The Search for Giant Perch
Yellow perch hold a special place in the hearts of hardcore panfish anglers. Seasoned anglers can recount the precise details surrounding the capture of their biggest yellow perch from decades past as though it was yesterday. Others spin tales of the day they got into a mother lode of jumbos and filled a fish basket too heavy to lift.
Fishing the Edges for Fall Pike
Fishing northern pike are cunning predators adept at feeding in packs, while also solitary assassins. In addition to their keen senses of sight, smell, feel (vibration), and hearing, they possess stealth, speed, and agility.
Vertical Fishing for Walleyes
Walleyes seem genetically programmed to react to rising and falling prey. One of the easiest meals for any predatory fish is crippled or dying baitfish. They often dart upward erratically, only to lose momentum and drift downward. This up-and-down movement draws attention. For this reason, vertical lure motion is fundamental to walleye fishing.
Finding Walleyes
If there’s one thing you learn in over 30 years of walleye fishing, it’s that good spots are good spots, sometimes even independent of the season. Along the location trail, it’s common to uncover spots that look appealing on a lake map, but don’t attract walleyes because they lack baitfish, vegetation, or other critical habitat; or sometimes it’s as simple as the structure is in the wrong part of the lake; or it’s not exposed to the right current or wind.
Drop Shot Smallmouth
Drop-shotting smallmouth bass has come of age, no longer a niche finesse fad, but a mainstream tactic as critical as crankbait mastery or flippin’ in many situations. Even dedicated power fishermen acknowledge the facts and always have a spinning rod or two on board.
Get Ready for Falls Best Trout and Salmon Fishing
Fly Fishing the Yellow Conehead Woolly Bugger whistles by my ear and plunks in the river on the far side of a white plume. At the end of the swing, it glides into the slack water around my feet. A crimson blur flashes toward it—a brook trout trying to chase an intruder from the eddy.
Softbaits For Fishing Big Muskie And Pike
When scissorheads go one-on-one against most anything else, they win. Pike meets perch? Win. Put pike and muskies up against other everyday stuff—mono line, fingers, boat seats, landing nets, and pretty much any traditional softbait in your box—and the result is as predictable as scissors on paper.
Crayfish - The Key to Locating Bass, Walleye or Pike
A great way to locate fish in midsummer is to find crayfish. Just about every kind of fish likes to chew on crayfish, especially young crayfish before they get too big and their outside skeleton gets too hard. Bass, walleye, pike and even big panfish like to munch down crayfish.