Muskie fishing is wonderful anytime of the year but it is especially fun in the winter. Musky are some of the biggest fresh water fish in North America and every angler enjoys catching big fish. Here are a few basics of winter musky fishing to help you be successful.

Musky are solitary predators who rarely roam from home. Shallow water with dense vegetation is where they like to call home. If there is a good structure in heavily covered areas musky will like it even better. They cruse the vegetation using it to hide while looking up at the higher level of the structure for a meal. They like rivers as well as lakes, just as long as there is the right structures and food. A good set of fishing maps will help find the best areas with the vegetation and structures.

If you are ice fishing for musky you should consider drilling several holes. Musky will cruse their habitat constantly searching for a meal. But having several holes drilled at various parts of the suitable area, you’ll be able to fish more effectively. If you drill all the holes at the same time you won't constantly disturb the area. A power auger will let you drill all the holes in just a few minutes. That allows time for the area to settle down. Then, depending on local fishing regulations you may be able to use a couple of fishing rods.

If you are allowed to use two fishing rods, put a nice live sucker about 8 inches long on one rod. With the other rod use a shiny spoon to jig. The movement of the sucker will draw the musky in to eat. If it’s hungry it will eat the sucker, and if it’s not hungry, the spoon will draw the attack.

If you are currently not an angler, but enjoy playing fishing games and have considered taking up fishing, here are five great reasons for you to start now.

First, like everything else the longer you wait to get started, the more it will cost. As fishing rods and fishing reels are technologically improved, the price of these necessary pieces of tackle increases. It seems every month or two something new is developed that increases the price of fishing tackle.

Second, if you watch fishing on TV and think it would be fun to fish in the bass master classic, you must start fishing now. The only way to get good enough to fish in the classic is to practice. You can’t even begin practicing until you start to fish so it is imperative that you start fishing immediately.

Third, if your spouse believes that weekends are made to work on a 'honey do’ list than fishing may be the answer. If you live in southern Arizona or Florida, golf could also be that answer, but for those that live in the far north in America, you can’t golf in the cold or snow. This makes fishing the best reason to forget the honey do list. However, unless you start fishing now, you'll be known as the person who even procrastinates even finding an excuse.

Forth, fishing is good for your health. There are many people who use their free time going to dark smoky bars and drinking. This is a horrible hobby for your health. If you’re one of these people, you need to begin fishing right away. Fishing is a great outdoor activity so you can get plenty of sun and fresh air while you drink.

Fifth, if you have ever dreamed of buying a sweet bass fishing boat, you’ll never be able to justify it if you don't start fishing now.

Fly fishing during the cold winter months for trout can be a wonderful experience, if you have the right tackle and equipment. Winter fishing is one of the extreme fishing games but can be very productive. Here are a few tips to make sure you have an awesome day out on the river or stream.

Wearing a good thick pair of neoprene chest waders will keep most of your body warm. A pair of neoprene fishing gloves will keep your hands warm and dry. If you get the type of glove that have the tips of the thumb and forefinger that fold off of the digit allowing you to change flies, you’ll be able to keep your fingers warm and dry and still be able to change tackle.

Wearing a good waterproof parka tucked into your waders will keep your upper body warm.

This time of year the trout are looking for good aquatic bugs to eat. The best way to see what they are eating is to seine the river and find the bugs that are along the bottom; then match them to a pattern in your box.

Stream fishing is good this time of year. Using a weighted line and a split shot on the leader or a beadhead fly, cast out up stream and holding the tip just above the water surface, strip the line in. It is also effective to stand out in the middle of the stream and cast upstream towards the bank: then with the tip just above the surface strip the line in.

During the cold winter, fish try to conserve energy. If you plan on fishing with a catch and release style it is a good idea not to play the fish too much. If a fish uses too much energy fighting the line, they will have a hard time recovering and then replacing the energy used.

Remember, if it’s too cold you'll be better off playing online fishing games, like shark fishing games in the warm truck.

With the lake frozen over the only real option available to anglers, besides playing fishing games or going to Florida fishing, is to go ice fishing. But if you've never been ice fishing before, there are few things you need to learn. Here is a crash course is ice fishing 101.

The first thing that must be considered is the thickness of the ice. This is a crash course, not a splash course. Ice should be at lest 6 inches think before you go out on it. Some may say that 4 inches is fine, but it is always better to err on the safe side.

The next thing to contemplate is drilling the hole. This can be done with a hand auger if the ice is thin or a power auger if the ice is thick. Be sure to check your local fishing regulations to see how large a hole you can drill in the ice.

