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2005 Lurenet Fishing Articles
December
Sold on YUM Zellamanders
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SOLD ON YUM ZELLAMANDERS Drew Arvary doesn’t need any added convincing. Thirteen pounds of largemouth bass in two casts sold this Florida fisherman on what his father had been telling him for months: Bass cannot resist YUM Zellamanders. Arvary, who lives in Port St. Lucie, Fla., had just returned from a three-day business trip in icy New Jersey. His wife, sensing travel-wrought frustration, suggested Arvary take an hour and a half to relieve stress at their private golf course pond. Arvary began fishing around 3:30, under cloudy skies and with falling barometric pressure – perfect conditions...
Shaky-Head Worms for Finicky Bass
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When largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass get fussy or when Jimmy Mason needs to put a limit of bass in the boat, he commonly turns to a "shaky-head worm," which refers to a finesse worm rigged on a jighead and fished along the bottom with shakes of the rod tip or gentle lifts. Mason’s shaky-head worm of choice about 80 percent of the time is a YUM 4.75-inch Houdini Worm. His alternative offerings for the same rig include a NottaWorm and a 4-inch YUM Dinger. He hooks his baits weedless, like a Texas rig.
Florida Bass Fishing
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Fishermen’s thoughts commonly turn to Florida and the Sunshine State’s big-bass-filled waters during the winter. Hundreds of lakes throughout the Florida are loaded with bass, and fishing stays great throughout the winter because of the mild climate. Florida bass can be fickle...
Samsel's Hot Bites - Lurenet.com December 2005
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DECEMBER HOT BITES "Three casts," I answered, grinning a bit as I remembered the 12-inch wild brown trout that pummeled my Rebel Tracdown Minnow before my buddy, Mark, even stepped into the stream. I was twitching my rod tip quickly to work the bait over a shallow gravel bar, and the trout came partly out of the water to attack it.
November
5 Great Baits for Fall Bass
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Pack this arsenal of fishing lures when you head to the lake this fall, and you’ll be ready to put your share of autumn bass in the boat. Spinnerbaits. Topwater Lures. Rattling Baits. Crankbaits. Soft Plastic Baits...
Lurenet's Hot Bites November 2005
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One of the best things I like about fishing is that sometimes it makes you look like an absolute genius. I was fishing a local tournament the other day and my partner and I were stuck. We had no pattern, a few small keepers and really needed something to happen. We were trying the things that were supposed to work — spinnerbaits around grass, flipping laydowns — and while we had had some success, we just weren’t boating fish on a regular basis. I tossed my Citruse Bomber 4A in a “middle of nothing” place. Bam. I pulled in a keeper.
Count Down To Crappie Fun
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Autumn is one of the best and most overlooked times to catch crappie. The fish congregate in relatively shallow water, often in spots that are easy to find, and fishing pressure tends to be light.
Hit the Mats for Explosive Bass Action
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Seeing your YUM BuzzFrog come to life as it hits a pocket of open water is almost more than you can stand – and you know it’s more than a bass will be able stand. Sure enough. A fish erupts as the bait hits the edge of the pocket, knocking the BuzzFrog 2 feet in the air. Then it returns with a less violent but more decisive strike to finish the job.
Carolina Rigging – Zell Rowland Style
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Carolina-rig fishing almost seems too simple. Make a long cast, let the rig sink to the bottom and drag the offering slowly along the bottom. As is the case with most “simple” styles of fishing, there are subtleties that allow some anglers to consistently catch more fish than others when they tie on C-rigs. Zell Rowland is one such angler.
October
Fishing Accessorizing for More Big Bass
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Little things make critical difference when tournament money is on the line, which is why professional anglers like Brian Snowden continually look for little things that provide an extra edge. For Snowden, those little things often are “accessories,” which he uses to enhance already-terrific lures.
Shooting for Crappie
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If you’ve ever eyed a pontoon boat or a very low-to-the-water dock and wondered just how many crappie fish might be lying in that big spot of shade, you don’t have to wonder any more. Grab an ultralight spincasting fishing outfit, a few packets of very light jigheads and some 1 1/2-inch YUM Wooly Curltails and try your hand at “shooting.”
Up the Creek Bass Fishing
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Ask several professional bass fishermen about fall fishing strategies, and quite a few will answer the same way. Many bass abandon reservoirs’ main bodies every autumn and head up creek arms, and anglers are wise to do the same.
Water Under the Bridge
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When all else fails on a late-summer day, head for the nearest bridge. Conditions tend to be favorable for fish under bridges, so the action is apt to pick up once you’ve had a bit of time to figure out the fish. Almost as importantly, conditions are better for fishermen under bridges this time of year, making the fishing experience more enjoyable.
Back to School Stripers
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The first cool nights of autumn trigger changes on many fishing lakes, few of which are more exciting to fishermen in the know than the onset of striper schooling activity. Initially, most schooling occurs very early and late in the day, and most schools only come up briefly. As fall progresses, though, surface schooling activity increases substantially on many lakes.
Chad's Hot Bites October 2005 - Lurenet.com
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I was on the Mississippi River near Elk River, Minn., and prepared for the first cast of what promised to be an eventful day of fishing. I went through my mental files, searching for a bait that would be the perfect one to entice the river smallmouth fish.
One, Two, Three Punch for Peacock Bass
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If you plan to travel to the Amazon River basin with hard-fighting peacock bass in mind, you need a plan that will help you most of your time in the jungle. Fishing lures are tools for peacock bass fishing, and you need the best tool for each task.
YUM Wins Again With New Wooly Bug Fishing Lure
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YUM Bait Co. continues their red-hot fishing tournament win streak by claiming top honors in the 2005 Skeeter/Yamaha Tour Championship Oct. 1 and 2 at Grand Lake, Oklahoma. This time, YUM's newest offering, the Wooly Bug bass fishing lure , was the bait that put the bass in the boat.
Questions About Color
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Do you ever get lost in all the color options? There’s such a variety of lure colors to choose from, and so many look terrific. If you’re having trouble deciding what color Bomber Fat Free Shad to tie on, a great way to get started is to consider a few basic questions.
September
Fish Red-Fins on Top for Big Bass
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Striper fishermen know that a Cotton Cordell Red-Fin fishing lure is without rival when it comes to imitating big gizzard shad wallowing near the surface. The same principle applies to largemouth fishing anywhere the bass grow to jumbo sizes and make good use of big gizzard shad, according to Arkansas trophy bass expert, Mitch Looper.
Big Ants for Trout
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Downed trees line the edges of virtually all trout-filled tailwaters, the trees having been toppled by rising and falling waters. The same ever-changing water levels flood the deadfalls frequently, each time sending a fresh dose of misplaced ants, beetles, termites and other land-based insects floating downstream.
Finding & Catching Summer Stripers
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Conditions become less than ideal for striped bass fishing on many popular striper lakes as summer progresses, forcing the fish to change their habits. That adds challenges for anglers as patterns change, but it also creates opportunities because locations of fish become more predictable. Anglers who know where to look can find real bounties with Cotton Cordell C.C. Spoons or Smithwick Spoonbill Rogues fishing lures.
Lake Erie Smallmouths
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Frank Scalish knows how to catch Great Lakes smallmouths. Just look at the recent tournament record. Scalish finished fourth in a recent BASS Open out of Sandusky, Ohio, and he caught the largest fish of the tournament – a 5-pound, 7-ounce smallie. Last summer, Scalish topped the entire field in a BASS open on Erie. The Cleveland pro, who won the 2002 Bassmaster Tour Rookie of the Year award, is considered one of the anglers to beat any time the tour stops on the Great Lakes – especially Lake Erie.
Ultra Shallow Late-Summer Bass
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Mark Burgess commonly positions his boat where other bass fishing anglers are landing their casts during late summer, having learned that clear-water largemouths and smallmouths commonly will move into extremely shallow water this time of year.
Chad’s Hot Bites September, 2005
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Everybody has a go-to bait. That one bait that, for whatever reason, you just feel good about when it’s dangling from the tip of your rod. Mine happens to be a Rebel Pop-R. The 2 1/2-inch P60 Pop-R, to be exact. In any color as long as it’s silver with a blue back. That’s the bait I feel most comfortable with. There’s no better way to start a day than casting a Pop-R near cover in the dark light of morning. The explosive strike and ensuing battle is all icing on the cake.
Floating Jerkbaits for Summer Bass
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Floating varieties of Rebel Minnows, Smithwick Rattlin’ Rogues and Bomber Long As rank among the best fishing lures ever made for catching mid-summer largemouths, partly because they are so diverse in the ways they can be fished. Let’s examine a handful of ways floating jerkbait lures can be worked for great results during the warm months, when bass often look toward the surface in search of dinner.
Find Fish on Unfamiliar Waters
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Fishing a lake for the first time – or the first time in a long time – can be daunting. Whether no bank strikes you as interesting or everything looks like it ought to have bass all over it, figuring out where to begin can present a real challenge. Here are a few tricks that can help you shorten the search.
Trolling for Great Lakes Walleye
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Fishing guide and walleye tournament angler Todd Frank of Pulaski, New York has spent significant time fishing for walleyes on all of the Great Lakes, and he has found that these huge waterways have certain things in common – things that set them apart from most other walleye fishing waters.
August
Use Water Color to Pick the Right Spinnerbait
Complete Article »
With so many variables, selecting spinnerbait fishing lures can get confusing. Body, skirt and blade colors and shapes and configurations of blades are just some of the variables. Too commonly, anglers allow themselves to get overwhelmed by the possibilities and simply pick up the first spinnerbait they find – or possibly one that produced well some other day.
Much Maligned Mudfish Fun to Catch
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Countless bass anglers have been fooled by big bowfins, thinking for certain they had a state-record (or even world record) largemouth bass on the line. Mudfish, as bowfins often are called, are exceptionally strong, and a typical 10-pounder easily would outpull a 15-pound largemouth.
Winning Arsenal for Big-Water Smallmouths
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Massachusetts bass pro Mark Burgess spends a lot of summer days doing battle with the heavyweight smallmouths that reside in huge northern lakes, like Champlain and Erie. Let’s peek into Burgess’ tackle boxes of fishing lures and look at his five favorite offerings for big-water smallmouth bass.
The Tungsten Advantage
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Sam Swett has a hard time figuring out why every bass fisherman doesn’t use Excalibur Tg Fishing Weights. “I don’t think a lot of fishermen fully grasp the advantages that Tg Weights offer,” said Swett, a professional tournament angler from Covington, LA.
Summer Strategies for Stream Smallmouth Fishing
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Sunny summer days serve up some of the best fishing of the year on many creeks and rivers where smallmouth bass are the main attraction. To get in the fine fishing, though, you have to consider the season’s effects on stream conditions and smallmouth behavior and plan your strategies accordingly.
Bassmaster Classic win results in reproduction of original Smithwick RB1200 Rattlin' Rogue
Complete Article »
The 35th annual CITGO Bassmaster Classic turned out to be the toughest in history. An absence of quality keepers had anglers looking for an edge — the bait that would provide just a few extra ounces — to give them the title of Classic champion. One bait, the Smithwick original RB1200 Rattlin’ Rogue, proved to be the bait that changed the course of the tournament and reinforced that its winning reputation hasn’t changed — it’s the same as it ever was.
Tim Horton Classic-Bound – Again
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Tim Horton got the attention of the bass fishing world in 2000 by winning the prestigious BASS Angler of the Year award in his rookie year on the Bassmaster Tour. If that weren’t enough, Horton cinched the points title with one tournament remaining in the season.
July
Catching Suspended Bass
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North Carolina bass pro and guide Mike Goodman never lets suspended bass get the best of him. In fact, Goodman enjoys some of his best fishing days during the summer, when largemouths and smallmouths alike spend the bulk of their time suspended in the deep waters of Lake James, his favorite mountain lake. Let’s dig into Goodman’s bag of tricks for making suspended bass bite.
Smallmouths, Smallies & More Bronze Backs
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There are two things you can count on if you fish the section of the Mississippi River that passes through Elk River, Minnesota: You’ll be among a tremendous number of chunky smallmouths, with some extra-large fish in the mix; You’ll have the river pretty much to yourself.
Gulstad's Hot Bites - Lurenet.com Newsletter July 2005
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Fishing can get tough in the summer, but there are a lot of neat techniques available to catch hot weather fish. You can catch good fish by deep cranking with BD7F Fat Free Shads, counting down YUM Mega Tubes for suspenders, Carolina Rigging with YUM Notta Worms, the list goes on and on. However, in my opinion, the hottest bite in July is also the most fun.
Simple Lures for Teaching About Trout
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I must admit that I wasn’t thinking about fish when I pointed to a spot I wanted my daughter, Sarah, to cast toward. I was eying a current line and rock outcrop that would make a good photo background. The trout didn’t know that, though.
June
Perfect for Pond Bass
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Bass that live in ponds and bass that live in big reservoirs don’t act the same, and any angler who plans to spend time pond fishing is wise to keep those differences in mind when he picks his lures.
