Fishing Guides & Tips

Technique

Wacky Rig Bass Fishing: Simple Setup, Serious Results

A hook through the middle of a stick worm keeps beating fancier baits on pressured fish. Wacky rig setup, O-rings, and where it outfishes the rest.

Technique

Punching Bass in Matted Vegetation

Under a summer grass mat the water runs 5–10 degrees cooler, and big bass bury in it. Punching gear, weights, and picking targets in thick vegetation.

Technique

Flipping and Pitching: Heavy Cover Bass Tactics

Flipping and pitching are cousins, not twins. When each one shines, and how to pull big bass out of matted hydrilla, timber, and laydowns up close.

Technique

Jerkbait Bass Fishing: Cold to Warm Water Tactics

A suspending jerkbait isn't only a winter bait — it produces from the coldest water through post-spawn and the fall schooling bite. Cadence by temp.

Technique

Swimbait Fishing for Giant Bass

The right trophy swimbait isn't always the biggest one. Matching gizzard and threadfin shad profiles, rigging, and the slow retrieve big bass demand.

Technique

Bass Fishing Clear Water: Stealth and Finesse

In five-plus feet of visibility bass can see the bait — and you. Stealth boat work, light line, and finesse presentations for gin-clear bass lakes.

Conditions

Barometric Pressure and Bass Fishing: What Actually Matters

Barometric pressure moves bass less than the dock sayings claim — the change matters, not the number. How fish actually react before and after a front.

Technique

Smallmouth Bass vs Largemouth: Key Differences

Smallmouth and largemouth aren't variations of one fish — they feed, hold, and fight differently. How those differences should change your approach.

Technique

Carolina Rig Setup: When Slow and Steady Wins

When pressured bass glue to the bottom and ignore moving baits, a Carolina rig dragged across channel-swing ledges keeps catching. Setup and cadence.

Technique

Topwater Bass Fishing: Dawn, Dusk, and Beyond

Dawn and dusk are money, but topwater bass eat all day when conditions line up. Choosing between poppers, walkers, and frogs — and how to work each.

Seasonal

Spawning Bass: Ethics, Tactics, and Timing

The spawn kicks off when water holds the mid-50s to low 60s — late March into May across the mid-South. Timing, bed tactics, and the ethics questions.

Technique

Lipless Crankbait Fishing: Ripping Through the Seasons

The lipless crankbait earns its deck spot year-round — ripping spring grass, covering scattered fish fast, and calling bass up when nothing's feeding.

Seasonal

Winter Bass Fishing: Slow Down and Catch More

Bass don't leave when water drops below 50 — they hold the same structure and eat slower. Winter speeds, bait choices, and the discipline to crawl.

Seasonal

Fall Bass Fishing: Follow the Shad Migration

As water slides from the 80s into the 50s, shad pull into the creeks and bass follow. Tracking the fall migration on TVA and flood-control lakes.

Technique

Vibrating Jig (ChatterBait) Setup and Technique

A vibrating jig shines in tea-stained water with a little current — hard vibration and flash like a fleeing shad. Setup, trailers, and its limits.

Technique

Hollow Body Frog Fishing: Mats, Pads, and Open Water

Frog blowups you can't stick are a timing problem, not bad luck. Hookset discipline, plus where frogs work beyond the mats — pads, lanes, and docks.

Technique

Night Fishing for Bass: Complete Setup Guide

After dark the lake wakes back up: big bass slide shallow and feed boldly. Rigging, lure choice, and boat setup for night fishing the summer heat.

Seasonal

Summer Bass Fishing: Beat the Heat Guide

Summer bass fishing is a location problem, not a technique problem. Where fish go when surface temps soar — and how to work deep structure and shade.

Seasonal

Bass Fishing the Pre-Spawn: Timing and Tactics

Pre-spawn turns on near 51-degree water, weeks before most anglers show up. Timing the winter-to-spawn transition and finding where staging bass hold.

Technique

Football Jig Bass Fishing: Deep Structure Guide

A football jig's head shape is built for chunk-rock ledges in 19–28 feet of water. Deep-structure jig fishing: dragging, stroking, and reading bottom.

Technique

How to Fish Heavily Pressured Public Lakes

Pressured bass aren't uncatchable, they're educated — about presentations, speeds, and boat position. Deliberate changes that exploit gaps they missed.

Conditions

Bass Fishing After a Cold Front: Complete Playbook

Post-front bass stay on the same structure — they just stop chasing. A guide's playbook for pace, patience, and scratching out a limit after the front.