Beginners Guide to Fishing

A guide to the fishing tackle you will need to start with.

This is where it starts to get complicated. A hundred gazillion types of tackle, lures, plastic baits, jigs, spoons, crankbaits....the list goes on and continues to grow. And each category of lure has seemingly a million sub categories, tubes, flukes, lizards, deep diving, shallow diving, top water frogs, top water poppers, plugs..(whew)...and on and on. And the design of each new lure, spinnerbait, and buzzbait is only limited by the imagination of the lure makers.

You will look at many a lure and ponder, "How the hell is this gonna catch a fish?" or "No self-respecting bass will ever fall for this thing!" Every angler has had the same thoughts about certain lures that they have tried. But have no fear they usually will strike something at least once. I have had days where I couldn't get a bite on anything. But for some reason decided to tie on a lure that had never worked before and was the ugliest thing you ever did see. And to my amazement, the fish tore it up. One of the keys to catching fish is patience and persistence. As William Churchill said, "Never surrender!"

Fish the entire pond, or if in a large lake, pick a promising area that you you can cover in the time you have to fish. Spend about 15 to 20 minutes fishing one area of the pond with out moving your boat. (or moving on to a different area if fishing from the bank of the pond or lake) If that area doesn't produce, move a bit further along and repeat. If you don't get a bite or strike on the lure you are using after several attempts at this, try a different lure, and circle the pond or lake area again.

If you have a limited time to fish, don't spaz out and try to get the entire pond or lake area, with every lure you have in one day. This will only succeed in wasting time; odds are you will spook the fish rather than intice them to bite. Take your time, (fishing is suppose to be relaxing after all) plan on coming back again and again if need be. It even takes the pros several trips to a body of water before they get an idea of what bait or plastic worm works, and where on that body of water that it does work. "Patience and persistence"

The next few lessons will deal with the tackle and lures that are used for various fish and fishing styles. These lessons will give you a general idea of what the lure or tackle is and how to fish with it. But by no means should you think these guidelines are the end all way to fish the lures. Don't be afraid to step out of the box and break the rules, try a different way to fish the lure. Fishing is a trial and error sport, just because the box says to to retrieve the bait fast, doesn't mean you won't catch more fish by retrieving it slow or slow and jerky.