Renata Sokolova

How to fish weed beds in a lake comes down to three habits: work the outside edge instead of casting into the middle, match your lure profile to the height and density of the vegetation, and change bait when the weeds change. Almost every lost lure and bent hook comes from pushing a bait through … Read more

The safest way to release a fish without hurting it is to keep it in the water as long as you can, wet your hands before you touch it, support its whole body with both hands, and let it go only when it swims away strongly. Most damage happens in the ten seconds between the … Read more

To keep fish fresh after catching, kill and bleed it right away, bury it in crushed ice or an ice slurry inside an insulated cooler, and keep the cooler drain plug open so meltwater drains away. Gut it as soon as you are back, dry the flesh thoroughly, then refrigerate for two to five days … Read more

Learning how to fish with live worms for panfish is mostly about three things: a small hook, a bait that matches what panfish actually eat, and the patience to wait for the bobber instead of striking at the first twitch. Thread a whole red worm or a nightcrawler chunk onto a size 3/0 long-shank hook, … Read more

A bobber does two jobs for you: it holds your bait at the depth you choose, and it tells you the moment a fish takes it by moving. Get those two things right and you can fish a dock, a weed line or a deep channel with the precision most people never get from hand-feeling … Read more

The fastest way to learn how to tie a fishing knot that holds is to master one dependable knot and use it every single time. For beginners, that knot is the Palomar: make a loop in the line, tie an overhand knot inside the loop, feed the whole standing end through it, wet it, cinch … Read more

To fish from shore without a boat, you need three things: a legal spot on the bank with structure near it, a rod short enough to cast accurately from where you stand, and bait matched to the fish holding there. Pick your spot, read the water for where fish feed, cast along the shoreline rather … Read more

Choosing fishing line for lake fishing comes down to four things: material, strength, visibility, and whether your reel can handle it. For most beginners a single spool of 8lb to 10lb monofilament covers the widest range of lake situations, and you can move to braid or fluorocarbon once you know the water you fish. The … Read more

Fish in a lake bite hardest in low light, so the best time of day to fish a lake runs from about 30 minutes before sunrise to an hour after it, with the last hour before sunset a close second. Those two windows are short, and that is exactly the problem: if you spend the … Read more

What depth to fish for bass in summer? On most U.S. lakes the answer is 10 to 20 feet, and on the deepest reservoirs it stretches to 25 to 35 feet. That range tracks the thermocline, the layer where warm surface water gives way to cold water below. Fish usually hold a foot or two … Read more