Clockwise, from top left: minnow, crayfish, sunfish, shad, frog, and grasshopper. Fathead minnows, leeches and worms are mainstays in bait-shop refrigerators across the country. These old standards ...

Although throwing topwater baits is exciting, expecting those explosive blow-ups, reaction baits with better hook-up ratios will put more fish in your boat during Tennessee River reservoir shad-spawns ...

Jerk baits are a great cold-water choice for getting black bass to bite. Walleye, striped bass and sometimes crappie will ...

To catch boatloads of big Tennessee River bass during a shad spawn, Major League Fishing Pro David Walker spends his mornings casting reaction baits and finesse rigs at freshwater mussel beds on the ...

Beaver Lake: Crappie are schooling around brush, as is typical in the fall, said Jon Conklin, fishing guide. Fish around brush with minnows or jigs 12 to 20 feet deep. The south half of the lake ...

Fathead minnows, leeches and worms are mainstays in bait-shop refrigerators across the country. These old standards have pro­duced stringers of game fish for decades, and they’ll continue to produce ...