At this summer's ICAST fishing tackle trade show in Orlando, Fla., we saw an overwhelming array of new gear for anglers, including a host of great new spinning reels. Here are 10 of the best spinning reels of 2018. Anything Possible Profishiency Designed to make high quality design...

For many of us, the ice-fishing season is over, but open water fishing is still a little ways off. Some will make a trip to a river to get in on some open water angling, and others will travel north to find ice that is still safe, but for many, now is a down time for actually wetting a line...

Winter has arrived. The Midwest provides lots of fishing opportunities throughout the winter months for both open water and ice anglers. Many anglers like to go ice-fishing, many others enjoy fishing in the open water in rivers below dams. Regardless of where you go fishing, you want to stay...

I've had the good fortune over the past several decades to go fishing in lots of interesting places. I've also had the good fortune to have used lots of different fishing products, from rods and reels to lures to boats to whatever else anglers use to fool more fish. This past year was an unusual...

by Bob Jensen Lure presentation is always an important part of fishing success. Of course, you have to find them before you can catch them, but in open water or while ice-fishing, once you find the fish, you have to make them bite. One way to make them bite more often, which I learned quite a...

by Bob Jensen I went fishing last week in eastern Wisconsin with smallmouth ace Mike Gottheardt. The wind was blowing and it was chilly. It felt more like hunting season, and for many outdoors-people it was. We heard frequent gunshots. A weather front was going through, and that can often...

by Bob Jensen I got to fishing again this past week. My friend Mike Gottheardt and I were chasing smallmouth bass on a river in eastern Wisconsin. We caught 'em good: Lots of smallmouth and some nice ones at that. Nothing that would be considered a trophy, but some healthy bass that fought...

By Bob Jensen For many anglers, the 2014 open water fishing season is in the books. While there is still plenty of open water fishing to do, many anglers are doing different things this time of year. If you're one of those anglers, you need to be sure you winterized your boat motor. I run an...

By Bob Jensen For some reason, autumn is the time of year when I feel the need to share the productivity of drop-shot rigs. It's probably because the first time I ever tried drop-shotting was in the fall at least twenty years ago. My friend Barry Day had just returned from a trip to the West...

By Bob Jensen When I moved to north central Minnesota waaaaay too many years ago, I liked to chase largemouth bass. Many of my friends thought that was strange, as walleyes were the preferred fish of many anglers in the north during that era. And while it was true that walleyes were available...

By Bob Jensen I've said it so many times, and I don't like to be redundant, but the autumn period is a wonderful time to go fishing for pretty much any species of gamefish that swims in the Midwest. Walleyes, bass, northern pike; even muskies are susceptible to an angler's presentation in the...

By Bob Jensen For many people, Labor Day marks the end of summer or the beginning of fall, depending on how you look at it. For some anglers, Labor Day marks the end of the fishing season; for other anglers, Labor Day is the beginning of the best time of the year to be fishing. I like to fish...

by Bob Jensen Fishing is different things to different people. Some folks like to consider every aspect of why a fish was caught on a certain bait, was in a particular location at that time, and why that fish decided to bite just then. That's great. Curious anglers catch lots of fish and...

by Bob Jensen I just returned from my most recent trip to Kabetogama Lake in northern Minnesota. Kab is a 25,000 acre lake that has lots of islands. Lots of islands means that you can almost always find a place to fish regardless of wind conditions. Kab has a tremendous walleye population...

By Bob Jensen Planer boards have been a part of many a walleye anglers' arsenal for a long time. Salmon and trout anglers also employ boards frequently. Planer boards do so many good things when a trolling presentation is called for. They enable an angler to get lines and baits out away from...

By Bill Dance I love to wade creeks and fish small ponds and lakes. Fishing knee deep and casting for bass brings back memories of when I was a kid, and it is still one of my very favorite ways to spend a summer day. Light "finesse" tackle is perfect for this kind of fishing. It resembles...

by Bob Jensen In late spring and early summer, lots of fish species will be in shallow water. Panfish and bass will be in there spawning, and walleyes will be hanging around in the shallows after the spawn. If you're after fish that are in shallow water, you need to keep in mind that they...

by Bob Jensen When most anglers go fishing, they're out there to feel a fish pull back on their line. Usually, we hit the water with a plan for a specific species of fish, and some of the time, we're successful- the fish are eating what we're showing them. At other times, the targeted...

by Bob Jensen There are many factors that will determine if you get a fish to bite and then get it in the boat or on shore. First you've got to find them, then you've got to put a bait in front of them, then you've got to get them to bite. Once a fish eats your bait, that's when the fun...

Sidewinder Planer Board In my years as a fishing enthusiast I have come to realize that this industry tends to be full of copycats and knock offs and the planer board market is no different. I want to share with you a product that I recently came across that defies this pattern, that product is...