Different counties and districts may permit different holes.

When the hole is complete you need a big ladle with big holes in it to strain out the ice chunks. Keeping your hole clear is important when your line freezes into the ice and you’re trying to bring a fish up through the hole.

The next thing you will need is a rod and reel. An ice fishing rod is short, very short, like a child’s fishing rod. In fact, a child fishing rod and reel will work very nicely for ice fishing.

Now you need a hook and bait. If you're bass fishing, use#4 hook: if trout fishing use#10 hook. Put the hook on the bottom of your line and a sinker about 10 inches above the hook. If you’re bass fishing put a worm on the hook. If you're trout fishing, put a salmon egg or two on the hook. Then drop it into the water and let it settle to the bottom. Now set back in a lawn chair and wait for your fish.

One of the most pleasant experiences in life is dry fly fishing on a gently flowing stream in the late afternoon when the sun is low and the shadows are long. Of all the fishing games and experiences a person can have, dry fly fishing is the most heavenly. For those who have never experienced dry fly fishing here is what it is all about.

There are certain times of the year and certain times of the day when bugs lay on the water. The bugs eat and drink smaller life forms and so they are on the surface of the water.

There are other times when aquatic bugs shed their aquatic bodies and now having wings, fly out of the water. Some of the bugs during these hatches sit on the water before flying away.

When either of these two events occur, it is possible to take a dry fly which imitates these bugs and cast it onto the water allowing it to float along the surface. These fish seeing a bug floating on the water will swim up and eat it. Some fish come up under the fly and leap out of the water as they grab the fly. Other fish slowly, with an open mouth sip the fly and swallow it. Either way it is a beautiful site.

When these bug events occur there is usually no wind. It is calm and peaceful, the lack of wind allows you to cast a fly line and place it exactly where you want it.

To keep a dry fly on the surface requires the use of floating fly line and floating leader. The flies are sprayed with an oil or silicone to make sure they float. A lot of dry fly anglers use barbless hooks as well. This makes the ensuring fight fair, doing the least amount of damage.

Some say after you have had a dry fly experience you never go back to bass fishing or striper fishing again.

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Freshwater fishing in the winter is very different depending on the latitude, but no matter where you are its lots of fun. Here are a few winter angling tips to try no matter where you are, from Florida to Maine, and South Carolina to California.

Fish are cold blooded animals or more correctly ectotherms, animals whose body temperatures depend on their environment. When a fish’s body temperature drops because of cold water it becomes slower. It digests food slower and swims slower. For the angler this means the fish won’t be hungry as often. They will go into a pattern of eating in the morning, breaking a fast, and in the afternoon when it is the warmest.

Because the fish physically move slower they are less likely to chase a shiny lure they see from a distance. They will still strike at a shiny object, but it must be close by. This means an angler must work a grid pattern in the water that is closer together than you would normally do in the warmer times of the year.

The same is true for chasing baits. They won’t be as aggressive or swim as far to get the bait. They are looking for the largest meal using the least amount of energy. For the angler, this means larger baits presented to the fish so they don’t have to swim very far.

If you are bass fishing, use bigger swim baits. If you are trout fishing, use a larger cluster of salmon eggs. It may be a good idea to watch a fishing video of how fish strike at baits in the cold water.

If the water gets too cold or stormy the fish may not feed at all. This is a good time to play some fishing games. Bass fishing games, out of all fishing games are some of the most favorite of the free online fishing games; they are even more popular than shark fishing games.

In the late fall, after the leaves have fallen, the musky begin to stalk their prey in the shallows in a slower manner. Musky, being large carnivorous fish, need to conserve energy. Here are a few tips and techniques for catching some good musky this time of year.

In many ways musky fishing is similar to bass fishing. Many bass fishing techniques will work well for catching musky. In the cold late fall water, musky are looking for the biggest meal they can find. A musky will spend as much energy chasing a small meal, as it will a big meal. Knowing this help you chose your swim bait. This time of year large swim bait that bears the colors of an adult pan fish will be very productive. If you have a swim bait that imitates a wounded pan fish that is even better. Catching a wounded fish is the easiest way to get a good meal.

In some regions the fishing regulations change in the late fall and winter. It is best to check the local rules before you go out fishing.

It is important to remember that musky is a solitary hunter. They stake out an area and stay there if at all possible. The biggest musky will chase off the smaller musky who invade their hunting area. This means that if you catch a large musky, you need to move to a new area. If you catch a small musky it may be in a region where there is a bigger musky, so continue fishing for a little while before moving on to a new location.