Little Baits for Big Summer Fun
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Setting the hook with your ultralight spinning rod, you wonder what’s at the other end of your line. Hard tugs suggest that it might be a palm-sized bluegill. Of course, you’ve also caught white bass, crappie and perch and a couple small largemouths the past couple hours.
Topwater Specks
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If you want to catch big speckled trout this summer, try tying on a topwater lure. While many anglers fish mostly with soft-plastic lures on jigheads when trout are their target species, surface plugs cast into the surf or worked over grass beds on the flats will bring fierce reactions from hungry specks.
Pull Cranks for Summer Walleyes
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“We’re only allowed to put out one line per angler in Minnesota,” said long-time walleye pro Steve Bissett. “Therefore it’s really important to pick the right lure.”
Black & Blue Finesse Tubes for Spring Bass
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“Any color will work, as long as it is black and blue,” said Idaho angler Steve Long about spring bass fishing with a YUM Vibra King Finesse Tube.
Twitch Tubes for Stream Smallmouths
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Often all you have to do is make a cast and watch your line. Given enough current to carry a YUM Vibra King Finesse Tube and a few feet of water for the offering to drop through, a smallmouth is apt to nab the bait before it ever hits bottom. The line will suddenly race upstream, prompting you to set the hook sharply and get ready for a jump.
Hunting Big Muskies
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Deer hunters aren’t the only sportsmen who scout out big game. Steve Bissett spends early-summer days cruising shallow grassy flats in search of big muskies – fish he will come back for once the water has warmed a bit.
Rock Bass Serve Up Big Summer Fun
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While rock bass may not be the biggest fish in a stream, they can be among the most fun to catch. They smash lures like little bundles of dynamite, and where there is one, there usually are many more. Rock bass won’t win in any pulling competitions. However, they easily make up for their lack of power with abundance, willingness to bite, and vigor.
Crankbait Crappie
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Defying all stereotypes, Alabama crappie guide Brad Whitehead abandons minnows and jigs during the summer and fishes almost exclusively with crankbaits. The crappie turn aggressive once they get into their summer mode, Whitehead has found, and they like a mouthful. He provides that mouthful in the form...
Cranking Current for Spotted Bass
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Having fished all his life for spotted bass on Alabama’s Coosa River lakes, bass pro Kyle Mabrey knows what the spots should be doing any given day, based on water temperature, current and other conditions. That said, the fish don’t always do what they should. Therefore, Mabrey always begins a day with a “searching” mentality.
Gulstad's Hot Bites - Lurenet.com Newsletter 2005
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Yep, it’s crankbait time. River fishermen in the Midwest know that when the water temperature hits the mid-60s it’s time to pull cranks for walleyes. There are guys pulling livebait rigs on lakes, but they’re missing out on where the real hot bite is happening.
May
Jumpin’ Minnows for Tailwater Stripers
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“For my money, a Jumpin’ Minnow would be tough to beat,” said Jerry Crook, a long-time tailwater guide on the Tennessee River, as he handed me his lure box so I could make my own selection and rig up for an afternoon of topwater action.
4 Ways to Catch More Bass at Night
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Summer nights bring some of the best fishing of the year for largemouths and smallmouths alike; however, bass behave differently under the stars than they do in the daylight, and catching them consistently calls for altered approaches.
Biggest YUM Dinger Not Too Big
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A 7-inch YUM Dinger may look silly when you pull it out of the package, but don’t let that deter you from stringing it on a hook. To bass, these super-sized offerings look downright irresistible – and the size of the bass doesn’t seem to matter.
Part III: Kyle Mabrey: Finding What They Want
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Numerous factors, including grass type, moon stage, forage base, bass size and water color and temperature, help Mabrey determine which YUM or BOOYAH bait to begin flippin’ into the grass. However, he believes strongly in allowing the bass to dictate what they want.
Part II: Jimmy Mason: Flippin’ Up-Side Down
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“The bass aren’t always right on the bottom when they are under matted vegetation,” said Jimmy Mason of Rogersville, Alabama. “Sometimes they hold right under the mats.” When Mason suspects the fish aren’t on the bottom, he “turns his flippin’ rig upside down” by rigging up a super-sized, customized drop-shot rig.
Flippin’ Thick Vegetation: A Three-Part Series
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When the BASS Pro Tour ventures to Florida or another destination that calls for flippin’ in heavy grass, Tim Horton doesn’t spend much time pondering bait choices. Equipped with a flippin’ stick, a good supply of YUM Vibra King Tubes and a bit of terminal tackle, Horton has everything he needs to catch big bass.
