Ribbed swimbaits like the Keitech Fat Swing Impact catch fish everywhere and can be used in a wide variety of depths, water colors and types of cover. We've used them to swim through ankle-deep grass on the Potomac, and across deep rocky structure on El Salto. They make excellent trailers, too, and excel on an Alabama Rig.

I received Fishing Tackle Retailer’s ICAST issue last week and the ads and articles inside led me to ponder the trends and winners that we’re likely to observe. Based on what I saw, here are my pre-ICAST thoughts on gear for anglers in general and traveling anglers in particular.

The Megabass Vision 110 was the first lure I purchased that cost over $20, and it was worth every penny. That GP Pro Blue model lasted a long time, through multiple treble hook changes, before I eventually cast it into a rock and broke off the bill. Like many JDM lures, they come in a wide array of premium paint jobs. Here are 5 of my confidence colors.

You may be intrigued by the draw of swimbaits but your budget or your stomach might not be able to handle a triple-digit price tag. If you’re not ready to invest $200+ for a Pizz or $400+ for a Hinkle, you may still want to try something rarer and slightly more expensive than the mass production options available at your local tackle stores.

Walk-the-dog topwaters are a staple on a wide variety of fishing trips across the globe and standard colors are a good bet. Nevertheless, we’re always on the lookout for unique paint jobs that “match the hatch.” Check out these five on Rapala’s new Precision Xtreme Pencil Exo. It reads like a bucket list of exotic species.

One of the most-read, and most remarked-upon articles we’ve written was about JDM lures like the Deps Cover Scat and Valley Hill Heavy Poop. These stubby stick baits have become popular stateside. Yamamoto’s Yamatanuki has been flying off shelves. If you want something a little bit rarer, though, you might try one of these four.

Whether it’s a broken rod guide or ripped soft plastics, both minor and major emergencies can derail a fishing trip — unless you take the simple step of throwing glues into your boat or travel bag, in which case they can be easily fixed.

If you need your crankbaits, jerkbaits or swimbaits to cast further or dive deeper, here are some ready-made and inexpensive ways to reliably make that happen — without ruining or permanently altering your lures.

The best part about going to Anglers Inn’s lodges on Lake Picachos or Lake El Salto is that the conditions constantly change. – it’s a different lake every time we go. I get excited to bring downnew products that we know won’t get bit at home. If we get bites, not only have we learned something new, but we’ve added to our bag of tricks

I’ve used some of the ultra premium spinning reels in saltwater, but I still didn’t appreciate their value in freshwater until Keith Combs put me on my PB best smallmouth – with a Shimano Stella FK. Perhaps I would’ve landed it with a lesser reel, but the buttery smooth drag definitely helped. If you’re someone who consistently has to use the best-of-the-best, consider one of these options.

Here are some of the fastest baitcasting reel options available – while just about every manufacturer has breached the 8:1 barrier, we’re limiting this inquiry to reels that are 9:1 and faster: In other words, at least nine revolutions of the spool every time you turn the handle.

Our friend Hideki Maeda is perhaps best known for his love of frogging, but he’s also responsible for several of the best hard topwaters ever made, most recently the Teckel Kicknocker. Now you can buy the Kicknocker 10 Year Anniversary Series in a handful of limited colors.

French Fry baits and Centipede Lures may be a little bit out of style, or possible forgotten, but they still catch numbers of bass (and big bass) on both Carolina Rigs and other rigging options. Here are six different baits from this stubby genre.

Fishing on our May/June 2023 trip to El Salto was very good, with solid numbers and a higher percentage of 5-pound and larger fish than just about any prior visit. That doesn’t mean the fishing was wide open, though. I’d say that of the hundreds of bass our group caught, 40% were on crankbaits, 40% were on some form of soft plastics, and 20% came on something else.

Our most recent trip to Lake El Salto spanned May and June 2023, and the lake was on fire, with ridiculous numbers of 4- to 6-pound fish. Despite all of that, our lure choices were very simple. You couldn’t throw any lure in any color and expect to get bit. There was a narrow selection that seemed to work consistently.

Just about every major rod manufacturer makes swimbait rods —-many of them are quite good. At the same time, part of the allure of swimbait culture is supporting niche manufacturers. Fortunately, several of these companies don’t make you wait on “a drop” or know a secret handshake or password to spend your hard-earned money.

Culling is the greatest feeling in tournament fishing – you’ve already got a limit, and now you’re trading out a smaller fish for a bigger one, but the title above doesn’t refer to cull tags or cull floats. I’m talking about the soon-to-be-released Berkley Cull Shad.

At the 2023 Bassmaster Classic Expo I met up with James Niggemeyer. He knows big bass, having lived in Texas for much of his adult life, so I asked him which new bait we should take to Mexico. Without hesitation he grabbed for the new Yamamoto 3.5” Yamatanuki.

Lin Bell has been a Megabass dealer for 30 years and is deeply connected to the brand. He gets two shipments a month, so the best producers tend to stay in stock. Full pegs mean that it’s not always easy to tell what is working best – but Lin is an open book. I asked him to talk about some sleeper baits and new colors.

A craw tube remains a solid catcher, especially in heavy cover. The Arkansas mafia led by Megabass Champ Doug Garrett tried to keep the tube secret, but Brauer’s Classic victory made them a staple. The addition of craw appendages sometimes made them even better – for example, Texan Kelly Jordon won hundreds of thousands of dollars with the version made by Lake Fork Trophy Lures.