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In college, I always made sure to use every single “sick day” the professors gave us. I’d power through illness and hangover to be in class, but if the bite was hot anywhere within a few hours of campus, my desk was empty.
Some colleges are much closer to good fishing than mine, and I wonder if that would have made me a better or worse student. It damn sure would have made my college years better. If you’re about to finish high school and want...

Catfish are what not exactly selective when it comes to their diet. In fact, they’re some of the most opportunistic feeders in freshwater. But that doesn’t mean they’re always easy to catch. Water temp, clarity, current, time of day and time of year are all influence their willingness and ability to feed. They’re also factors you need to consider when selecting bait.
We’re not talking about breaking records here; we’re talking...

The world record muskie is currently living in Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake—or so biologists think. In a recent press release, the Minnesota DNR announced that earlier this year they landed the largest muskie they’ve ever seen. It happened while biologists were electrofishing for walleye.
“We were not looking for muskie,” said aquaculture biologist Keith Wiggins-Kegg. “That wasn’t our objective.”
Biologists couldn’t resist getting a closer...

Roy Groves was one of the greatest catfishermen in history. His fishing prowess made him famous among fellow river rats in the Great Plains, and grainy photos of him with enormous catfish spread across two decades show why.
At one point, Groves held both world and state records for blue catfish and channel catfish. He claimed each in 1949 with a 94-pound blue cat and 55-pound channel cat from the James River in South Dakota. The blue cat world...

My first fishing memory involves pulling bullhead after bullhead from my grandpa’s stock pond. They outcompeted everything else in the shallow waterhole and would grab any bait as soon as it hit the water. It was the perfect situation for a budding fisherman who just wanted fish on the line. But I soon longed for greater challenge, something more sophisticated like bluegill, bass and crappie.
I asked my father as to why they put so damn many...

A couple years ago, I saw a blog post that encouraged bass anglers to keep a bottle of Coke with them at all times. And no, it wasn’t for the caffeine high.
Instead, fishermen were supposed to use this magical elixir as a healing agent for bleeding fish. The thought went that when a fish is gill hooked or gut hooked, you could pour Coke on the wound to stop the bleeding. The soda provided a combination of carbonation and acid to clean and...

With walleye season winding down across Minnesota, fishermen from all over the state descended on the most famous lakes for a final weekend of action. Friday and Saturday offered beautiful weather: temps in the 30s with barely a breeze. Sunday, however, ushered in a storm that brought straight-line winds and subzero temps.
Many anglers were aware of the approaching storm. News stations covered the ground blizzard in advance of Sunday, and local...