Freshwater Fishing

Learn the value of a float and a jig used together for mid-winter crappie fishing and how two guides use float strategies to put more fish in the boat.

“Often they won’t pull it under,” Lee Pitts said about the float portion of his Float and Fly rig. “It’ll just tip a little or start easting sideways.”

Pitts knows. As a crappie guide on legendary waters of Weiss Lake, Pitts spends most winter days on the water. Winter delivers some of the best action of the year, and one of his most productive crappie fishing techniques when the water gets cold is the float and fly approach, which refers to fishing a jig beneath a set float for slow, subtle presentations at a prescribed depth.

Beaver Lake crappie guide Greg Robinson also relies heavily on floats for winter crappie fishing. That surprises many people, Robinson noted, because they only associate bobbers with extra shallow water. However, Robinson and Pitts are commonly presenting jigs 6 to 10 feet deep. The key is that the float suspends an offering in the strike zone and allows for the extra slow and subtle presentations that are sometimes needed for winter crappie fishing success.

Bait School Bite Spec

Lure: Bandit 100 – Baby Shad

When: Fall, Spring, Summer

Where: Highland reservoirs, river systems, natural lakes (Table Rock Lake, Arkansas River, Mille Lacs)

We called on Bobby Garland pro staffers, and they promptly delivered with outstanding holiday shopping ideas that would make any crappie angler happy!

Does the accelerating Christmas countdown find you still scratching your head over what to get your crappie angler, either because you don’t have a clue as where to start or because you think he or she already has everything?

“No problem.” That’s the word from a handful of folks who are familiar both with the intimidating task at hand and who have crappie-fishing expertise. We asked for details, and they provided some outstanding last-minute gift ideas, which offer quick and easy solutions that are sure to be a hit with any crappie angler, from beginner to pro.

Time: Early Winter

Place: Highland reservoirs

Lure: The Bomber Deep Flat A in Crawnifiscent

When the water starts cooling during late fall and early winter, crankbait bass fishing gets hot. Learn the strategies of two expert anglers.

Thanksgiving leftovers are a memory, and you’re looking ahead to the Christmas holidays. Bass fishing is on the back burner, partly because there’s a serious nip in the air and the water temperature on your home lakes is dropping. The bass are too sluggish to bite anyway. Right?

The reality is that early winter bass fishing can be exceptional, provided you cast the right baits into the right places. This is the time to wind fresh line onto your favorite cranking rod and break out a variety of crankbaits.

For the past seven years Ohioan Frank Scalish, a former Bassmaster Elite Series pro and Bassmaster Classic qualifier, has been fishing earnestly during the cold months to find how specific crankbaits perform in chilly bass waters. He designs baits and colors for several brands offered by Lurenet and is currently focused on Norman and Bomber lures.

This often-overlooked strategy for trolling or casting crankbaits convinces tentative walleyes to bite and makes aggressive fish even more aggressive.

Rolling Rocks.

I’m not referring to the green-bottled beer (sorry Pennsylvanians), but to physically rolling submerged gravel and cobble with crankbaits. Dredging is another term applied to this high-action approach. How do you roll rocks with a crankbait? Velocity, plus depth!

Typically, a power trolling technique, rolling rocks is also a method used by savvy shore anglers and river waders. The “rolling rocks” terminology is quite literal. The goal is to pull the crank with enough velocity that it hits the rocky bottom so hard that the diving lip flips small rocks up and out of the way, plowing a mini furrow in the gravel bottom. Whether you are fishing a pea-gravel bottom or something bigger—marbles, cobble, baseballs, or even melons—instead of the norm of ticking those rocks, this technique begs you to SLAM into the rocks. It’s true that the bigger stuff doesn’t get rolled by the lure, but that’s not for lack of trying!

All lipless crankbaits look quite similar, but each one carries attributes that work in different situations – or more importantly parts of the country.

In this blog we will go over three key identifiers for choosing the right one based on forage, time of year, and fishing pressure!

Like I mentioned above, almost all lipless crankbaits look similar, but they certainly carry different attributes that fit different situations. Today I will be discussing my three favorite options, the Cotton Cordell Super Spot, BOOYAH Hard Knocker and BOOYAH One Knocker. Each one has some serious intricacies that we will look at and help you become more successful with them!

Learn about different Pop-R models and when to use each to maximize success.

You know the Rebel Pop-R. It’s the most iconic popper in the fishing world, a name commonly used to reference various poppers and the unofficial template for many other popping lures.

You may not realize that the Rebel Lures makes several different Pop-R models, all with much in common but each a little different. We’ll look at all the Pop-Rs and dig into how each is distinctive to help you pick the perfect Pop-R for any given situation.

We’ve gathered great crappie recipes from friends of Bobby Garland Crappie Baits in anticipation of the excellent crappie catching opportunities that always arrive this time of year.

Don’t go too big with that bird! You don’t want to be overloaded with turkey leftovers. Thanksgiving unofficially kicks off the winter crappie season in much of the country and always delivers some of the best fishing of the year.

Every angler knows that crappie are delightful on the table and can be prepared many ways. It’s easy to just fall on our old faithful ways of cooking fish. To do that is to miss out, though, so we asked some close friends of Bobby Garland Crappie Baits to share some of their favorite ways of cooking crappie.