By Captain Rick Bentley While the Spring Coho run that occurs near my port of Waukegan, IL is truly a special time of year as it kicks off the season and with fast action, summer sets aside a whole other set of anticipations and excitement. Summertime on the Great Lakes is special not only because… Continue Reading
By Dave Genz Dave Genz holds up a prize, a jumbo perch taken at the base of a break off a sticky-bottom area. Be precise this winter, as you search the base of breaks where burrowing insects live, and fish look for food. The real key to finding the mother lode of burrowing insects… Continue Reading
By Joe Bucher Gathering for a late morning breakfast, I could sense a final urgency from my son Joe Jr., much like hunting on the final day of the season with an unfilled buck tag. For some odd reason, my son has had this uncanny luck for bagging big bucks and big fish on… Continue Reading
By Joe Bucher A thorough investigation of any largemouth bass angler’s tackle box is sure to reveal a broad selection of spinnerbaits. These crazy safety pin shaped lures are among the deadliest largemouth bass lures of all time. They come in a variety of shapes, weights, sizes, and colors, plus they sport a wide… Continue Reading
By Joe Bucher My first exposure to the minnow bait was back in the early 1960’s. I remember staring at my first minnow bait, a Rapala, for weeks in my grandfather’s general grocery store. He had a small fishing tackle department in this store, and I use to gawk at various lures on display… Continue Reading
By Joe Bucher The extra short 6′ baitcasting rod made an underhand roll cast from a raised casting deck platform easy, sending my pearl colored jerk shad towards my weedy target only inches above the water surface. Purposely, I overshot the open water pocket so as not to spook any bass from the lure’s splash… Continue Reading
By Joe Bucher No drag system out there today on any reel whether it’s baitcasting, spinning or any other style of big game reel can efficiently react to all the variables that present themselves on any given fishing outing. The perfect drag simply does not exist. Reel manufacturers do a great job overall of… Continue Reading
By Joe Bucher One of the biggest keys to finding late spring/early summer walleyes on many lakes is the presence of perch; especially smaller young-of-the-year ones. Walleyes will key strongly on this perch forage throughout most of the season. Newly emerging weeds are amongst the strongest locations to find schools of small 3 to… Continue Reading
By Joe Bucher I relate back to my days as a guide quite often in articles. Still to this day, it is my main foundation of musky memories and knowledge. Admittedly, I still rely on it a lot in my writing since it involved so many experiences over time. This past winter, someone in… Continue Reading
By Joe Bucher Strong wave action washed across the expansive weed point as I launched a perfect cast that sent my single spin well beyond the emergent weed clump into a small pocket of open water. Simultaneously, I engaged my reel to match the splash entry of the lure, which made the black/orange combo dart… Continue Reading