Articles by Mark Strand

Conversations about crankbaits concern when to pull them out and how to present them, rather than whether they work. Like any other tool in your tackle box, cranks have a time and a place. Further assuming...View article

As efficiency becomes a most important component of fishing, spinner rigs remain a top choice among the best walleye anglers. With miles to fish, the pace of a spinner ticking along behind a bottom...View article

Sauger are a fish of low light, be it by depth of water, murkiness, or the cloak of night. Hypersensitive eyes, trim bodies built to slip current, they are a fish you must target to connect with. Sauger...View article

While some ice rods are handcrafted in the U. S., others are made overseas and are available at astoundingly affordable prices. The emerging trend, however, continues to be to develop darned good ice...View article

Ice anglers are famous for finding and developing the latest designs of instant set, ultra-portable shelters. Right out of the box, the famous flip-top Fish Trap and all the models patterned after it...View article

Ice forms on crappie lakes big and small, deep and shallow, clear and murky; on reservoirs and major rivers with frozen backwaters, and on ponds, too. Trying to spout rules about where crappies go and...View article

When available and vulnerable, zooplankton and other microscopic food particles often dominate the crappie’s diet. Crappies strain them through gill rakers. Minnows, though, are a staple for luring...View article

In the world of winter fish, it’s inspection season. The fish get a better look at your bait now than during the windswept algae-bloomin’ months of summer. Plus, a component of open-water presentation—horizontal...View article

Winter fishermen almost always stop at the bait shop. Minnows, waxies, maggots, mousies, wigglers—whatever, as long as it’s alive and squirming. But what about soft plastics? Might we be guilty...View article

Part of our development as fishermen has to do with figuring out that “the book” on any species might be absolutely on the money in some circumstances and not even close in others. The book on winter...View article

Why sit over panfish that won’t cooperate? With today’s sophisticated search tools—lake maps, depthfinders, underwater cameras, snowmobiles, augers—a case can be made for perpetual movement....View article

A dying plastic minnow, shining and flickering in the golden light below, draws the attention of bottom-hugging perch, drawing them from their crevices. That’s the plan. Up they come to join the puppet...View article

Planer boards help prevent spooking. They're primarily considered an open-water midsummer tool, used to spread lines to search for suspended basin walleyes. But they can be a powerful tool early in...View article

Planer boards help prevent spooking. They're primarily thought of as an open-water midsummer tool, used to spread lines and search for suspended basin walleyes. But they can be a powerful tool in the...View article