A recent scientific article in the journal Fisheries Research by Jacob Brownscombe et. al.(1) goes through the latest science behind successful catch-and-release best practices. The article entitled “Best practices for catch-and-release recreational fisheries – angling tools and tactics” contains key tactics for releasing fish back into the wild that will…
As the new season approaches I’ve been putting in some time and thought on rod and reel setups. With a smaller boat and a limited budget I can only run a certain number of setups that need to be flexible enough to cover a wide range of applications and a…
Wacky rigging a Senko style bait is a great technique for both largemouth and smallmouth bass. While I still have a lot to learn about the nuances of this technique the one thing I have learned is that if the fish are biting you can go though a lot of…
My son, an avid pike fisherman, turned me onto an interesting tidbit about information to be gained from the position of the hook in caught fish. Pike apparently prefer to ambush prey from the side and so tend have the hook embedded in the side of their mouths. When they…
I intend on fishing a couple of local one-day bass tournaments this summer and I think a drop shot rig will be a useful addition to my limited bass catching repertoire. There is also a spot (Bass Lake on Manitoulin Island) where I do a lot of perch fishing with…
Are you a finesse or power fisherman? What does that mean? What type of techniques are one or the other, or a bit of both? Power fishing is more about covering water and inducing reaction strikes, even from fish that aren’t actively feeding. Finesse fishing is trying to convince them…
I just purchased an assortment of silver and gold “Binsky” blade baits. Years ago I had some success with a blade bait fishing for bass and walleye, with one of the largest walleyes of the trip caught with one in faster flowing water. I haven’t used one in a few…
The different types of sinkers all have one common theme, to take your bait down to where the fish are. There is a wide array of ways that they accomplish this and not all of them are intuitive. Below is a list of a variety of sinker types along with…
I have been humbled. I considered myself a pretty good angler and have had some good success over the years. However, it appears I have a lot left to learn. Over the past weekend I participated in my first professional walleye tournament – the Sagamok Fall Walleye Classic on the…
On a recent trip trolling for lake trout it was interesting to observe patterns relating to lure colour effectiveness and light conditions. With all things being equal (depth of lure, lure type, line type, water clarity etc.) certain spoon colours worked better or worse depending on general light conditions. In…
