Looking for a fine, challenging fishing spot before the snow flies to take your trailerable Great Lakes boat? Consider Rathbun Lake in southern Iowa.  Read Full Story

Capt. James Piano, who runs Hammerhead Charters out of Rochester, New York, sent us pictures of a fine weekend of fishing last month.  Read Full Story

Well, since that initial test run, all I can say is that—in the interest of fairness and experimentation—we have tried most of these “alternative” theories, including, but not limited to, wholly empty ones and even the one that “accidentally” got doused in Milwaukee’s Best (we happened to have a can of the discount beer aboard). While they all work, and work well, the one we always came back to was the original. Naked. Cheap tuna. The ol’ KISS theory; Keep it Simple, Stupid, seemed to prove true once again.   Read Full Story

Any self-respecting and stereotypically frugal Norwegian worth his weight in lutefisk remembers when he sees a price tag he thinks is preposterous. And while this event was now years ago, I remember like it was yesterday the inner battle in my head as I held that shiny black and yellow “Brad’s Super Bait Cut Plug” packaging in my hand.  Read Full Story

Alum Creek Lake, OH – Brothers Eric (Bartlett, IL.) and Chris Burseth (Crystal Lake, IL) won last month’s Professional Musky Tournament Trail (PMTT) Ranger Boats World Championship topping 49 other teams. Along with first place trophies, they won a new 2012, Ranger 619 Fisherman, RangerTrail Tailer with a Mercury outboard.   Read Full Story

Luke Olson, 7, from Ishpeming, Michigan caught this six-pound salmon without help from anyone, reports proud grandpa, Mike Paluda, maker of Mike’s Eye Flies. Luke and his “Pap”  were fishing on Lake Michigan out of Fairport, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The fish ate a Moonshine Silver Anchovy spoon.  Read Full Story

The public is once again invited to purchase surplus salmon that has been harvested at Department of Natural Resources weirs around the state.  Read Full Story

Keiths Shoal is another bottleneck location. The top of the shoal is 6 feet deep, dropping off to 100. We like to fish along the sides of the shoal with the same setup as the Bat Cave, except we find the baits need to be a little higher. Early in the morning our lures are from the surface down to 30 feet and as the sun comes up we begin to drop our baits to lower depths. Our spread is much tighter and we prefer to have a Torpedo Diver with a 50-foot lead to the deep diving bait on the inside, tighter to the boat. We put a leadcore rod with a second deep diving bait on an inline board and on the outside a deep diving bait on braided line. This spread really breaks down the water column and if one particular setup gets hot we start changing more rods to duplicate the winning setup.

Thompsons Point is the third bottleneck staging area with a general depth of 35 feet. This area is a long stretch where the width of the waterways varies and at times can become tricky to navigate. We stay with the same setup as Keiths Shoal with the exception of using shallow runners on the inside two rods, letting the Torpedo Divers and leadcore take the baits to the appropriate depths and deep divers on the outside. If we have three people in the boat we will run all rods on one side and will keep the boat over the deepest water. This makes for easier fishing, especially in heavy boat traffic.

The Bay of Quinte ought to be on every serious troller’s bucket list. Walleyes weighing in the teens are actually common—there’s really not another place like it. GLA

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It's mid-October and while children start thinking of Halloween costumes and candy, the surface temperature of eastern Lake Ontario has dropped below 60 degrees and trophy walleye begin their annual migration toward the Bay of Quinte. These walleye spend the summer spread across the eastern basin of Lake Ontario feeding primarily on shad and perch. In October, the shad begin to move towards Amherst Island, at the northeast corner of Lake Ontario and by mid-October the shad have made the turn into the opening of the Bay Of Quinte and into Adolphus Reach, which is just west of the Bay of Quinte. (For map, go to http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/greatlakes/lakeontario_cdrom/images/a10_lg.jpg) 

Of course the walleye are following their food supply and will stay in the beautiful and protected Adolphus Reach before moving to their next destination.  Read Full Story