After spending 60+ days on the water casting glide baits through cool fall mornings, weed edges, and timbered structure, I can tell you the best glide baits for musky are the lures that walk the dog without rolling, sink slow enough to stay in the strike zone, and survive the crushing teeth of a 40-inch […]

I have spent the last three fall seasons chasing trophy striped bass on Lake Texoma, the Chesapeake Bay tributaries, and a handful of landlocked reservoirs across the Mid-Atlantic, and one lure pattern has produced more schoolie-eating action than any other in my boat: the umbrella rig. After landing over 90 stripers on multi-arm rigs and […]

When I started chasing bass with finesse gear eight years ago, the Ned rig became my cold-water obsession. After logging hundreds of hours testing mushroom head jigs across reservoirs, farm ponds, and rocky rivers, I learned one hard truth: the best ned rig heads are the difference between a slow day and a 30-fish afternoon. […]

I've been chasing bass with shaky head jigs for over a decade now, and I can tell you this: when the bite gets tough and power techniques stop working, a properly rigged shaky head is the answer more often than not. After spending the last three months testing the best shaky head jigs across clear […]

Last summer I spent three straight weekends on a Florida lake where the hydrilla mats looked like green carpets floating on the surface. Standard flipping tactics got me a few bites, but the bigger largemouth were parked deep under the thickest canopy. That is when I switched fully to punching, and it changed how I […]

I've spent the last three summers chasing big bass through matted vegetation, lily pads, and dock shade, and the best topwater frogs have landed me more fish than any other lure category in my tackle box. After casting over 1,200 frogs through thick cover with our test team, I can tell you that nothing produces […]

I've spent the last decade chasing steelhead and salmon on Great Lakes tribs and Pacific Northwest rivers, and my tackle bag has held everything from custom Colville clickers to budget Amazon reels. The centerpin reel is the heart of float fishing: a free-spooling, drag-free tool that lets your bait drift naturally with the current, well […]

Pink salmon, also called Humpies, are the smallest and most aggressive of the five Pacific salmon species. Every odd-numbered year, millions of these hard-biting fish flood the rivers and beaches of the Pacific Northwest, and they are hungry almost the entire time they are around. That aggression is exactly why the best pink salmon lures […]

I've spent the last three summers chasing sockeye salmon from the Kenai to Baker Lake, and I'll be honest — most generic salmon advice falls apart the moment you hook one of these red-finned powerhouses. Sockeye salmon gear needs to be chosen with intent. These fish are plankton feeders in the ocean, so they rarely […]

I've spent the last three salmon seasons chasing king salmon across Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the Columbia River, and I've personally tested more rods, reels, flashers, and downrigger setups than I care to admit. When anglers ask me about the best chinook salmon trolling gear, I don't just pull up […]