The live-well is a combination of artificial lake environment, traveling aquarium, fish motel, emergency room, and a source of bragging rights. Before the advent of catch and release for bass anglers, we did not have live-wells in the average fishing boat. Many anglers simply pulled a stringer out of their tackle box and dropped it over the side of the boat. In fact, the most a well equipped angler had was a large cooler with lots of ice, after all most fish went to the freezer anyway.

A lot of the best fishing requires the use of a boat to access the hottest fishing spots or the areas where the fish are holding a pattern. During the most placid of days, there shouldn’t be a problem, but as we all know, conditions can change at the drop of a hat. All of a sudden you have some wind gusts that will throw you and your boat off course or away from a school of fish you are targeting. This might be one of the most frustrating components to fishing from a boat and makes for a lot of time wasted trying to get repositioned. There is a solution to your windy fishing problems, a Minn Kota PowerDrive V2. The ability to control your boat is extremely important since it puts you in prime fishing areas, so having an under-powered trolling motor or one that is too small for your boat size is going to significantly hinder your ability on the water.

Spincast reels have long had the stigma of being just for the novice angler, but they are an affordable option for a freshwater reel. While it might be the simplest of reels and easiest to use, spincasting reels are not without their down falls or issues that you have to overcome. They have the ability to be just as productive as a baitcasting reel or a spinning reel.

It was an excellent morning to go fishing. The sun was shining bright and felt warm on my face in the cool morning air. There was a slight breeze blowing in the bright blue cloudless sky. Every angler looks forward to perfect days like these to partake in the wonderful sport of fishing!

Next to the image of a young boy holding his first fish with a straw hat on or the iconic vision of a marlin leaping out of the water, one of the most often viewed images of fishing is surf fishing. Let me paint the picture for you. The sun is beaming over head, the water is breaking on the jetty and lapping against rocks, the gulls and seabirds are suspended in the air, and a lone angler with toes in the sand waiting for the long surf fishing rod to bend with the strike of a fish; pretty picturesque if you ask me. Some might think that becoming the angler in that image is harder than it really is, but for the coastal angler it is probably a daily occurrence. So the question then becomes ‘how do I tackle surf fishing to have the same experience?’

If it's summer on a Midwest lake you can count on two things, hot weather and deep fish. If the fish are deep, either a Texas rig or a Carolina Rig (C-rig) are often your best weapons. Both of these rigs will catch fish, but how you decide which set up to choose and how you should rig it is based on the conditions you're facing. This article will focus on a few generic rules of thumb to help you answer the when, where, and why in the debate of the Carolina rig versus the Texas rig.

A lot of times, folks who aren’t as familiar with fishing might think that it is just a sport for the experienced, but fishing can be enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels. Remember, the pros weren’t always at the top of their game, they all started out at some point. Fishing beginners don’t need to spend a heap of money and they do not need to have their tackle boxes filled to the brim. An angler can get by with just the bare essentials along with a few tips, and still have a successful day on the water. Here are 10 tips I give most anglers who are just beginning to get their feet wet in the sport of fishing.

We are heading into the time of year when fish are in transition. Some will be spawning, some may have already spawned, and some may just now be beginning the pre-spawn stage. It can be feast or famine throughout the spring fishing season and into summer for those of us trying to catch bass.

Mild and slow bass fishing; that's what you will face in your tournament fishing during the early months of year. On the local and state level, most of you just started the competitive fishing season. More likely than not, the only the lakes where tournaments will be held in spring will be in the Deep South, Midwest, or on a power plant lake. If you fish a hot-water lake, you won’t have to pay as much attention to the weather as you would on a natural lake.

With the arrival of spring, anglers will find that most big bass have migrated to shallower waters. The time to catch Mrs. Big is now here! There will be some days you can let down your trolling motor at the boat ramp, start fishing with just about anything you select from your tackle box, and catch some wall-hangers. You can fish the same area the very next day and not even get a nibble. Those of you who have experienced situations like this can attest to its validity. Areas will be hot one day and then completely shut off the next leaving you to wonder where the heck the bass went. They are still there, but they have other things on their mind; either they started their spawning ritual in the area you are fishing, or a spring cold front pushed them back to deeper water.