Articles by Matt Straw

Tough to see the real magic of a cigar worm in the water by the boat. Drop one in an aquarium. Let it fall horizontally, squash your nose on the glass and watch both ends wobble ever so slightly while...View article

White bass spawn in spring, and the spawn generally peaks as water temperatures approach 58°F. Sexually mature fish...View article

As we worked our way along a huge, emerging rock reef, bass seemed to disappear. We noted the time. High noon on a bright, sunny day with little wind. We decided to fish to the end of the reef, then...View article

Pavlov’s dogs, fed for days at the sounding of a bell, began to salivate at the chime with no food in sensory range. Few witness that kind of conditioning, but perhaps you’ve seen a dog cower at...View article

Night fishing’s greatest danger is the long trolling pass, deep into the realm of sensory deprivation. Outside the aura of navigation lights, the world is veiled in black. The sound of water endlessly...View article

Rivers are different every day. Holes move. Water levels fluctuate. Clarity worsens with every rainfall and improves with every dry spell. Weeds grow well one year and seem nonexistent the next. It...View article

In 1974, while casting to rock reefs on a Canadian Shield lake, I “discovered” a new walleye killer—the Rebel Suspending Deep Wee R. When the lure smacked a rock at depths of about 7 feet, I paused...View article

Most know the Biblical passage, “Physician, heal thyself” (Luke 4:23). By the same token, should a fisherman hook himself? Most of us hook ourselves plenty, and it’s more dangerous now than ever....View article

Jigs are here to stay. So long as people pursue fish, weight-and-bait tactics will exist. And the whole idea hasn’t changed much since the beginning. True, Fred Flintstone used rocks to get his line...View article

The world-record muskie weighed 69 pounds 15 ounces—including the sand poured into its belly. The world record smallmouth weighed 11 pounds 15 ounces—after it was stuffed full of lead and engine...View article

How often have you pointed across the lake and asked, “What’s over there?” And how often have you heard the reply, “Nothing. Just a big flat.” Flats are the Rodney Dangerfields of structures....View article

Roiling, boiling, water-flying, slashing, green-tinted, teeth-flashing strikes. What triggers them in nature? Baitfish in death throes. Baitfish feeding, or being otherwise distracted. Baitfish in panic...View article

“The mighty Luce or Pike is taken to be the tyrant, as the salmon is king, of the fresh waters” -From The Compleat Angler by Sir Izaak Walton Pike are icons. “Picons,” if...View article

Just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s really hot, and vice-versa. Most years, things both hot and new for smallmouth bass make a mighty short list. But that was before the popularity of...View article

Bumps are a primitive form of communication, like smoke signals. Smallmouths bumping soft plastics without chomping and getting hooked are whispering something—actually, lots of somethings—just...View article