In this rat race we call life, there is no hesitation.  High-paced, instant gratification, fast delivery, instant answers via Siri or Google, there is no delay.  Well, the secret to fishing?  Patience, slow-it-down, hesitation.  Especially when it comes to frogging.  I constantly hear from fellow fisherman, "I hate frogging because I have a hard time with hookups!".  Yet they keep at it.  Why????  The huge topwater blowups.  They are the heroin of the recreational/tournament fishing industry. I've read many-a-articles about frog fishing.  I, as do many anglers, love the topwater blowups.  I've spend hours refining my frog-game.  I'm about to share with you the deep-dark secrets of frog fishing.  For the real-world.  Without lure sponsors.  Without a fancy $70,000 bass boat.  Pay attention, because I'm revealing my secrets. Disclaimer: I am not sponsored by any lure company.  My favorite frogs are Lunkerhunt and BoohYah.  Why?  A balance between product

Well winter has hit and it has hit hard!  Daily highs are barely creeping into the 30's and some days the lows are in the negatives.  This brutally cold weather in combination with some of the shortest days of the year is...well...frustrating.  It really doesn't help that I don't ice fish or hunt, thus leaving me with the ever growing cabin fever. ^Does this sound like you?? If so let me help you!  When cabin fever sets in there are two things I do to get me ready for Spring.  The first is tying up a whole mess of jigs and the second is putting the reels through a deep clean.  Now I am not a big expert on the latter but I can give some help with the jigs. Tying jigs is something that I have been doing for a few years now.  There is something that can be so rewarding about the process.  There is nothing better than tying a new color you thought up and catching fish on it!  It's a great feeling knowing that your ingenuity and know how made that and that it act

5lb Thick Fall Largemouth on Northland Tackle Spinner Size, brand, blades, colors, material, hooks, trailers, blah, blah, blah. So many opinions and marketing exist in the world of spinner baits, my go-to lure for rivers year-round and fall fishing. Why? Three reasons: they are inexpensive (mostly), effective, and versatile.  Some say use dark colors in sunlight, bright colors in clear water, dark colors in dark water, and white when the wind is blowing ESE at 5 MPH...... I'm about to give you real world spinner bait experience...my credentials being the fish I've caught on them throughout this post (respectable fish by Wisconsin standards). I've used spinner baits for many years. I read all the articles, watched the videos, and scoured the forums. Thus, I was a spinner expert.  I was completely wrong.  Last year I hit a local river for Small mouth Bass with a family member (yes, a gas powered vessel).  This was an awakening and humbling experience. I had just

Paddling goodbye to my last kayak sunset of 2016 After the terrible bite during our last trip, a group of us kayaking buddies decided to plan one last hoorah for the season.  This time at a lake where we never get skunked (though sometimes that means landing only dink bass and pike).  But we want to end the season on a good note and with slime on our kayaks.  My Home Boss (wife) authorized this last full-day hoorah with the agreement I would put the kayaks away for the season the next day (in her defense I was tournament fishing HARD the last few months).  I offered the barter as my body was battered and tired from the countless hours on the water pushing myself in the KBF tournaments.  The frigid temperatures only made my aches and pains worse, I needed time to recover before ice fishing season. The evening temperatures in Northern Wisconsin has been dropping into the teens and 20s.  With the time change, we opt to meet at 8 AM to mitigate numb fingers from working our bait cast

The first weekend in November.  Typically in Wisconsin the temperatures and hunting seasons are leaving lakes mostly barren.  A few walleye and musky fisherman remain.  Pleasure crafts are winterized, the trees are nearly completely bare, and a few lingering flocks of geese pass overhead headed to warmer climates for the winter.  This year is different, daytime temperatures are in the 60s, record highs.  Overnight temperatures are near or below freezing. This temperature swing makes kayak fishing extra challenging, and dangerous.  Water temperatures continue to drop.  Falling in the water before the air temperatures rise after noon could turn deadly.  The temperature swings also make the bite slow and difficult.  With the nice weather still in the forecast, a group of us decided to plan a trip to a local lake in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin. Chang Lor of www.cxfishing.com and his first sunrise on a FeelFree Lure We arrive early as the sun is rising.  It is a balmy 30 degre

Hey all! I would like to apologize for my absence lately!  I recently just returned from the great state of Texas. It's actually what this article is about...just to clarify I didn't catch a PB, I didn't see an armadillo, and I didn't have the best steak of my life...so don't expect any of that! Biggest fish I caught at Lake Fork So many trees! Picture by: popeslanding.com The reason for my visit to Texas was for the Yak4It Tournament of Champions, which I qualified for through the Kayak Bass League Championship.  It was an honor to attend this elite event, and I was very excited to visit Texas for the first time.  More importantly I was going to have the honor to fish one of the best bass lakes in the nation, Lake Fork.  No matter where you live in the nation, I guarantee you have heard of Lake Fork.  It has been at the top bass lakes for years.  It has produced multiple bass over 15lbs and continually produces double digits on a weekly basis.  Whil

The end of October.  The beautiful fall colors have dropped from the limbs, now rotting on the forest floor and my gutters.  The water temperatures are below 50, the air temperature in the 30's at night.  I hit one of our favorite lakes with a buddy, hoping to get into some of the 5-6 lb. bass of recent weeks. I was currently holding onto 2nd place with 60.75" for the KBF Regional Challenge (MN, WI, MI).  My fellow FeelFree Kayak Fishing Team member Mike McKinstry was 1.5" ahead of me in first place.  I needed 2 21" tankers or a 22" monster to move ahead (note 3 fish bags over 60" are extremely tough in this region - we had both been blessed with an epic month). The conditions seemed right.  The skies overcast, rain in the forecast, and a light breeze.  But they weren't.  The water temperatures low, bass were not as active.  We found ourselves catching Northern Pike and dink bass.  I had landed a nice 24" Northern Pike with a good amount of m