Following Smallies
August 3, 2010 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Featured, Our Outdoors
By Nick Simonson
It’s a jungle out there. Every man for himself. Greed is good. These mantras aptly describe the competitive drive in the world around us; natural laws that even mankind hasn’t rid from our collective psyche after millennia of becoming civilized. Whether it is in big business or the food [...]
Homemade Gypsy Jig
May 21, 2010 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Featured, Our Outdoors
By Nick Simonson
When I was just getting the hang of what worked and what didn’t on the water, I stumbled on what was, at the time to me, a miracle lure. It was a banana head jig with a fan-shaped skirt made from krystal flash called the Gypsi Jig. For that summer, it [...]
The Coffee Tube
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
In the outdoors, it is tough to beat a hot cup of coffee in the morning. In the pre-dawn twilight of a fishing trip, a steaming hot Thermos-top-cup of java gears the senses up and gives an angler a reason to pause between casts, all the while adding a mountain-grown aroma to the [...]
The Fish I’ve Known
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
We should all be so lucky to fish small waters, and fish the same small waters often. Time and time again Ixve said that our affinity with a certain river or small lake helps us take stock of the resource, to treat it respectfully and to see what a conservation ethic can do [...]
The Texas Fishing Rig “Texas Rig”
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing
Nick Simonson
Summertime and the living’s easy. The fishing is pretty good too as predator species begin to enter a warm-weather pattern of eating, eating and more eating. Bass hide along weedlines, under docks and around stumps in wait for any prey to swim by. One of the most effective rigs for bass at this time [...]
Fishing in May
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” This line, an eye-to-eye plea by Matthew Broderick as the title character in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, sums up our very existence.
For anglers, month of May moves even faster. Between graduations, [...]
The Rapala X-Rap
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Northern Pike Fishing, Walleye Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
Whether your treasure on the water is colored gold, bronze or silver, the X-Rap by Rapala (www.rapala.com) marks the spot for great fishing.
My experience with crankbaits has been limited; being predominately a river angler has restricted my usual arsenal to jigs and soft plastics which are comparatively inexpensive to most other lures. Crankbaits, [...]
Beginning Again
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
The orange jig and twister shot out from the tip of my rod, driven by the laws of physics and anticipation. The gray Fireline in tow spiraled wildly like the contrail of a botched rocket launch. The lure hung in the air, suspended indefinitely in the blue slivers of sky between the gray [...]
Topwater Fishing
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Northern Pike Fishing
By Jon Mitzel
Long-awaited May is a great time to enjoy catching fish on surface baits. Northern pike and largemouth bass are aggressive fish and will readily attempt to chase food on or near the surface. The action is tough to beat, and most hits are vicious in nature. What an exciting way to catch a [...]
Hot Fishing Lures for 2007
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Walleye Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
Hang in there, it can’t snow forever.
As if spring fever wasn’t bad enough, a fresh 16 inches of snow over the last week has put the “cabin” into “cabin fever.” But while nature-induced lockdown might dampen most spirits; anglers know that now is the time to stock up on tackle and read up [...]
Summertime Bass Fishing Tips
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing
Nick Simonson
Slop, gunk, or matting, call it what you will, but by this time in the summer, the combination of weed tops and surface vegetation has sealed off water access for shoreline anglers and limited the area that boat anglers can work. But those anglers who overlook this green gobbledygook could also be passing up [...]
Simple Bass Fishing Techniques
February 11, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing
PJ Maguire
The first step I took as a fisherman was from catching sunnies off the dock to casting for bass along the docks. It is true that bass are a sunfish, so in theory this is a logical step. Most of my friends, like me, first started serious fishing for bass and then transitioned into [...]
Springtime River Smallmouth
February 9, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing
By Nick Simonson
As the last few inches of ice fade from the shorelines of area rivers, it is next to impossible not to think about springtime fishing. It is even more difficult not to think of the hundreds of bronze flashes from springtime fishing trips in the past.
In the land where the walleye is king, [...]
Praise for Polarized Sunglasses
February 9, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Crappie Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
As I pulled up the trolling motor and hoped for a clean glide over the small sandy delta leading into a back bay on my favorite lake for Minnesota’s Bass Season opener, I was disappointed to not immediately see signs of fish ahead of the Grumman.
My yellow lab, Gunnar, and my father’s new [...]
Smallie Streamers – Flies for Bass Fishing
February 5, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Fly Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
Except for a few wily grayling in the cold running streams of northern Norway, few freshwater fish have fought as valiantly on the flyrod as the smallmouth bass of my home water. These fish, from late April through October on the Sheyenne River and others like it in the upper Midwest, are happy [...]
Best Bass Fishing Lures of Today
February 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Other Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
Topwater fishing for bass is nothing new. Anglers have experienced the excitement of having bass explode on lures such as the Zara Spook, Rebel Pop-R, and pre-rigged surface plastics like the Bass Rat for decades. But recent revolutions in plastic baits have bass anglers buzzing at the tackle shop and new frog baits [...]
Oh Deer, it’s Smallie Time!
February 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Other Fishing
By Nick Simonson
While the tension mounts as you await this year’s deer application results (enjoy the next eight weeks), take some time to relax with the hardiest fish in our waters – the smallmouth bass. Just don’t expect your heart rate to get any lower. With a few simple items of tackle and the following [...]
Smallmouth By the Numbers
February 1, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Other Fishing
Our Outdoors
Nick Simonson
What a surprise! A stretch of warm spring days shook winter’s chill off some bronze scales and more than a week earlier than last year, I landed my first smallmouth bass. There’s no better time than now, during the prespawn, to search for big brown bass for some spring catch-and-release fun. By doing [...]
Carolina Rig Fishing
January 31, 2009 by admin
Filed under Bass Fishing, Other Fishing
By Kevin Dahlke
The Carolina Rig is a technique that has been around for quite some time. It is used to cover an area quickly to find out what kind of structure you are fishing. Personally, I have put this technique on the back burner for the last number of years, but as of the last [...]
River Smallmouth
January 31, 2009 by admin
Filed under Other Fishing
By Nick Simonson
As the last few inches of ice fade from the shorelines of area rivers, it is next to impossible not to think about springtime fishing. It is even more difficult not to think of the hundreds of bronze flashes from springtime fishing trips in the past.
In the land where the walleye is king, [...]
