Bass Fishing

Swimbait? Go small

With the introduction of Florida-strain largemouth bass into southern California in 1959, fish weighing as much as 20 pounds made that state’s waters treasured fishing grounds for the next world-record fish. Twenty-one of the heaviest 25 bass ever caught have come from California waters, mostly the San Diego city lakes. […]

Bass Fishing

Mining RDU’s ‘Golden Triangle’

Fishermen having trouble choosing a month to target largemouth bass on the three lakes around the Raleigh-Durham area can get answers from two groups — serious anglers or biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission — and they can take those recommendations to the bank(s). […]

Features

Make mine a MirrOlure

Fish can be caught any number of ways, but MirrOlures hold a special place with a number of saltwater fishermen, especially those who spend time in inshore waters. […]

Features

Beat the bonito blast

Bruce Trujillo looked at a dozen boats bobbing for position in the water around him. Choosing a path, he flipped a couple of Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow deep divers in the boat’s wake and began trolling for Atlantic bonito. […]

Features

Try these Carolinas turkey tricks

For the six weeks or so, we won’t be at breakfast very often. We’ll fall asleep early, while you’re barely finished watching Jeopardy after supper. Our fingers will be chalk-stained, and we’re not even teachers. We’ll have bags under the bags under our eyes. If we’re outside in the backyard during any daylight hours, you might find us looking for a big, thick tree truck to sit down against. Somebody from the office might call home to ask where we are and if we’re coming into work. […]

Features

Wilmington’s mixed bag

Anyone travelling around the Wilmington, N.C., area has got to cross at least one of three rivers — the Cape Fear, Northeast Cape Fear and Brunswick — but because very few boats are visible from the bridges across those rivers, fishing is often under the radar for many, which is a terrible mistake. […]

Features

Red shell game – Spring breakup of South Carolina redfish schools comes in March

It may not match winter in northern climates, but South Carolina does have a season that’s colder than the rest, and when it arrives, redfish gaggle up by the hundreds into tight groups in headwater creeks in marshes, providing anglers with easy-to-find targets. But as soon as Mother Nature turns up the heat at the approach of spring, the fish appear to scatter and vanish into thin air. […]

Crappie/Bream

Running the slab spawn

Saltwater fishermen often run the tide, moving from spot to spot within a bay or coastal creek to take advantage of a certain water depth where fish are biting. […]

Crappie/Bream

Crappie on a different plane

By the time March rolls around, crappie fishermen across the Carolinas are chomping at the bit for waves of slabs to invade the shallows. And even though tight-line and long-line trolling techniques are proven winners, guides like Brad Taylor of Batesburg, S.C., are adding another wrinkle, using planer boards to spread baits out even farther from the boat and access territory otherwise out of reach. […]

Crappie/Bream

The jig is up. But which one?

Walk into any tackle shop this time of year and you’ll likely be overwhelmed with choices of crappie jigs to use to tempt one of the country’s favorite gamefish. How do you decide which one(s) to buy and use?  […]