Freshwater Fishing
Fish Sensory Systems – Part 1
We make the assumption that sensory systems involved in feeding are equally involved in catching fish with lures or real food impaled on a hook. […]
Columns
Columns
Don’t scrimp on strings
Many components make up modern compound bows, and the string system is one of the most important. The string and cables on today’s bows are the equivalent of a vehicle’s power train, providing power and timing. […]
Fishing
The Sanshouo
Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits’ (GYCB) latest hot lure, the Sanshouo, almost didn’t make it off the cutting room floor.
Fishing
Seat of your pants sonar
Sonar fishfinders have always helped us find fish and fish-holding structure, but helping us precisely target fish has been another story. Early on,bulb-type flashers supported vertical jigging. You dropped your lure and watched its flash move down to a flash marking a fish and then, hopefully, all you had to do was set the hook. The problem was that not all the nearby fish were directly under our boats — not even all the fish we saw on our screens. Some were at the outside edge of the cone of sound generated by our transducers and we couldn’t tell if they were to our left or right or off our bow or transom.
Deer Hunting
More jawbone talk
In recent installments of Happy Trails we have kicked around various aspects of both the science and art of aging whitetails on and off “the hoof.” Most deer hunters want to become as proficient as possible at estimating deer age BEFORE pulling the trigger, but it is equally important to either confirm or revise your eyeball estimate after the kill. […]
Bass Fishing
Lake Okhissa for June bass
I’ll choose 1,075 acre Lake Okhissa near Bude, Mississippi, for June bass fishing. A Bill Dance Signature Lake in the Homochitto National Forest, Okhissa is deep and clear with plenty of hydrilla and dollar pads. The bass will be on their summer pattern, so I’ll be fishing a frog pattern and a flipping and pitching pattern. […]
Bass Fishing
Summertime bass care
When the water warms above 75 degrees, there are three simple things bass anglers need to do to keep their catch alive. […]
Hunting
Killer new crossbows
In this day and age, the archery industry — like many others — has become extremely competitive and overcrowded, with new manufacturers constantly entering the marketplace. This is especially true of the crossbow market, so when I heard another new company had entered the fray, honestly, I rolled my eyes. […]
Fishing
The Cooyon Croaker
Zach Dubois, 24, has a highly successful sac-a-lait grub on the market and recently introduced the Cooyon Croaker, a plastic frog sure to appeal to bass fishermen wherever bass eat frogs.
Dubois said he fields many comments about his relative youth in the artificial lure manufacturing business. He realizes many people have been established in the market 40 to 80 years.
Fishing
What’s in a software update?
Lowrance’s latest software update reminded me that it has been a while since I mentioned how important updates are to all of us — no matter what brand of electronics we run.
Deer Hunting
Ground proving buck age
Ground proving bucks means harvesting bucks that you believe meet your minimum goals by collecting their lower jaw bones. […]
Bass Fishing
Fish Pickwick Lake for 30 May bass per day
Pickwick bass fishing can’t get any better than in May. From only two or three schools of bass, you may catch 30 or more bass per day. If rising water happens, the bass will be in this newly inundated water in the grass, bushes and trees. About the middle of May, the bass will be pulling out of the creeks and staging at their mouths or in the cuts and ditches in the flats leading to the river channel. At the end of May, I’ll look for bass out on the main river channel. […]