The Upper Mississippi River is such a diverse fishery as there is a wide variety of techniques that can be utilized to catch bass, but there are a few certain ones that have consistently been used to win tournaments. We talked with Bassmaster Elite Series pro Pat Schlapper and local tournament angler Dan Mohn about some techniques that have brought them great success on such a famous fishery! As many people know, frogging is one of the hottest techni...

Spooling a baitcaster reel is one of the most overlooked things in fishing. Many anglers will simply lay the spool flat allowing line to come off the spool clockwise or counterclockwise. While the spool can be laid flat to spool up spinning reels, this is not the case with baitcasters. The spool on a spinning reel sits vertically, but the spool on a baitcaster reel sits horizontally; therefore, the spool of line must be sitting horizontally. Check ou...

The use of fluorocarbon has grown tremendously in the past 10 years to now become the most popular line in the bass fishing market. The use of fluorocarbon started as a leader material to be used in combination with braided lines. As the fluorocarbon lines improved, anglers have utilized them more as their top choice as a mainline. There are many benefits that fluorocarbon offers that have contributed to the reasons why it has become so popular, but ...

Masayuki Matsushita just finished up his second year on the Bassmaster Elite Series where he qualified through the Bassmaster Opens in 2021. He also won the 2020 Bassmaster Central Open at Sam Rayburn Reservoir which qualified him for the 2021 Bassmaster Classic. These are great accomplishments, but they take a lot of sacrificing as a Japanese angler. During the tournament season, he resides in a self-built home in the bed of his Toyota Tundra. There...

Many people ask how long will fishing line last? The answer is dependent on how the line is stored, but in most cases fishing line can last a very long time in storage and maintain optimum strength. The three main types of line are nylon (monofilament), fluorocarbon and braid. Nylon can be the line most impacted if not stored properly. While braid and fluorocarbon will maintain performance the longest in proper storage. There are three main suggestion...