“A good reel won’t make you Seth Feider, but a bad one might make you swear like him after a lost fish.”
When I was a kid, most boys asked Santa for bikes, a poster of Farrah Fawcett or the latest Atari cartridge. (Yes, I’m Atari old.) I wanted a tacklebox. Not some sleek, hold-a-hundred lures model — I’m talking about a plastic box from Kmart that had a single tray to hold my handful of pawn-shop baits. One Christmas, the jolly ol’ elf delivered exactly that. (I also got the poster and wasn’t mad about it.) Inside that little Plano box was a handful of bargain-bin baits to add to my arsenal. To me, it was the greatest gift ever.
That morning, I sat cross-legged on the floor, rummaging through my new treasures, convinced I now possessed the weapons that would unlock the secret to catching every bass in Wichita County. Of course, I didn’t. I still got skunked more times than not. But in those moments, I wasn’t thinking about failure. I was thinking about possibility. Every lure in that box carried a promise that the next cast would change my young life (a bit dramatic, but true).
Fast forward more than a few decades, and I still make the same Christmas list. The only difference is, instead of circling items in the Sears catalog, I now get to flip through something much better: the Bassmaster Christmas Buyer’s Guide. And while my wife rolls her eyes when I slip it under her nose with strategically highlighted pages (subtlety is not my gift), I know you’ll appreciate it as much as I do.
This issue is our biggest gear dump of the year. We stuffed these pages fuller than Santa’s sleigh with rods, reels, lures, apparel, gadgets — basically everything you need to keep chasing that next bite. I like to think of it as the adult version of finding a tacklebox under the tree. The biggest difference? The gear on these pages is hot off the 2025 ICAST trade show floor — cutting edge, brand new and so fresh your fishing buddy hasn’t even seen it yet.
Here’s the thing: Bass fishing isn’t only about the gear, but the gear sure does matter. A good reel won’t make you Seth Feider, but a bad one might make you swear like him after a lost fish. The right crankbait might not guarantee a personal best, but it gives you a fighting chance. And let’s be honest: There’s nothing better than unwrapping a piece of tackle, tying it on and proving to yourself that it catches fish.
The beauty of this time of year is that it lets us take stock. What worked this season? What didn’t? What fish got away — and which lure are we blaming? The Buyer’s Guide is more than a shopping list; it’s a roadmap to next year’s memories. That new rod could be the one your kid uses to boat their first 5-pounder. And that tacklebag might just become your most loyal travel partner.
Of course, some of you might be smarter than me and just buy what you need throughout the year. You do you. But for those of us who still believe Christmas is a time for surprises, there’s a special joy in waiting to see what lands under the tree. My track record of hint-dropping isn’t great. (One year, I asked for a Daiwa Tatula and ended up with a sweater featuring a moose. True story.) But every once in a while, Santa — or my long-suffering family — gets it right, and the kid in me is back on the living room floor, plotting how to take over the bass fishing world with my new toys.
