A sentimental favorite, this lure just flat-out catches fish and is ideal for the tributary streams white bass run into in the spring to spawn. Selecting lures for white bass—also known as sand bass, ...

Companies have spawned seemingly every conceivable critter into a topwater bait—from frogs and rodents to flying mammals, birds, and even turtles. While some lures achieve instant notoriety for their ...

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." No piece of fishing tackle generates more heated debate than the choice of fishing lures. So with the ...

Lake Erie, Dale Hollow Lake, and the St. Lawrence River are just a few locations in the U.S. that grow giant smallmouth. These are iconic places to fish, but to truly be effective on those waters, you ...

Topwater lures are the go-to fishing lures of mid- to late summer. These are effective artificial lures that float and move on the top of the water. They can work when other lures fail. A topwater ...

If a smallmouth bass striking a top-water lure is not the pinnacle of freshwater fishing, it's right up there. Unlike the typical submarine bite, which at best an angler only feels, a bass leaping ...

Catching fish on top-water lures can be so exciting that some anglers would rather catch one fish on a top-water than two or three down deep. Lures that splash and dance across the surface are ...

These were the bass baits—and mindset shifts—that defined my 2025 season and helped me catch more and bigger largemouth bass.

The sight of a bass clobbering a surface lure is always exciting. Good surface action will usually continue throughout the summer and until the first cold snap of fall begins to cool down the water ...

With forward-facing sonar (FFS) dominating so much of the bass-talk the past few years, the arrival of fall can be a satisfying return to “old-school” chunkin’ and windin’ among the extreme shallows ...

From an Alaskan guide coming out of retirement for one more shot, to must-have topwater bass baits, to the best soft plastic baits, these stories captured our Sports Illustrated fishing reader’s ...

Topwater lures are in a league of their own. Nowhere in the fishing world will you find a more eclectic, bizarre, and curious collection of tackle. Companies have spawned seemingly every conceivable ...