Craig Springer, Author at Guide Outdoors

Jigging Metal For Smallmouth

Most anglers own a collection of jigging spoons, but for many, they are relegated to the third or fourth drawer of the tackle box. For those that jump on this vertical approach, though, big fish and plenty of them are yours to reap! Primarily a fall tactic that produces tremendous results, spoons are also a proven method for connecting with summer smallmouth. Knowing where to look and what to do will give you the knowledge for getting into fish.

Smallmouth Vertical Jigging Tips

There are certain days when a vertical jigging approach is the best way to catch the most and biggest smallmouth bass in a lake. Here are some tips to improve your success for this presentation. Whether you use tubes, drop-shot rigs or spoons, practicing your vertical presentation during the summer will ensure you’re ready to catch fat, football-sized bronzebacks come autumn!

Soft-Plastic Stickbait Tips For Smallmouth Bass

There’s nothing fancy in the design of a soft-plastic stickbait, but its
fish-catching ability is far from ordinary. On days when finesse tactics are
what’s catching fish, a Senko or similar style stickbait is one of a handful of
lures I’ll rely on to coax smallies into biting. Here are some tips on fishing
the simple, but effective soft-plastics known as stickbaits.

Be Wary Of Fish Diseases

Disease is ever present in populations of people, plants, and in game and fish, virtually all-living organisms. A couple of fish diseases have been in the news a lot — Whirling Disease and Largemouth Bass Virus. There’s good reason for the high profile of these two aliments. They both have the potential to damage sport fish over much of North America.

Study Shows Cutthroats Feed More In Afternoon Than Morning

Nine Wyoming cutthroat trout were implanted with radio transmitters and followed from mid-July to late August. To get a complete picture of what the trout were doing around the clock, each fish was individually monitored for at least one minute in every hour, over a 24-hour period. The study revealed many things including that the cutthroats fed 15- to 19 hours each day with only 40 percent of the fish feeding after dark. Ninety percent of fish fed at dusk and dawn. And based on stomach flushes, trout fed more than three times as much in the afternoon than in the morning.

The Amazing Walleye

I had my first encounter with walleye on the front end of an electrofishing boat. Ohio’s Maumee River is renowned for the massive numbers of walleyes that make their way upstream to spawn. They swim in from Lake Erie, and we were there to collect spawn. Few would argue that you can find a better tasting fish. Few would argue that other fish fight harder. Besides cool, deep lakes, you can find walleyes now in almost every state that has cool and deep, man-made reservoirs that provide habitat.

Dixie’s Brook Trout

In northern Georgia, clear, cool waters spill down rocky creek bottoms, profusely populated with aquatic bugs. The tops of huge overhanging sycamores shade the water while their roots help form undercut banks. It looks like the kind of place you’d drift dry for a big brookie. But brook trout habitat this is not. Instead, the flyfisher is likely to land a little-known member of the black bass clan — the redeye bass.

Earn Your Stripes With Tiger Muskies

Outdoorsmen simply love hunting and fishing, if only we could do both at once. Maybe as close as you can get is casting for tiger muskie. Tiger muskies are an aggressive sport fish, by all accounts, more so than muskies or northern pike. And they do get big! The all-tackle record stands at 51 pounds and 3 ounces, caught in Wisconsin in 1919.

Going Mobile: Brown Trout Movement

Immigrants, they are … brown trout, that is. They’re common in so many waters across the country, from New England to New Mexico. The fish’s reputation as being wily and tough on the end of a line no doubt led to the fish first being moved over to the U.S. They are particularly sensitive to sunlight, and try to avoid bright, sunlit waters. Scientific studies also supports that brown trout get around after dark, or in low light.