Fishing

[[Jett-R]-MeDiuMRaRe]

I rediscovered fishing this past weekend when I taught my son to fish on our Cub Scout Troop family camp out. I've never really owned my own pole, I stopped fishing when my Granddad died when I was about 19 years old.

Anyway, I'm looking at getting back into it, and need general advice. I never really knew what I was doing, Granddad and I just did it for fun and if we got dinner out of it, that was gravy.

So I need a pole, reel, and some general tips...any info ya'll care to pass on will be appreciated.

[[Jett]-Tank]

When I was a kid (up through teenage years), I used to fish a lot with my brother in-law (he's about 10 years older than me). I always liked the Mitchell open-faced reels. He was a bass fisherman, so that's what I learned to do also. :) So what you need depends on where you're gonna fish and what you want to catch, but Mitchells always worked well for me. :)

-=Tank=-

[[Jett]-Silk]

I haven't fished in forever. I've considered getting back into it, but I want to do the fly fishing thing. I've always enjoyed river fishing.

Boat fishing is definitely not my cup of tea.

[[Jett]-XgrinderX]

I still love to bass fish. Try to go at least 3 times a year up to Lake Sam Rayburn with a couple of local trips scattered in as well.

I am a huge fan of the Abu Garcia Ambassador series. I like the huge open face and they are pretty smooth and easy to maintain. As for rods I am still a huge Berkely Lightning Rod fan. I use 6' rods.

As for lures, I am a pretty heavy plastic worm fisherman. I'd say 75-80% of the fishing I do is with plastics. I also use several varieties of top water lures, chuggers, pop-r, torpedoes, and rogues being my faves. I also have some medium depth crank baits and some rat-l-traps. The plastics and those lures pretty much account for 99.9% of my fishing.

[[Jett-R]-MeDiuMRaRe]

I've never really liked boat fishing either, it feels confining, whereas shore or river fishing your somehow more "in the open".

Thanks for the rod and reel recommendations. I really needed a starting point.

What about licensing? Do you buy one for the whole year? What about urban (non boating) lakes and ponds. I was researching and there are several that are occassionaly stocked within 10-15 minutes of my house. Any reservations about eating fish out of the local waters?

I guess it would mostly be perch and small bass fishing. Eventually I'd like to get into trout fishing as it's my favorite eating fish.

[[Jett]-Tank]

-MeDiuMRaRe;2384']
What about licensing? Do you buy one for the whole year?

TX fishing licenses all expire in August, so no matter when you buy it, it expires in August. However, now I think you can pay a little extra and get one that's a full year from purchase. Man, I need to go do some fishing too, so I can slow down this busy life! :)

-=Tank=-

[[Jett]-Einstein]

What sort of fishing are you doing? Lure or Fly?

[[Jett-R]-MeDiuMRaRe]

lure and bait

[[Jett-R]-Ryis]

i fish every weekend. trout, crappie, pike, muskie, etc... even on the big lakes, salmon, browns, lake trout, etc....

#1. all reels and poles are fine. find what you like. dont let them sell you on any bs idea.
you need what feels best in your hands, try different stuff all the time.

#2. research your area. depth, type, etc.. you need to know what your catching and what they like to eat. find maps of the local fishing places. different fish will be in different places.

#3. price is important. i catch more fish on the 1.99 lures then the 5.99 ones. bargin shop!

#4. Never go alone, its boring. OMG!!! look what i caught!!! o'nm your not there.

#5. watch videos on presentation. you need to know how to "move" to make them strike!

#6. always bring food and drinks!

[[Jett]-Pauper]

Getting a good multi-purpose rod and reel is a good idea. The open face style that Grinder mentioned are the best and unfortunately take a good deal of skill not to create a mess. I have them and like them but you may want to start with a spinning real. It does take some skill to throw but not too much and it will chunk things a country mile for your shore fishing.

Rod - try to stick with graphite and they do make them rather cheap these days. Your local Academy Sprots can set you up with everything and be in-expensive.

Baits - I have fished salt-water and fresh extensively and I really believe 4 or 5 baits is about all you need. Here is the list:
1. Plastics - as Grinder mentioned, once you learn this it is hard to get away from them becasue fish do not remember a plastic worm like they can a plug or something flashy.

2. Spinnerbait - versatile and lethal. Also very fun to fish as you can fish fast.

3. Rogue - Gold rougue is an incredible bait and can be fished at different depths by how fast you retrieve. It is a diving plug bait with 3 trebles on it so buy some needle nose pliers.

4. Zoom super fluke - a little tricky to rig correctly but once you learn it you can catch everything from saltwater to fresh. Although they are plastic, they are different becasue you swim this bait. This is my number 1 go to bait.

5. Live bait - nothing like fishing a hand sized bream for a double digit bass or catfish. This is when you definitely need that reel and rod combo that grinder was talking about. I like to catch big fish whether salt or freshwater species and to do this consistently you must larger size bait. To catch a 200+lbs marlin you use a bonita that weighs 2-5 pounds and to catch a big bass or catfish I use a full sized bluegill consistently.

[[Jett-R]-MeDiuMRaRe]

great input guys, I'm hoping to make a visit to bass pro or academy this weekend

[[Jett]-Tracker]

Get the youngster a closed face reel, easier for kids. Zebco is fine and a lot of us learned on the old Zebco push button closed face reels. Bait and bobbers are usually easier for beginners also. Have fun, wish I was going with!

[[Jett-R]-MeDiuMRaRe]

yeah my son got a zebco for his birthday and we used it on the camp out, that's pretty much what's brought all of this on.

[[Jett]-Clutch]

Well, I am glad to see that Tracker Chimed in. He has been fish'n for a long time. Pulling trout out of the mountain streams with a fly rod.