Beginners Guide To Bass Fishing Tackle

Why does one person desire to learn how to fish while another person doesn't? I'm sure most people don't have a clue as to why they like to fish or what prompted them to do it in the first place. Whatever the reason, each year multitudes of people take up the sport of fishing. Some of these newcomers will take off to their local sporting goods store or Wal-Mart to buy the cheapest Fishing Tackle they can find.

If you find yourself in this circumstance, then I'm here to share some fishing tackle tips you'll want to follow before running out and buying every piece of glittery fishing tackle that catches your eye. Discovering how to become a successful fisherman is not difficult or expensive.

Fist off, get the notion that fishing gear has to be expensive or complicated to catch fish out of your head. Remember, fish are predators. They're not overly smart and anything that resembles a baitfish gets put on their menu. This point was drove home early in my fishing career. Me and a buddy had been out Bass fishing on our local lake. We hadn't had much success. Back at the boat ramp, an Old Man and a young kid came motoring up. They each had a stringer full of Black Bass.

When they got out, they had a huge stringer of Black Bass. The biggest one was 6 and a half pounds and none were under 2 pounds. I walked over and asked the Old Man what they had used, seeing how my Buddy and I were skunked that morning and we had been using the latest equipment and lures on the Market. The Old Man smiled and showed me his Minnow bucket and said "Why we were using Bass Minnows and Worms"! I also couldn't keep from noticing their very simple rod and reels. They had out fished a couple local Pro's with simple bait and rod and reel set-ups!

For starters, if you don't own a rod and reel, you'll need one obviously. You don't need the latest and greatest rod & reel to hit the market. In fact, many a Bass has been hauled out of the water with the likes of Zebco spincast reels. I would recommend heading down to Wal-Mart and finding a good Zebco 33 rod and reel combo. This outfit will serve you well as a beginner.

When you're just starting out, you want to spend your time catching fish, not fooling around with your reel. That's why spincast reels make an excellent first reel. They're not as complex as a level wind reel and they're easier to master than spinning reels. There's plenty of time for you to practice with a level wind or spinning reel, but for now, keep it simple with a spincast reel.

Next on your equipment comes the fishing line. If you bought a rod and reel combo, chances are it came with line already on it. If not, or you want to change the line, then I'd suggest a 10lb line from either Stren or Trilene. There are other manufacturers out there, but these two have been around a long time and manufacture quality fishing line.

Next comes the bait. Again, there's no use in getting complicated here. Just ignore all the boasting and B.S.ing from the marketing material and you'll be fine. For live bait fishing, start by selecting hooks in the 1/0 to 3/0 range. Eagle Claw makes excellent live bait hooks. Get a selection of weights and Balsa bobbers and you're set for live bait fishing. For artificial bait, you only need a few selections. Plastic grubs with curly tails in the colors of forage fish are good choices. I like White, Yellow, Black and Blue or Green. Grab up a silver Johnson spoon and a Rapala swimming minnow and you'll be set. Make sure you look at the rod to see what range of lure weights it's rated for. Don't get lures too heavy for your rod.

Believe it or not, that's it. Sure, you may need a minnow bucket, a stringer and a tackle box, but those are cheap. Just make sure you don't go overboard! This set up will catch many types of fish from Bass to Catfish. Once you get some experience under your belt, you can then start trying other things like level wind reels, plastic worms or crank baits.