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Latest Minimalist Fishing Articles & Videos.
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Fly Fishing: A Powerful Tool for Environmental Education and Digital Detox for Young People
Disconnecting from electronics. It’s more valuable today then every before. As a child, I heard “you’re rotting your brain with that TV!” more than once.…
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Rowboat Bass Fishing for Big Fat Hidden Largemouth
Good morning brothers. I’ve been gone for a bit – traveling (and fishing) with family, writing for a few new outlets, and just being blessed…
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Be a FLEXIBLE Fisherman… It Pays Off! (Bass Fishing After a Storm)
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The jon boat was finally ready, loaded, and trailing behind me as I sped toward my favorite canal.…
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Versatile Bank Fishing: 1 Bait 2 Ways for Largemouth Bass in Midwest Ponds
It’s early – but not too early – as you stand on the bank of the pond. To the novice, it looks empty. Calm. Still.…
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Canal Fishing for Big Bass (Simple Largemouth Bait)
*pop* *pop* *pop-pop* *POP* The rhythmic sound of what seemed like hundreds of topwater strikes made the hair on the back of my neck stand…
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Big Swimbaits. Big Bass.
Are you looking to up-size your swimbait artillery? The Huddleston Deluxe 8″ Rainbow Trout is a big bait that calls out the heaviest bruisers to…
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Midwest Smallmouth Strategies (Early Spring Bass Fishing)
Good morning brothers. I’ve got the itch. No, not one that requires a cream or ointment or a salve… I got bass itches. (You should…
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Wisconsin Fishing: Wild Rice Lake by Copp’s Cabins
Good evening brothers. Let’s talk about Midwest Fishing. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin… I’ve come to…
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Bank Fishing
Good morning brothers. Are you tired of the cold yet? Tired of the wind? The chapped lips? The dark dinners? Heart-attack shoveling? Split fingers? The…
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Most Popular Minimalist Fishing Articles.
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The Ultimate Guide: Best Baits for Big Wisconsin Bass (Minocqua Fishing Tips & Tackle + AJ’s Base Box)
Good morning brothers. It’s chilly again, here in the Midwest. The days are shorter. The nights are colder. The daydreams are beginning to intensify. There is a picture frame that lives on our counter. One of the best investments I’ve ever made. It cycles through photos from…
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Bruiser Bass in the Muck: A Mucky Muck Base Box for Fishing BIG Midwest Largemouth
Have you ever set up a Base Box? Good morning brothers. I’d like to share a few tips that have helped me minimize the pre-trip stress that comes from overthinking. You know what I’m talkin’ about: “welp, better take this, and this, and THIS, because they might…
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Top 8 Baits for Borrow Pits
Good afternoon brothers. Fishing starts Monday. I’m hitting the water rain or shine, enough waiting – tomorrow we’re headed to Southern Illinois for Prison Ministry. I am excited for both of these things. The other day we talked about Fishing Borrow Pits. What they are, where they…
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Top 4 Stickbaits for Largemouth Bass (NOT a Senko!)
Stickbaits catch largemouth bass. Period. Article over! (Just kidding.) Stickbaits work… but… WHY? Why do bass attack a piece of cylindrical plastic that resembles a cigar? (Or if you’re 6, that “look like a doo-doo“.) Why do bass hang on? Carry them off? To put it simply,…
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Popular Bass Fishing Presentations for EVERY Feeding Strategy
Happy Friday, Patriots. Today, we’re talking fishing. Straight. No chaser. So buckle up, wipe off that booger-pickin’ finger and get to scrollin’! (Sorry… I’m already through an entire pot of coffee…) I REGRET NOTHING! LET’S TALK BASS FISHING! Last time we discussed The 4 Feeding Strategies of…
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Top 5 Swim Jig Trailers / Get Better at Swim Jig Fishing
Even though we just took the time to list out the Top 10 Swim Jigs – the trailer that you pair with your selection is what will seal the deal. In dirty water with low visibility or in very thick cover, it might be best to go…
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Top 10 Swim Jigs / Get Better at Swim Jig Fishing
In the previous article we talked about when and where to use a swim jig. It’s a great way to get started and absorbing this basic knowledge will make you a better angler – but today we’re going to look at 10 rock-solid swim jig options for…
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Top 5 Baits for Streams & Rivers / Learning to Fish Rivers & Streams
Over the past two weeks we’ve pulled together a plethora of information to explain the makeup of rivers & streams; how they change, how fish in these systems position themselves, where the food comes from – and all of this came from the note-gathering process as we…
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Midwest Outdoors
AJ Hauser @ MWO.
Fishing Booker
AJ Hauser @ Fishing Booker.
AJ Hauser @ Narcissistland.
Minimalist Fishing Archive.
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Fishing Aimlessly. Living Aimlessly. Good or Bad?
