FRANKFORT, Ky. -- I bought my first Arbogast Jitterbug at the Western Auto in downtown Bardstown, Ky., well before my 10th birthday. I had no idea about what made a good color choice, so I bought the ...

The first bass I ever caught on a topwater lure came more than 50 years ago, but that event is etched in my memory as clearly as if it occurred last week. I was in my early teens and had ridden my ...

Word from the water is that top-water action for black bass is getting livelier now that it's autumn. A morning of first-light fishing at Beaver Lake found me searching the tackle box for just the ...

The big wooden bass plug hit the water with a loud “ker-plop.” Even though I could not see the lure — after all, it was somewhere past midnight on the lee side of a little Canadian island — I knew it ...

There was a bit of magic inside the cardboard box hidden away in the corner of an unused room. The box, about a foot square, barely peeked out from behind the sleeping bags, waders and life jackets ...

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 ...

Sometimes, the tried and true methods of catching fish are the best ones. The fishing lure industry brought in $5.8 billion a year in 2013, according to the American Sportfishing Association, but it’s ...

Fishermen are notorious tackle tinkerers. That includes lure doctoring. Below are four of my favorites, all involving adaptations of hooks on time-tested performers to better address specific ...

In August and early September I have enjoyed some of the best top-water fishing I can recall, with nothing more than a casting reel, my old johnboat and an old-fashioned jitterbug lure and a headlamp.