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1 day ago | 
yardbarker.com | Pete Robbins
A Bucket List for Bass FanaticsSome people take bucket list barbecue tours. Others try to visit as many major league or minor league baseball stadiums as they can. The golf nuts want to play all of the hallowed courses where majors are held. I just want to fish (well, I also want to eat barbecue, but only if it’s near good fishing). In particular, I want to fish for bass on the watery equivalent of Augusta.
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1 day ago | 
si.com | Pete Robbins
Some people take bucket list barbecue tours. Others try to visit as many major league or minor league baseball stadiums as they can. The golf nuts want to play all of the hallowed courses where majors are held. I just want to fish (well, I also want to eat barbecue, but only if it’s near good fishing). In particular, I want to fish for bass on the watery equivalent of Augusta.
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1 day ago | 
halfpastfirstcast.com | Pete Robbins
Alabama pro Wes Logan has worked diligently with Ark Rods to develop tools that meet his specific needs – in terms of actions, components and handle lengths. I caught up with the Elite Series winner at Lake Hartwell to find out the ones he can’t live without:
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3 days ago | 
halfpastfirstcast.com | Pete Robbins
Bryant Smith qualified for the Bassmaster Classic in his rookie year on tour, part of the exceptional 2023 class that continues to distinguish themselves in so many ways. He did his part, making six cuts that year, including two top ten performances. Perhaps his most impressive accomplishment came on the first day at the St. Lawrence, when he set a B.A.S.S. five-fish smallmouth record with a ridiculous 29 pounds 5 ounces.
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4 days ago | 
halfpastfirstcast.com | Pete Robbins
If you’re a certified big fish hunter, detest finesse gear, or just like slinging baits that’ll tear your rotator cuff, Tackle Warehouse continues to offer tons of options. I check the “NEW” section regularly so you don’t have to (and also because I’m a bit of an addict). Whether you live in Texas, Florida, California or even New England, here are some new “oversized” baits that you might want to try:
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5 days ago | 
halfpastfirstcast.com | Pete Robbins
Brandon Cobb learned to fish in the varied waters of South Carolina, where they have clear water spotted bass lakes, marshy low country waters, and many other options – along with great fishing off the coast. He’s proud of his home state and it’s where he won one of his two Elite Series blue trophies. I wanted to pick his brain to find out more about one of our favorite regions of the country.
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6 days ago | 
halfpastfirstcast.com | Pete Robbins
For a long time I’ve assumed that my next fish replica will be something salty – perhaps a roosterfish or cubera snapper (we currently don’t have room for a billfish), but perhaps the actual answer has been under my nose the whole time. Before we leave the Potomac River region, maybe we should memorialize the fish that first gained notoriety in this area, the northern snakehead. It’s not such a crazy idea. Not only have we caught some big ones, but some of them have amazing markings.
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1 week ago | 
halfpastfirstcast.com | Pete Robbins
I’ve been jealous of Dan Smith for a while. It’s not just that he’s fished more cool places than I have, but also that he got the idea for a fishing travel website long before we did. I’ve made clear that while we didn’t copy him per se, his site was one of the best we found when we started publishing, and as such we always used it as a benchmark for what we’ve become.
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1 week ago | 
halfpastfirstcast.com | Pete Robbins
Trust me, no one wants to get seasick. If you’ve ever suffered from mal de mer, you know how miserable it can be. That’s why we’ve used the Scopolamine patch on all of our offshore trips. The only side effect that I’ve been aware of has been a bit of cottonmouth, which is a fair tradeoff to avoid yelling “ralph” over the side of the boat. That’s why we advise all of our fellow travelers on our hosted trips to bring the patch.
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1 week ago | 
halfpastfirstcast.com | Pete Robbins
Wherever we fish and there’s aquatic vegetation – from Okeechobee to the California Delta – there tend to be coots. They’re awkward, annoying birds, and as Elite Series pro Bill Lowen found out, they can also be a hazard to your health, in which case you might be driven to drink. If and when that happens, there are a bunch of coot-themed beers ready to go. They start with Coot Cerveza, an entire brand built around the breed:
