By popular demand, I’m going to tell you about a tackle box that never leaves my boat. Twelve months out of the year, from New York to Texas to California, it’s always with me – it’s my panic box. It has saved my butt over the years and that’s why I always want to have it accessible, in the compartment behind the driver’s seat of my boat. It’s kind of like a bright red or bright white fire extinguisher. When I’m in situations where I’m struggling, it’s obvious and ready to help me salvage the day. Why do you need […]
All over the country, July means HOT weather. The water is hotter, the air is hotter, and the days are longer. That tends to push the bass deeper, where the oxygen content is higher, the water is cooler, and their prey is located. Of course, deep is a relative term. In some California reservoirs it might mean 100 feet, while in Florida it could mean 8 or 10 feet, but this is the time to focus much of your effort there. With that in mind, I’m going to give you information about four of my favorite July baits, two for […]
For a lot of us around the country, it’s early winter right now. The leaves are off the trees, the mornings are cold, and water temperatures are down. That typically means that fish have left their fall patterns. They’re headed to or in their wintering holes, but they’re still feeding. That often means you can still catch them with power fishing techniques. I have five lures that fit the bill The first, without a doubt, is a suspending jerkbait like the Rapala Shadow Rap. I can’t think of a better bait for this time of year. It emulates a struggling […]
One of the coolest ways to catch bass is with an Alabama Rig, also known as the “A Rig.” If you’re a fan of it like I am, you already know why it’s so good. The term that I often use is that it mesmerizes them. It really does. Out of the water, that contraption looks bulky and complicated, but in the water, it comes alive. It’s one of the best baits ever made to mimic a school of baitfish. The one downfall of the traditional Alabama Rig is the limited number of places where you can fish it. With […]
Even at this stage in my career, after fishing for a living for several decades, sometimes I just want to get bites. I don’t care what it is, as long as there’s lots of action. If you’re a beginner, that may be your goal, too – to just have something pull back. Fortunately, you don’t need a lot of different lures to get that done. In fact, there’s one lure I know that catches everything that swims, and I want to tell you what it is, how to rig it and how to fish it. Once you gain confidence in […]
Last time we talked about cold muddy water baits and colors. This time we’ll talk about the exact opposite, cold clear water baits and colors. Before we get into that, though, we need to define clear water. In my world it’s water with 10 to 14 inches of visibility. But there’s also ultra-clear water. That’s water with clarity down to 10 feet. The difference between the two is mostly academic. They’re both tough. I deal with both conditions the same way. My colors don’t change regardless of how clear the water is that I’m fishing. I will admit, however, that […]
There must be a thousand fishing lures on the market. Choosing only six of them for this blog was no easy task. But sometimes we need to downsize so I did just that. I’ve listed the baits below in no particular order. The first three are power fishing lures. The last three are more in the finesse category. A crankbait This is a great bait because you can cover a lot of water with one and because they search out the bass. It’s almost like they’re calling the fish in to them. Although there are hundreds of them available, picking […]
Life’s crazy, man! A few weeks ago on the Upper Mississippi River I had an experience that might help you sometime in the future so I’m going to tell you all about it. Usually you find river bass shallow. That didn’t happen to me, though. They were deep and they were suspended. It sounds crazy but it’s true. I caught them in two types of places and with two different lures. Here’s how it went down… The first place I found them was out in the main river over the channel. They were suspended anywhere between 10 and 30 feet […]
Those of you who follow me know that I’m a big advocate for urban fishing. I’ve filmed countless TV shows and posted I don’t know how many videos and blogs about it over the years. The reason I do that is because it’s how I grew up in New Jersey and because there’s better fishing in our cities than many men and women think. It’s a truly untapped resource. And, nowhere is that more true than in Paris, France. My experience over there started with Abu Garcia. We’ve developed a new series of rods designed just for the European market. […]
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