros anywhere in the nation, ask them to name their favorite season, and odds are good they’ll say, “the spawn,” the time of year when bass are most aggressive.

Active, passive fishing techniques for tracking down, landing speckled perch
Soaking minnows under corks and waiting for a freckled friend to find your bait may be the most common approach to crappie fishing, but anglers in the know realize that sometimes you have to take the game to the fish.

When traditional fishing tactics aren’t working on winter crappies, it’s time to “think outside the box”
Winter fishing can unnerve the most determined crappie angler. Our favorite panfish are often tight-lipped this time of year, and standard fishing tactics sometimes won’t catch them. You can hook cold-water slabs, however, if you’re willing to think “outside of the box” and try advanced crappie-fishing strategies.

Understanding how the tide’s coastal time clock controls bass activity is key to angling success
For inshore saltwater fishermen, adjusting to daily tidal flow is second nature. For many bass anglers, though, tides present an often daunting and commonly confusing set of variables that compound the pursuit of an already cantankerous opponent.