Casting for Crappie in Spring
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As effective as other strategies can be, there’s something really fun about casting a YUM Wooly Curltail past a treetop, reeling it slowly past the cover and waiting for that telltale tap on the line.
Gulstad’s Hot Bites Lurenet.com Newsletter May 2005
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A lot has been written about stick baits in the past few years due to their incredible effectiveness. It seems every soft plastic manufacturer makes a version of this popular shape. I will tell you that the majority of pro fishermen and guides I talk to say...
Topwater Classics
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Morning’s first light was just breaking at a small Florida pond, which my family was camped beside. The previous night I had tied on my newest lure – a black 1 3/4-inch Arbogast Hula Popper – and I had been awake half the night waiting...
April
Ultralight Trout on Rebel Deep Teeny Wee Crawfish
Complete Article »
If Wiese is knee deep in a trout stream, chances are extremely good that he has a Rebel Deep Teeny Wee Crawfish tied to the end of his line, and he virtually always begins a day with one. In his eyes, a Deep Teeny Wee is without rival for fishing the clear rocky streams that drain the Southern Appalachian Mountains in North Georgia and the Carolinas.
Don’t Forget Texas Rigs
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Innovative anglers have come up with dozens of techniques for fishing YUM soft-plastic lures, many of which work wonders under certain conditions. Drop-shotting (how to make a drop-shot rig) and split-shotting get the job done when the bass get fussy, and at times it’s tough to beat casting a weightless YUM Houdini Shad over a hump and allowing it to sink freely through the water column.
Fast-Action Panfishing
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Spring draws many types of fish toward the banks of rivers and lakes, creating a great opportunity to scour shoreline cover with ultralight lures for fast, fun action from a mix of fish species. Depending on where you call home, you may catch bluegills, shellcrackers, crappie, white bass, yellow perch, rock bass or any number of other panfish.
Destination: Big Crappie
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All other fish species take a back seat to crappie on Oklahoma's Lake Eufaula, where fertile waters produce slab-sized specs. Anglers line banks and boats fill coves any time the crappie bite heats up at Lake Eufaula, a sprawling Oklahoma reservoir where crappie is king.
Tips For Walleye Trolling
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"Pay attention to details," Todd Frank said, summarizing virtually every tip he could offer in four words. Frank watches everything while he trolls, and he refines his pattern continually as he fishes. His tips, offered in no particular order, can help other anglers recognize important details and make the proper adjustments:
Tips For Cranking Shallow Cover
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When bass stray shallow during the spring, short-billed crankbaits like Bomber Fat Free Shallows, Excalibur Swim’n Images and Rebel Wee-Rs work great for making those bass attack. These tips will help you make the most of shallow cranking:
Southern Walleyes?
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If you think walleyes are strictly northern fish, take a glance at the record book. The Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame world record walleye, a 22-pound, 1-ounce monster, came from Greers Ferry Lake in Arkansas. Farther down the list, you’ll find five line-class record walleyes that...
March
Crazy About Craws
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A crawfish trap might seem like an odd item for a professional bass fisherman to carry in the back of his truck. After all, only artificial lures may be used in bass tournaments. However, Illinois pro Curt Samo considers his little wire trap a valuable research tool, and he doesn’t...
Topwater Lures for Redfish
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It seemed like the fourth of July, with explosions all around, except the redfish weren’t blowing up on my bait. My Creek Chub Knuckle-Head looked just like those being worked by Chris Gulstad on one side and Andy Mnichowski on the other, and they were battling brutish redfish almost continually while I continued popping along, only drawing an occasional strike.
Trophy Time on the Susquehanna
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Spring brings the big smallmouths out to play on Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, a huge flow that many anglers consider the nation’s premier smallmouth river. The spring bite begins early, when water temperatures remain in the upper 30s and lower 40s, and continues through the summer
Tournament Preparation
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Missouri bass pro Brian Snowden never looks at a lake as if for the first time – even if it is his first visit to that particular waterway. Snowden, who is 13th in the current BASS Angle of the Year standings, always does his homework, and he believes that has been critical to his success on tour.
Ghost Minnow Tops for Trout
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Expect a few odd looks when you wade into your favorite trout stream with an Excalibur Ghost Minnow tied to the end of your line. Alt