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Here are three areas where bluegill and bass will roam in Summertime. They can be up shallow around cover like piers, fallen trees and weed pockets. They could be along the weed edge or first drop-off or they could be suspended. Let’s go catch them!Fishing Shallow Shallow fish are easy, all you need is some good casting skills and a little luck. For bluegill, I like a little ice jig like a Custom Jigs & Spins size 8 Glazba. It is made from tungsten so it has just enough weight to pitch around piers and wood with a light line on a St. Croix Panfish rod. Slide on a redworm, give i …

What’s a Bladed Jig? A bladed jig is also known as a Chatterbait. Chatterbait is the name coined by Z-Man tackle company that invented and named their bladed jig the Chatterbait. Since these baits have become a success story on the tournament bass trail, every bass tackle company has got one, but I still like the originalChatterbait and I prefer the 3/8 ounce size for most of my fishing. At first I didn’t think much of a Chatterbait,. I had one that sat around in my tackle box for 10 years, just waiting to make it to casting rotation on my old reliable St. Croix Premier casting rod …

If you want a Net full of fish...you got to fish around some junk! No matter where you fish, there is going to be junk in the water. Junk is good, junk is where the fish like to hide. “See that junk over there?” “Yeah, what is it?” “I dunno, but you better make a cast before I do!” Junk is cover, junk is structure, junk can be weeds, a pile of rocks, a pier, a fallen tree...you get the idea. If you’ve got a fancy locator, underwater camera, side-scan or live scope, you can really see some junk...and if you look closely, you will see game fish too! You …

Kids go fishing for one reason, to catch some fish. I guess I’m still a kid. I always thought fishing was supposed to be fun, so I really don't get it when fancy pants anglers in big shiny boats pull up, cut right in front of my path and turn their backs as if I wouldn’t notice. Sometimes, I lose my cool and yell a few obscenities. “We’re in a tournament”, they yell back. Watch out for these boys...they’re in a tournament, LOL Oh my...a tournament...I didn't know that being in a tournament was so important that a prerequisite was to wreck my fishing spot and be rude to me. …

When I was a kid my father Poppee used to take me fishing. The only problem was that neither of us knew how to fish. I was the one that had the urge to spend all of my free time fishing and when you are five years old, you have a lot of free time! All I needed was a pole, some bobbers, hooks, worms and some water. We spent a lot of time fishing and not catching fish until we met up with a fellow janitor, neighbor and my honorary Grandpa, Mike Dozer. Mike had a house on Pistakee Lake in Northern Illinois, a little 14' Sears boat with a Ted Williams 9.9 outboard and all the tackle and know-how w …