Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2025 i In-Fisherman

Max ELITE Spinning Abu Garcia Max Elite spinning reel delivers performance and reliability in a sleek, lightweight package. The reel features Rocket Line Management System for better line control, smooth Carbon Matrix drag, and AMG2 gearing system. With A-Symmetric carbon frame and rotor, the reel handles demanding conditions. Nine stainless-steel ball bearings + 1 roller bearing provide smooth operation. Available in four sizes (2000, 2500, 3000, and 4000)— $109.99, abugarcia.com Drip Swimmer The Berkley PowerBait Drip Swimmer has a realistic minnow profile and ultra-tight swimming action with subtle vibration from a tiny paddle tail, this contrasting with the Drip Minnow, which has a straight tail. HD Tru Color technology gives anglers 14 unique color options. Available in 3, 4, and 5 inches—$9.99 (5 count), berkley-fishing.com XBRAID Sinking Applicable to fishing…

Trolling in my youth was a different game than I know it to be now. Back then, it was with Grandpa, up north, dragging spoons behind Dacron when the panfish weren’t going. We could always get a few pike to go, sometimes even a walleye, bass, or even dogfish and sheepshead. The latter weren’t preferred by my Bohemian grandfather, but he found ways to cut around pike bones, as he enjoyed the taste of most things that swam. We were fishing simply to catch, without trying to trace a breakline or precision-troll a basin at depth, so the rods we used didn’t bend too much under the strain of a spoon and an idling tiller-powered aluminum boat. Trolling rods and the situations we deploy them in have come a long…

The deer flies knock me down twice as I trundle my kayak to the lake, but I get to my feet and press on, doing my best to avoid the luxurious stands of poison ivy that crowd the “trail.” A little before eight in the morning and it’s already oppressively muggy. But it’s the 4th of July, a birthday I share with this republic we call home. The hike plus bugs multiplied by humidity equals I will not see another soul. My goal is a single bass over eighteen. Inches not pounds. This is Wisconsin, not California. It’s a birthday gift I’ve never received. I’ve got a 1990s vintage Bill Dance baitcaster spooled with 20-pound braid and a handful of hollow-bodied frogs stowed in the yak. Win or lose, I’ll…

Bass Bite Birds Nature Notes—As omnivorous predators, bass are known to occasionally eat birds. They’re not common prey for obvious reasons—wings bring mobility in a different dimension. But there’s no denying the fascination of bass with birds. Years ago when I lived in Massachusetts, I watched an adult red-winged blackbird seemingly taunt a lunker bass from its perch on a stand of cattails. The bird purposefully swooped down and fluttered just above the surface, as a bass that looked about 6 pounds rushed to the surface to try and intercept it. After the commotion settled, the bird did it again and again, until the bass lost interest or swam off. More often, bass consume more helpless prey, such as fuzzy ducklings following their mother across shallow bays, or fledgling birds…

For many anglers, once summer sets in, pike fishing means being pestered by 1- or 2-pound hammerhandles. Often, these fish are caught in areas that produce much larger specimens during early spring. By midsummer, though, big pike often seem to disappear. Finding and catching larger pike (over 7 pounds) depends on a basic understanding of the lake and reservoir types where these fish reside. Factoring in weather conditions also plays a role. The best bet for consistent pike fishing is on deeper lakes that still contain cool, well oxygenated water. In shallow, weedy lakes, fishing for big pike shuts down when the water gets warm, because warm water stresses larger fish. Big pike in these lakes do go on brief feeding sprees under ideal weather conditions, such as before an…

In many waters, catfish offer the best of both worlds to anglers—high catch rates in addition to large overall size of fish. You might catch more crappies at some times and at some locales, but none of them are above 4 pounds, let alone 50 of them. For year-round catfishing success, the key is using presentations and techniques that are flexible, fast, and effective for situations shallow to deep, from the bank to the offshore expanse. While cutbait and other natural baits are always on the menu for channel cats, dipbaits and punchbaits are a main ingredient to these super systems that keep you moving and grooving and putting more cats in the boat across the seasons. Stopping by the Bank Every cork bite is different. Crappies take off sideways.…

More than a few anglers and the public in general view catching panfish as child’s play—an easy-to-catch group of gamefish that collectively are the perfect patsies to get folks hooked on fishing before they move on to more challenging quarry. While scads of silver-dollar sunnies swarming around the dock may fit this bill, mature panfish, no matter the species, aren’t easy marks. Especially the supertankers. Technology can certainly help you zero in on some of the biggest panfish around, such as when hunting down offshore slabs with forward-facing sonar. But not always. Situations abound in which panzers hunt and hunker in sonar-unfriendly environments. And not everyone has the cash or inclination to take tech that far. Science is another matter. It’s free to anyone willing to study and learn. You…

Being warmer than the air, the river exhaled. Its dense breath could be seen for miles from a high vantage, snaking through its dark green forest in the civil twilight before dawn. The sun rose behind that diffuse lampshade of fog to illuminate our first tentative drifts through the darkened pools of the Big Manistee River. On the second drift, some hidden magician waved his wand and “poof.” The slipfloat was gone so fast it didn’t seem to go under. It just disappeared. Line blurred off the spool, disappearing almost as magically. A silver king took the bait and went sizzling through the maze of fallen timber that is the lower Big Manna. The usual fire drill ensued. You can hoist anchor and chase or you can wave goodbye. The…

“Our gang of six from Iowa was about done with a sit-down lunch at a busy fast food joint off I-35 north. We’d made a third of the drive to Sioux Lookout and we were already road weary. The next morning we’d fly out of Knobby’s for yet another week in Canada. Doc took a swig of caramel-colored sugar water to wash down a ketchup-soaked morsel, and said, “You ever wonder how a real fisherman would do up there?” “What do you mean real?” the kid said. “We go fishing, so aren’t we real fishermen?” “Let me rephrase that,” Doc said. “How would a professional fisherman do up there?” “Like those crazy guys crab fishing off Alaska, or the good old boys bass fishing in Alabama?” the policeman said. “More…