Monday, February 21, 2011

Beginners Guide To Fishing Tackle

By Lawson Q. Miles


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 their first Rod, Reel and Fishing Tackle.

Should you find yourself in this boat (pun intended), 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 hard.

You need to understand that most fish are predators and will eat any number of things. If it looks like a baitfish, acts like a baitfish or smells like a batifish, it's in danger of ending up on their menu. Fishing isn't nearly as complicated as many of the so-called Guru's would have you to believe. They're just trying to sell products for their Sponsors. I learned this lessons the hard way many years ago. My Buddy and I were outfished on our local lake by an Old Man and his Grandkids using nothing more than Zebco 33's and minnows.

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!

The basic fishing equipment you'll need to start catching Bass is a Rod and Reel, line and bait. That's all there is to it. As for rods and reels, your local sporting goods store or Wal-Mart has an excellent selection. I'd suggest a Rod and Reel combo like the Zebco 33 and a matching rod. This should set you back about $25 or so.

Leave the Spinning and Bait Casting reels such as the ABU's and Shimano's for a little later. They take some experience to use. For now, you just want to focus on catching Bass! A spincast reel is an excellent reel to start with.

As for line, the stuff that comes on a Zebco 33 is good to start out with. If you need to replace it, get a good quality 10 pound line like Berkly Trilene or Stren. 10 pound test is good to begin with and will haul the biggest Bass out of the water with a little patience.

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.




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