If the fishing gets slow you can always use your smart phone to find some free fishing games to play until the fish decide they are hungry.

Sole are a flat fish like a flounder or halibut. The adults have both eyes on the top side. The sole is much smaller than the halibut with the females reaching only two feet in length and the males 1 ½ feet. Even though they are not very big, fishing for sole is a lot of fun. They live in the sandy or muddy ocean floor. It is common to find them at 300 to 500 feet. They are just off of the shelf from California to Alaska.

In these areas before beginning a fishing trip it is best to check fishing regulations. They have been over fished by the commercial fisherman and so the regulations are changed regularly. You will also need to consult some good fishing maps to determine the exact location of the shelf as it angles off the coast.

Sole are nocturnal feeders so they will leave the deep waters at night and move to warmer coastal waters during the summer. They will lie on the bottom of the sea and cover themselves with sand and mud. Then they will wait for food to swim across them. When this happens they quickly get up and catch the food.

Sole love to eat shrimp and other crustaceans. But will eat other fish including juvenile sole. Fishing with live bait caught in the area is very productive. Plastic baits and crank baits are also productive.

Because they hide at the bottom, it’s important that the bait also be on the bottom. One good way to do this is to use a four or five oz weight on the bottom of your line with two or three baits spaced about six inches apart. Then about 12 inches above the top bait put a two or three oz weight. This will keep the baits on the bottom while you’re slowly reeling or slowly troll along.

While you quietly troll along in the dark you can play fishing games on your smart phone.

Since the beginning of time man has enjoyed fishing and competing for the honor of catching the biggest fish. This was the beginning of fishing games. Today there are many different records kept for large fish. In the United States, each state keeps a record of the largest fish of each species caught in that state. There are also fishing contests that each keeps records of the largest fish that won the contest. In order to try and have a central record keeping and a standard to which everyone can compete the International Game Fish Association began keeping international saltwater fish records many years ago. Today they maintain the records for almost all fish, both freshwater and saltwater.

In the saltwater records the biggest fish ever caught was a whale shark. Whale sharks are known to be over 40 feet long and weight 15 metric tons. But the whale shark is almost always caught in a net and not by tackle so it does not count in the records.

The Great White Shark was once a great game fish. There were several Great Whites caught on tackle that exceeded 2000 pounds. In 1952 off the coast of Australia a Great White weighting 2071 pounds was caught. He is the winner of all shark fishing games.

Blue Marlin is another big saltwater fish. The record from Konce, Hawaii is 1656 pounds. This isn’t the current world record. The records have been getting larger almost every year. In 1966 the world record was only 1100 pounds.

In freshwater the largest fish caught was a Giant Mekong Catfish in Thailand. It was 9 feet long, and weighed over 600 pounds. There were no scales in the area to make an accurate weight.

The world record King Salmon is 97 ¼ pounds caught in 1986 from Alaska’s Koni River. This was a big fish but nothing like a White Sturgeon. In 1956 a White Sturgeon was caught in Idaho’s Snake River that weighed 360 pounds. But in the Columbia River a 1285 pound White Sturgeon was caught.

South America is an amazing continent to visit. It is very diverse, offering mountains, plains, jungles, and beaches. It has high cold mountain ranges, and dense hot humid jungle forests. It also offers very diverse fishing conditions. Here are some of the top spots for South America fishing.

In the Andes Mountains it is Lake Titicaca. It is located in Peru and Bolivia. Historically, Lake Titicaca has provided a source of life for thousands of years. It is the world’s highest navigable lake with an altitude of 12500 feet.

There are many villages along the shore where boats and native guides can be hired. For an interesting fishing experience, as well as cultural experience, hire a local with a reed boat to go out for day fishing. This lake is home to many species of fish.                      

If salt water fishing is what you want then Esmeraldas, Ecuador, is the place to go. It is located on the North West coast and has a wonderful port. There are also a couple of big tourist resorts that make accommodations very enjoyable.

Off of the Ecuador coast is some spectacular fishing for albacore, bluefin, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna. The Galapagos Islands are a short boat ride off of the coast. The waters around these islands are noted as being some of the best tuna fishing in the world.

On the southern end of the continent, Chimbote Chile is another port city. Chimbote has a great port and accommodations to make a wonderful fishing trip. The primary game fish in these waters is the mackerel, but other fish are occasionally available.

If bass fishing is your passion the peacock bass is home in the Amazon River. The peacock bass is one of the hardest fighting fresh water fish in the world. The Amazon River is the best place to demonstrate your greatest bass fishing technique. They play serious fishing games on this river.