Fishing Columns

Babe Winkelman is a nationally-known outdoorsmen who has been teaching people to fish and hunt for 25 years. Watch his award-winning “Good Fishing” and “Outdoor Secrets” television shows on The Outdoor Life Network, WGN-TV, Fox Sports Net, The Men’s Channel, The Great American Country, and the Sportsman’s Channel.

I Love Those Windy Fishing Days!

Picture a sleek walleye boat skimming the smooth surface of a lake. Imagine a topwater plug being twitched between the lily pads, a big largemouth lurking just below the unruffled calm of a peaceful bay. Or a walleye boat trolling on sky-blue water that sparkles like diamonds.

Bushwacking for Backwater Brutes

There’s something really special about having a secret fishing spot. Maybe it’s a tiny piece of structure that only you know about on a busy lake. Or better yet, it’s an entire lake that nobody else knows exists. I like to discover and keep both kinds of secrets, but my favorite clandestine fishing spot is a small remote lake. I have several such secret haunts, and no, I’m not telling you where they are.

“Soft-Spooning” for Winter Walleye

I’ve written about ice fishing for walleyes before. If you’ve watched our “Good Fishing” television program, you’ve seen us take walleyes on live bait slip-bobber rigs, tip-ups, jigging spoons and other techniques. We’ve demonstrated the effective use of sensitive sonar, GPS and underwater cameras. All of these are ice-fishing tools of the trade.

Cool water, hot bass fishing!

It’s sunrise on a Minnesota lake. In back bays, waterfowlers unleash their barrages on mallards, widgeon and Canada geese. The teal and most of the woodies have already high-tailed it for warmer climes to the south, and the big flights of divers are still bottled up in Canada.

Fall Walleyes on Rigs & Redtails

Big. Hungry. Either word is a good one when describing a walleye. When you can use both words in the same sentence, that’s as good as it gets! Such is the case when it comes to fishing for walleyes in the fall. It’s a magic time of year, as fish strap on the feed bag to put on winter weight.

If you could only fish one bait for bass…

Talk about a tough question! Ask yourself: If you had to pick just one lure to use on largemouth bass for all eternity, what would it be? A lot of people have posed that question to me over the years. And I confess, the answer has been different at various stages of my career.

Catch More and Bigger Spawning Sunfish

Big bluegills fall into three categories: Keepers, Nice Ones and Pigs. Let’s talk about how to catch pigs. You know the type – slabs that are wider than the span of your hand, with bullish heads and a fighting attitude that makes Mike Tyson look like the Avon Lady.

Catch More Spawning Panfish - Part Two of Three

Authors Note: Last month I intended this month’s column to be “part two of two” and to deal both with spawning crappies and sunfish. Well, as I got into it I decided to break the two species into two separate columns. So today we’ll just talk about crappies. Next time… sunfish.

Catch More Spawning Panfish - Part One of Three: TEMPERATURE

“They spawned early.”
“They spawned late.”
“It only lasted a few days.”
“It’s over.”
“They didn’t spawn this year.”

It’s always interesting to hear anglers recount their luck during the annual panfish spawn.

Hole-Hop For More Winter Panfish

The five-gallon pail, overturned, creates a lazy ice fisherman. It’s like putting a Lazy-Boy recliner in a living room.

Tips For Buying A Fishing Boat

Ice fishing equipment just keeps getting better!

As I write this, the lakes in my home state of Minnesota are just beginning to make ice. I couldn’t be happier. Sure, I’ll miss the sparkling lakes and green grass as much as the next guy, but I love ice fishing. So I have my fingers crossed for calm, cold nights to turn those liquids to solids.

Cabbage Veg-E Jig and Retails

One of the cool things about river fishing is the element of surprise. You never know what you’re going to catch – since walleyes, smallmouth and largemouth, pike, catfish, muskies, roughfish and virtually every species often share the same hangouts.

Night ‘Eyes in Clear Water

Some of the best walleye fisheries have gin-clear water, which makes them challenging when targeting daytime walleyes. A spooky fish by nature, the walleye will often be “boat shy” in transparent water. Add afternoon boat traffic and landing a limit becomes even more difficult.

Dead-Sticking Bass

Many years ago, I learned more about bass fishing from Jake than from any person in the world. Jake taught me about how a bass feeds and when it feeds. He opened my eyes to how bait movement (or the lack thereof) triggers a strike response.

Ice fish for crappies this summer

Yes, you read the title correctly. Because the same equipment, baits and techniques you use to pull slabs through the ice are equally deadly in open water. To illustrate this, let me tell you about a guy who ONLY fishes for panfish and ONLY uses ice-fishing equipment to do it year-round.

Are super trout the next big thing for nation’s fisheries managers?

Could this be the new frontier for fisheries managers -- supplementing fish populations with hatchery-reared “super fish” that are artificially juiced to build muscle, increase stamina and stave off injury so that they can swim longer and harder and put up a Herculean fight for anglers?

Kids and fishing: The perfect storm

As spring marches on, kids across America will soon be leaving school for summer vacation and three months -- give or take -- of pure bliss.

Wading rivers and streams is an art unto itself

Wading rivers and streams is no walk in the park, although it is a very rewarding way to fish.

Wounded veterans find peace on the water

Television is a powerful medium. Done well, it has the ability to entertain, educate and on occasion appeal to the better angels of our nature.

Muskie world record remains intact; Spray controversy continues

When the definitive book on the history of sport fishing is written, you can bet that a chapter will be devoted to the late Louis Spray, his world-record muskie and all the hysteria he -- and it -- have caused in recent months.

Fishing season never ends

Winter can be a long, hard psychological slog.

It’s hard not to find the nearest fireplace, kick up your feet and dream of warmer days ahead and the possibility of an early spring thaw.

Ice in Winter: It’s never truly safe

The symptoms come in an orderly succession. They start innocently, grow progressively worse and, without immediate attention (or a miracle from above), end very quickly and without remorse.

Angler numbers rise, fishing opportunities abound at refuges, elsewhere

The beauty of fishing -- any fishing -- is the diversity of angling opportunities that North America has to offer.
Public waters are available across Canada, the United States and beyond.

Ice fishing in the 21st century: mobility rules

It’s hard to imagine why a person would scoff at fishing through the ice. After all, what’s not to love about plumbing the hard water in the bitter cold?

Tips on fuel economy for fall fishing

The moaning and groaning you hear is the sound of sticker-shocked anglers filling up their gas tanks in the post-Katrina era.

Don’t forget about fishing your urban waters

The news coming from urban America these days is rarely pretty. The headlines can be hard to stomach.
Escalating violent crime rates. Corrupt city officials. Murder and mayhem and general discontent. It’s enough to discourage the most wide-eyed optimist.

In praise of the smallmouth bass

It was 50 years ago this month when a fellow by the name of D.L. Hayes of Leitchfield, Ky., caught the largest smallmouth bass on record at Dale Hollow Lake, a 27,700-acre reservoir near the Kentucky-Tennessee line.

Preparation is important before summer camping and fishing trips

Summers are made for camping trips.

Blue skies, warm temperatures, nighttime campfires and placid lakes teeming with fish -- all are timeless elements of an equally timeless summer tradition. Throw in a Crestliner boat, not to mention some rods, reels and tackle, and you have all the trappings of a perfect summer getaway.

Boat smart when you’re fishing

As this column is being written, the Minnesota fishing opener -- no small affair in the land of 10,000 lakes (actually, there are more than 11,000 in my home state) -- is only days away. As always, expectations for the state’s 1.5 million-plus anglers are off the charts.

Proper nutrition and fishing go hand in hand I love this time of year.

Spring -- the season of rebirth -- is in full bloom.

Here in the land of 10,000 lakes, where I make my home with my wife and five daughters, the walleye opener is only days away -- and thank goodness, because I’m ready for the open-water season to begin in earnest.

Fishing with Jigs
By Ted Takasaki and Scott Richardson

In its essence, the jig is one of the oldest and most effective fish catching lures out there.

A jig’s purpose is to have enough weight to take the bait down into the strike zone when fish are on or close to the bottom and relatively concentrated on structure.

Fly Fishing on a budget

It’s been said that part of the romance of fly fishing is that it takes you to beautiful, exotic places.

True enough. The Bahamas for bonefish. The Northwest Territories for toothy northern pike. The Florida Keys for tarpon.
I could go on and on and on.

Size Selection
Courtesy of www.rat-l-trap.com

Down sizing or up-sizing your lure can make a big difference in your success any given day.

One of the most obvious reasons to change the size of a lure is to “match the hatch”. Pay close attention to the size of the prey the bass are feeding on. Shad come in all sizes and bass will gorge on them. If the shad are large, go to a lure close to that size, and vice versa.

Fishing for the young and the young at heart
By Ted Takasaki and Scott Richardson

More than four out of five Americans fished as a child. Surveys show most adults who fish today started before their 13th birthday. That means the best way to preserve the future of the sport is to take kids fishing.

A day on the water can improve the bond between parent and kid or make you the hero of the neighborhood. Fishing builds self-esteem, independence, responsibility and decision-making.

Sportsmen and air travel: follow the rules, be prepared

In this post-9/11 world, airplane travel isn’t exactly a blissful, sun-splashed day at the beach. Delays are commonplace. Checkpoint inspections are frequent and occasionally intrusive. And frustration sometimes spills over into anger, not to mention salty language.

Twenty-five years in outdoors television

How time flies when you’re having fun -- and working 16-hour days.

As I look back on my 25 years in outdoors television, most everything I’ve achieved can be traced back to my upbringing -- my roots.

New senior fishing program has big plans

When Mike O’Brien retired as a conservation officer with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in August, he didn’t take much time to smell the roses.

That’s because he jumped into his next job -- program coordinator for Let’s Go Fishing of Minnesota -- without so much as a nod to the past.

The fish of summer: bluegills

It’s that time of year again. The summer fishing season is upon us, and my Tracker boat is out of storage, rigged and ready for any and all angling adventures that the fishing Gods have to offer. I like to fish long and hard, but I’m not averse to a leisurely day on the water, either.

For bucketmouths, the pattern is everything

Largemouth bass are perhaps the most sought-after freshwater fish in the United States. Some anglers -- they of bold, bold prognostications -- say they are the most sought-after fish in the world.

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