Fishing

St. Lawrence River bass fishing did not ease into Bassmaster’s season finale. It opened with so much smallmouth weight that a 20-pound bag, the kind most tournament anglers would gladly take almost anywhere else, suddenly looked like survival weight instead of statement weight. That is what makes Tucker Smith’s Day 1 lead more than a…

St. Lawrence River smallmouth are carrying the biggest promise of Bassmaster’s regular-season finale, but promise is not the same as a safe tournament plan. The Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River has record-weight potential, yet Lake Ontario weather may decide whether anglers can reach the fish that make those records possible. That is what…

A bass that kicks away from the boat can look perfectly fine and still be in trouble later. Good catch and release bass fishing is therefore not defined by whether the fish swims off; it is defined by how much avoidable stress the angler creates between the hookset and release. That distinction matters most when…

Mineral Lake anglers may get an October season if WDFW adopts the rule, with gains for access, local trips, and trout care concerns.

Bass water temperature is one of the fastest ways to stop fishing yesterday’s pattern. A shoreline that produced in May can look almost identical in July while the fish have shifted to a weed edge, rock break, shaded cover or deeper structure because the water around them has changed. The thermometer is not a magic…

Florida’s 2026 harmful-algae log is putting some of the state’s best-known freshwater fisheries back under scrutiny. Florida blue-green algae alerts and cautions have appeared around Lake Okeechobee, the St. Johns River system, Crescent Lake and Lake Jesup, forcing anglers to think about more than where bass are biting: they also need to know where water…

Alton Jones’ final event at Lake Erie is not just a retirement note tucked beside the Stage 7 leaderboard. It is a legacy story about how long a pro can keep adjusting as the sport changes around him, and what it means to leave the top level still thinking like a competitor. That is why…

Urchin baits for bass look like a lure designer lost a bet: a compact plastic core buried under a forest of legs, fibers, or tentacles. Yet in 2026, that strange silhouette has moved from Japanese-tackle curiosity to one of the season’s most consequential tournament trends. This is no longer a social-media bait living on novelty.…

Nighttime bass fishing becomes difficult when darkness is treated as daylight with the lights switched off. After sunset, bass still use familiar cover and travel routes, but loose casts, weak knots, and poor boat position become harder to correct. The edge is not owning a box of “night lures.” It is building a sequence: find…