THIS WILL BE A LONG WALL OF TEXT, BUT PLEASE READ AND HELP ME IMPROVE. I want to be able to absorb knowledge from you guys and then apply it to my fishing. Please hear me out and help me on my path to become a better fisherman
Hi, my name is Mathew, and I would really like to take up fishing seriously as a hobby.
I'm 17 years old living in Miami, starting out strictly in freshwater. I've really taken a liking to fishing as a whole recently and I can't get enough of it. It's all I want to do, it's all I think about. But, my biggest problem is not knowing where to start. I feel like I know a little of some things, but a lot of nothing. I have a million and one questions and I really just want to know everything and anything about this sport. My problem is, no one in my family fishes, none of my friends fish, and it's really hard for me to learn something without anyone telling me if what I'm doing is right or wrong.
I found out about this community after watching a couple of videos by "Glenn May" I believe. He raved about how engaging this community was and how helpful everyone is, so here I am giving this thing a shot. Now I'm sure many people will say to just google, or youtube the answer to my question, but I don't feel that helps nearly as much as having conversation with someone, where you can follow up a question with another question.
I've been fishing many times before, and I've caught fish before too. I try and go fishing about 2 or 3 times a week. I own 2 poles, one a 5'6" Ugly stick, and a 6'6'" Daiwa Dshock. Attached to my Ugly stick is a Sahara 4000FB shimano spincast, and the regular Dshock reel on the Daiwa pole. I pretty much only use the Ugly Stick and let my friend, who is also learning with me use the Daiwa.
One of my problems is that I read so much into fishing and there's so many things to buy to help you fish, that I go out buy a couple things, and don't actually know how to use them. I own a couple lures that I have bought and never use them, and when I do I feel like nothing is working cause I can never get a bite. I recently justy bought my first spinnerbait, (don't even know how to tie the d**n thing on lol), so I'm excited to try that out. I also plan on buying a Pro Qualifier Baitcaster as my first ever baitcaster. (See what I mean about spending money on things I don't know how to use)
These are the lures I own
Xrap 08 Silver - Caught most of my Peacock bass on this
Xrap 06 Olive Green- Caught nothing on this
Rebel popper- Nothing
Rebel floating minnow- 1 peacock
Mirr O dine- Couple peacocks.
Storm Wildeye Shad.- Caught about 3 Peacocks on this.
A $1.00 spinner bait- Just bought this, have never used it.
Gary Yamamoto watermelon- Have never had any luck with worms
Ok, so I guess my biggest problem when catching a fish is that after catching it, I couldn't tell you what I did to help me catch it. And that isn't learning. I read somewhere, that if you don't know how you were able to catch a fish, then you aren't learning anything. And that's what I would like to improve on. I want to be able to catch a fish, know how I caught it, then be able to do it again. Living in Miami, I have caught a couple Peacock bass (couldn't tell you how big any of them were cause my fish guessing scale is horrendous), some tilapia, some Mayans, 1 black catfish, and about 2 Plecos with a snag. Almost every single one of those fish were nesting, and I was able to see them before I caught them. I wouldn't consider any of these fish I caught anything to be proud of considering I coulda threw about anything near their nest and they would have attacked regardless. I catch a lot of brim as well on some squid (funny how they are crazy for saltwater squid) but biggest was probably a pound.
Ok so before I begin asking some questions, I just have a personal story to share. About a month and a half ago, I cast out my first ever lure. (Xrap 08 minnow), It was a pretty rough day, I had 1 lure in my tackle box, that I never used or even knew how to use. So I just randomly put it on my Ugly stick and threw out in the middle of the lake. I was casting fast for the first couple throws, then insanely slow on my last 5 throws. Well on my last throw, after about 10 casts, 5 of which being pretty slow, I catch my first peacock bass, that I wasn't able to see before catching. Mind you I've never used a lure before, so as I was attempting to unhook the fish from the back treble hook, it made 1 big jump, landing the front treble halfway into my thumb. A hospital and a $1500 bill later, I am terrified of unhooking a lure from a fish. I was still super super excited that I caught something on a lure for the first time, so I went and bought a couple of more lures the next day, and even used the lure that hooked me, now calling it my lucky lure as I've caught most of the peacocks on this lure. But I am still really scared of taking a lure off. Since that day I only remove lures from fish with my gloves and my pliers, still being extremely cautious. I know that using gloves isn't the best thing to do, but I'm still pretty scared, and I really don't know how to not be scared.
Ok so I'm just gonna fire off the first questions that pop into my head that I'm still unsure of, even after researching. I mainly only fish in a huge lake spanning a couple miles and I fish off the bank since I don't have a boat to take me into deeper waters. Keep this in mind when answering questions
1.What is a Jig?
2. What's the difference between a jig, and jig head?
3. When should I use a jig head, over a weight?
4. Why use certain knots over others, and in what situations?
5. What is a crankbait?
6. What a plug?
7. What is a buzz bait?
8. Why might I be having trouble with worms, when everyone seems to have success with them?
9. which circumstance should I use different lures?
10. Why use a carolina rig over a texas rig?
11. Why would certain knots be better then others, and in what situations?
12. When is mono, fluro, braid better over what and in what conditions?
13. Why does the pound of the line matter. Talking about things less then 20. I know bigger pound lines are better for catching bigger fish obviously, by why choose 10 pound line over 8, or 8 mpound line over 10?
14. How does length and type of rod (medium,heavy,lite) effect fishing?
15. How do I know when to use certain lines with certain rods?
16. Why use a baitcaster over a spinning reel?
17. How do I know what color lures to use in certain situations?
18. How can I get stubborn fish to bite?
19. What can I use in weeded areas where I know fish are without get caught in the weeds?
20. Can I use a spinnerbait without the skirt?
21. I am a righty, so obviously I use my right hand for everything. Well I plan on buying a Baitcaster soon and I don't know if I should place the reel on the right or left side. On the one hand I can reel in way more smoothly with my right hand, but I can also control the pole mrre easily as well with my right hand if my left is on the reel. Any suggestions?
Ok so those are the first 20 that came to my head and I would really like to some good honest feedback here. I really am sorry for how long everything was, took me about 2 hours to write and get it all out of my head, but I would really like to discuss fishing with everyone here. I really appreciate you time and am hoping to get some responses. I know I can google or youtube some of these, but I think talking with fellow fisherman, and having conversation will help me so much more.
