The only factor limiting the number of crankbait colors available to crass-consumerist bass anglers is the amount and variety of paints on Earth. The pandemic may have caused supply chain shortages, limiting us to the basic color choices, but that doesn’t bother East Texas pro Keith Combs. “I...

I’ve been fortunate enough to spend more than my fair share of time with fishing outfitters and guides at camps, lodges, and destinations around the world. But, once I'm there, many times I've felt trapped with people I’ve never met before, with whom I have little in common except our choices of...

In 2008, I fished as a co-angler in the Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on Falcon Lake on the Texas-Mexico border. You know it’s an epic event when midway through the first day’s weigh-in, the tournament director makes an announcement that you shouldn’t bother entering a largemouth for the big...

I’m generally an unrepentant tackle buyer, but here’s an anecdote that makes me less than proud. A year ago, I put a “tickler” on an online merchant’s site that would alert me when a rare Japanese glide bait came back into stock. One day I got the email alert and was forced to act quickly, because I...

When your flip-flops melt on the pavement, your sandwich cooks itself, and ice doesn’t make it from the bag to the cooler in solid form, it’s officially the dog days of summer. As kids we yearned for them, and Alice Cooper welcomed them, but once you’re older they’re no longer quite as fun...

I am a surface lure fanatic, and for years I only trusted my topwater game to a trio of players—a popper, a walking bait, and a buzzbait. Groups of three are not new to many of you. If you attended Catholic school, then you know all about the Holy Trinity—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If...

It twitches a little, then throbs a little more. You manipulate it gently, but firmly, building a consistent rhythm. The pressure builds up. And then it builds some more. It’s almost unbearable. Finally, an explosion, liquids flying everywhere, and a simultaneous feeling of release and excitement...

Pete Robbins is a veteran writer who’s covered the bass world with a discerning eye for more than a decade. His work has appeared in many publications, including Bassmaster, Field & Stream, and Western Bass. He blogs regularly at Yamamoto’s Inside Line, and he’s covered more than a dozen Bassmaster...

Former Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange published a book called “Too Fat to Fish.” In my opinion, there’s no such thing. Years ago, I learned from my fishing mentor Bill Roberts that, “fat guys make the best jig fishermen—they’re slow, they’re deliberate, they take their time and that’s why they’re...

In 1988, Guido Hibdon won the Bassmaster Classic on Virginia’s James River flipping a jig tipped with a “Guido Bug.” That trailer—Hibdon’s secret weapon—was a soft plastic crawfish designed by his son, Dion, as part of a school science project a decade earlier. The kid had taken a freshly procured...