Featured Stories

A variation of the original Biffle Bug, the newest offering from Gene Larew was created specifically for flipping and pitching applications.

Tommy Biffle has been flipping a Biffle Bug since Day 1 of the iconic bait that bears his name. If fact, he was flipping and pitching a Biffle Bug into cover before the creation of the Biffle HardHead that he most commonly matches with a Bug. And while he still flips the original Biffle Bug and catches big bass that way, for some time now, he has wanted a creature bait built from the Biffle Bug template and designed specifically for flipping and pitching.

Folks at Gene Larew knew to listen to Biffle and worked with him to create the bait he was seeking. The result was the new Flipping Biffle Bug!

Spring brings some of the year’s best opportunities for crappie fishing from the bank. Learn how to find and catch more crappie with a shoreline approach.

Everything looked perfect for bank fishing for crappie. The water color, bottom makeup, bank slope and cover mix all seemed ideal. The only thing missing was the crappie – at least any crappie that were willing to bite!

So, I began walking and casting, targeting scattered laydowns and stumps and making “search” casts between pieces of cover. Maybe 100 yards from my starting point the chunk rock along the lake’s edge turned to gravel and the bank got a little flatter. Scattered wood a modest cast’s distance from the shore seemed shallow but looked inviting for crappie fishing.

I clipped a spring float about 18 inches from my jig and cast tight to the first piece of wood. The float barely got upright before racing sideways, and I set the hook into a solid crappie. Repeating that cast produced the same result. Twice. The next piece of wood produced a repeat performance. I had found the right set up, setting the stage a fun day of bank fishing for crappie.

Different crappie fishing jigheads vary in many ways. We’ll examine important variables and tell how to choose the best jighead for every situation.

Glitzy soft-plastic crappie lures, with their fish-catching designs and colorful identities, get the glory in crappie fishing while the journeyman jighead silently tags along but does the heavy lifting – literally.

Success draws attention, and that is certainly the case when a splashing livewell or basket full of slabs echoes loudly and proudly across the boat ramp or dock at the end of an outing. All ears within hearing distance strain to hear the answer when someone dares ask, “Whatcha catch ‘em on?”

No doubt it’s more fun to hear a response with bait names like Slab Hunt’Rs and Slab Slay’Rs, and colors called Purple Monkey and Electric Chicken, than, “a 1/8-ounce white jighead with a size 1 hook.” Yet, jigheads need love too, for without them most crappie baits are little more than tacklebox candy.

The Disco Ball Pad Crasher offers plenty of flash and an outstanding shad imitation, filling an important niche for late spring, summer and fall bass fishing.

You’ve seen how a disco ball splashes color across a dance floor. The Disco Ball Pad Crasher does the same with reflected light and the lake bottom. Doing its enticing dance, this bait suggests a distressed shad scurrying across the surface and is too much for bass to resist.

Disco Ball does not look like a typical frog, yet it’s an outstanding fit for the BOOYAH Pad Crasher. Let’s examine why BOOYAH has introduced the Disco Ball color and how you can use it to catch more fish from now through the end of autumn.

The traditional wacky rig, neko rig and flick shake rig are similar in ways, but each is distinctive. Learn when to choose each and how to use all to catch more bass.

You know the wacky rig, and you’ve likely at least heard talk about the neko rig and flick shake rig. You may not know that neko and flick shake rigs are variations of a wacky rig, each with different applications but with definite similarities.

Seeking a better understanding of these three highly effective rigs and when to use each for early spring bass fishing, we went straight to Frank Scalish, best known in the bass fishing world as Uncle Frank. The popular host of Day 4 on Bass Talk Live and former Bassmaster Elite Series pro uses all three rigs at times, with the depth of the water he is working being the largest determinant of which one he picks up.

Floats or bobbers come in many sizes and shapes and in fixed and slip-float configurations. This float fishing guide removes the mystery.

The mention of bobber fishing commonly calls up a mental image of an idyllic pond setting with a youngster watching a cork on the water’s surface. However, floats (commonly called bobbers) have come a long way. While the basic mechanics remain the same, many of today’s floats are designed to be more bite-sensitive, are created for specific purposes and are integral to many anglers’ arsenals.  

Depending on the intended angling technique, a float could be part the presentation for any freshwater fish. Bluegills, crappie, smallmouth bass, white bass, trout, bowfin and catfish are among the fish I have targeted with a float. The line-up of Thill Floats encompass a variety of floating bite-indicators for still-water, current, and long-distance casting.

Learning more about crawfish colors based on region, conditions and season can help you catch more bass.       

Former Bassmaster Elite Series pro Frank Scalish, who now designs baits for Norman Lures and other brands available on Lurenet.com, is fanatical about matching the hatch. An artist with an airbrush, the Ohioan obsesses over paint colors and schemes that precisely mimic whatever forage the bass favor. Scalish’s attention to every detail and deep experience make him the ideal Bass Fishing 101 instructor on the topic of crawfish colors.

When Scalish creates crawfish colors for crankbaits, he becomes especially dogmatic because he strives to replicate the various crayfish species in different regions of the country.

“Certain crayfish dominate in certain parts of the country,” Scalish said. “For example, crayfish in Texas and Louisiana are all variants of red. The rusty crayfish is native to the Ohio River Basin. It has rust or orange-colored makings on its sides. The rest of that craw is green pumpkin or an almost blackish green pumpkin.”

Pre-spawn crappie fishing delivers some of the best action of the year, and the fish’s behavior lends itself ideally to fishing and jig beneath a bobber.

A childhood thrill returns to Terry Blankenship every spring when pre-spawn crappie fishing heats up at Lake of the Ozarks. The Missouri guide and tournament angler recalls how excited he would get watching a bobber zip underwater when he was a kid, bobber fishing for crappie. Blankenship continues to experience that excitement today, albeit with a more sophisticated bobber setup.

“We all love our bobbers,” Blankenship said. “Bobber fishing for crappie is a little bit like topwater fishing for bass. It’s just something, if you have done it a bunch, you are kind of focused on that bobber, and when you are fishing with artificial lures instead of minnows you have to be pretty observant and pretty quick with it. It kind of keeps you a little tense if you feel like you are in a position to get a bite. It winds up being pretty much like the excitement of a topwater bite because of the way crappie sometimes hit it and knock it to where it goes down so fast, but other times they just barely nudge it or turn it sideways.  That’s why you really have to pay attention to it.”

Fishing a single swimbait can be absolutely deadly almost anytime of year. They excel due to their ability to closely match up with the favorite forage of bass, shad and minnows. This is from their plastic composition and action, but they are also a great choice because of their ease of fishability, in most cases anglers can simply cast and wind to catch fish.