It’s Labor Day. I shouldn’t be working right now. I don’t want to be working right now. I want to be in bed. Sawing logs. Dreaming about babes. Fishing babes.…
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The Largemouth Bass Fishing Slump Buster
Yesterday, I used this simple 4-step plan to get out of my fishing slump. Not only did it help me catch bass – it helped me methodically break down a…
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Do Largemouth Bass School?
School. Everyone’s favorite. For humans, school is a place we go to get indoctrinated… er… to learn. 75% of my sons go, and we’ve played around with the idea of…
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How to Get Out of a Fishing Slump in 4 Simple Steps
What’s wrong little buddy? Not performing? Hey… listen… it happens to all of us once in a while… Well… not to me, but… you know… it happens to other losers…
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An Intro to Z-Man Pop ShadZ
3 years ago I made a 20 minute video that should have been… I dunno… 4? Yikes. I was thinking about this yesterday, after working on some Popular Bass Fishing…
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The End is Here. Political Detox: Week 4 Update
It’s here. The end. Today is August 24th – exactly 30 days have passed since the start of my rudimentary Political Detox, on July 25th. Tomorrow… I’ll be done… Done?…
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YOU Start the Next Manly Tradition
There’s a soft breeze tonight, enveloping everything. Crisp. It’s rustling the leaves, keeping the bugs at bay. The sound? The sound is that of a hundred lazy rattlesnakes slowly moving…
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Must-Have Tackle: Smallmouth Bass Fishing in Wisconsin
I’m packing today. Headed to Iron River, Wisconsin with ‘da boys for the annual BroTrip. I’d love to tell you it’s a fishin’ trip, but the truth is the primary…
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The 4 Feeding Strategies of Largemouth Bass
Largemouth bass have 4 Primary Feeding Strategies. We need to understand them if we aspire to become better anglers. These are versatile creatures, utilizing all 4 of the following methods…
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Set Aside Your Millstone. Political Detox: Week 3 Update
Lately, I’ve been trying to approach these articles with an empty notebook, and an empty mind. Not surprisingly… the latter comes easy. Occasionally I can do the smart, but most…
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Motivation is Worthless: Develop Your Drive
Many of the topics that we cover here sprout from personal development. They’re lessons learned in business and life that get turned towards this activity we all love. This activity…
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Must-Have Tackle: Largemouth Bass Fishing in Illinois
It’s no secret. I currently travel the Land o’ Lincoln in search of the mighty largemouth bass. Some days the fishing is incredible, other days… not so much. Probably user-error…
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Z-Man Pop FrogZ Mod for Fishing Bass in Heavy Cover
The past few weeks have been tough here in Illinois. Algae is thick. Stinky. It’s disgusting. Fishing has been up and down, but we’ve managed to smack a few largemouth…
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How Do Largemouth Bass Feed?
If you want to catch more largemouth bass, it makes sense to spend some time exploring how they actually eat. Most of us have a basic understanding along these lines:…
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Fishing or Flirting? Political Detox: Week 2 Update
I don’t remember the last time I took a picture with my wife. We have 4 boys. They’re crazy about her. As they should be. We do things with them.…
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How to Get Better at Fishing
One of my favorite quotes comes from the great Jordan Peterson: Don’t compare yourself with other people; compare yourself with who you were yesterday. Jordan Peterson I like this. It…
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How Do Largemouth Bass Feel?
Scaly. Amiright?? Bass don’t have hands, so how do they determine the feel of an object? They use their face. Largemouth bass determine how something feels, by inspecting it with…
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More time for Fishing… and then some? Political Detox: Week 1 Update
It’s been 1 week. 1 week since a simple family vacation to Minocqua, Wisconsin helped me to identify a very destructive habit. My morning and evening “news routines” were taking…
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The Simple Blessings of a Fisherman
“It’s too dang cold“, you grumble after a late start as you scramble to grab your breakfast, coffee and gear in one quick pass through the house – you just…
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How to Fix a Broken Fishing Rod
Fixing fishing rods is something that has fascinated me for a while now. Several years ago I started working on an outdoor social media project with a few friends. We…
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Thunderhawk Lures A10 Squarebill Crankbait
A very interesting squarebill crankbait, the Thunderhawk A10 Squarebill Crankbait looks a bit different. You can see that the bill is actually molded as part of the lure itself, and…
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Fishing a Kalin’s Crappie Scrub for Big Bluegill #short
The Kalin’s Crappie Scrub is a neat little bait that attracts bluegill, crappie and bass – literally anything that swims. When you spot fish up shallow (of any size), this…
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One Mighty Jerkbait Bass
The silence woke me from my sleep. Seems odd to say that. With an infant in the room, some sort of sound machine is always buzzing away, creating fake rain…
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How Do Largemouth Bass Taste?
If you are here looking for a largemouth bass recipe, we’ll need to do that in another article. Today we’re going to discuss how bass taste things in the water.…