I've built custom fishing rods for over a decade, and the single upgrade that changed how my rods feel in hand was switching to EVA foam grips. Cork looks classic, but EVA foam grips for rod building give you something cork can't: a non-slip surface when your hands are wet, ice-cold, or covered in fish […]

Last summer, I watched a beautiful trout rise in a clear Sierra stream, then turn and swim away from a tangle of monofilament drifting past its face. That image pushed me to find the best fishing line recycling containers I could trust, because monofilament fishing line can take up to 600 years to decompose, and […]

I learned the hard way that a fish finder without a proper carrying case is a disaster waiting to happen. After cracking a Humminbird screen sliding across my truck bed on a bumpy logging road, I started treating fish finder carrying cases as essential gear, not optional accessories. Our team spent eight weeks field-testing eight […]

I still remember the first rockfish I released. It floated belly-up at the surface like a cork, eyes bulging, stomach pushed out of its mouth. I had no idea what barotrauma was back then. The fish died, and I felt sick about it for the rest of the trip. That moment sent me down a […]

I'll never forget the day a bluefish fin ray went straight through my index finger while I was cleaning my catch on a dock. Blood everywhere, a wasted trip, and a trip to the ER. That was the day I started wearing fish cleaning gloves religiously, and after testing more than 15 pairs over the […]

When I pulled a 7-pound largemouth out of Lake Guntersville last spring, the weigh-in line stretched 40 boats deep. I watched three anglers ahead of me arrive with their fish already turning belly-up in cheap, leaky bags. That scene is exactly why I built this guide. After testing 8 of the most popular fish bags […]

If you have ever wasted an entire morning guessing where the fish were holding, you already know why a fish finder GPS combo is no longer optional for serious anglers. I have spent the last 15 years chasing bass, walleye, and redfish across freshwater lakes and the Gulf Coast, and the single biggest upgrade I […]

I learned the hard way why fish finder screen protectors exist. A 1/2-ounce tungsten jig whipped out of my hand on a Texas rig, and the lure kissed my Garmin EchoMAP screen before splashing into the water. The display survived, but my heart didn't. After replacing the cracked screen at a local shop, I started […]

I remember the first time I tried to skin a channel catfish with a regular pair of locking pliers from my garage. The skin slipped, the jaws slipped, and after twenty minutes I had more frustration than fillets. That's when I started testing dedicated fish skinning pliers seriously. After running more than 30 sessions with […]

When I started kayak fishing three years ago, I lost more fish in transport than I care to admit. The problem was never the rod or the reel — it was what came after the catch. I tried five-gallon buckets, repurposed coolers, and a collapsible dog bowl before I finally understood that fish tote bins […]