Teaching Someone To Fish- Do You Start Them With Live Bait?

[basslover12345]

Teaching someone to fish- Do you start them with live bait? I'm teaching the adult moderator for my bass club how to fish, he's NEVER fished a day in his life. Do I start him with live bait while I use lures?

[Brian Needham]

spinnerbaits

[papajoe222]

That's up to you, but one thing I don't do when starting someone out is attempt to fish myself while instructing someone on their first outing.

[CoBass]

Papajoe hit it on the head. Even though he's an adult, he will be doing something he's never done before. The things you take for granted, casting, accuracy, hook sets are all going to be foreign to him. Having you right there to offer tips and assistance will help a lot.

If you do decide to go with artificials, keep it simple. Spinnerbaits and lipless cranks can be pretty easy as far as being simple cast and retrieve baits. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[ClackerBuzz]

i agree you should not have a rod in ur hand b/c its too tempting to fish.

if you want him to catch fish use live bait or senko's. if he catches lots of sunnies with live worms switch to 5" senkos for a better shot at bass.

i've tried spinnerbaits, swimjig's, buzzbaits, chatterbaits and Mepps spinners with a nubie and it was a disaster. reason being they don't know how to:

1-cast with accuracy

2-lock the bail or reel at the end of cast so the lure starts spinning upon entry of water. basically they bomb the lure 20ft in the air, it plop's down REALLY hard into the water and then sinks 4 ft before they ever start reeling. not attractive to fish.

[Goose21]

For the last four weeks I've caught a friend of the farm how to fish. Started out with live worms and crickets to give him plenty of action and keep him interested. At first the biggest challenge was getting the hang of tthrowing a light spinning outfit. Once that became routine I moved onto small crappie jigs and cranks, and at this point he's got the fever. Moved onto a medium sized spinning outfit with a Texas rigged trick worm or baby brush hog. Lots of action, and frequently landing shorts. Biggest challenge has been distinguishing between the way structure feels as opposed to a fish, and then setting the hook. Of course this takes years to master, as well as routinely making a good cast and providing good action staying within the strike zone.

This guy spent a lot of time in trouble with the law growing up, so it's been extra rewarding for me introducing him to a healthy hobby. Bass fishing also teaches discipline and persistence. Nothing like sharing your passion with others. I've found a new fishing buddy.

[Bluebasser86]

I've taught some beginners fishing classes and done mentor programs teaching people to fish. I like to start with moving baits like spinnerbaits, in-line spinners, or crankbaits, or a wacky rigged senko. The senko is actually my favorite because it's inexpensive and it does pretty much all the work for you. Plus the exposed hook makes it one of the easiest soft plastics to hook a fish with.

[Loop_Dad]

I only taught my kids to fish. One thing I didn't do right is to spend time finding a sure place to catch something. Now in your case he is an adult already interested in fishing to volunteer to be a moderator, I assume. So he will be more patient than children I guess.

I would go with 4" senko splitshotted targeting dinks in shallows. I would definitely use barbless hook because of higher chance of gut hooking. (Besides I've converted to barbless guy.)

[basslover12345]

I took him out for the first time LAST friday, he was great with a 6'6 Spinning rod set up with 10 pound mono, the rod I have him to use. He could cast fairly well, but not that far. The whole club was out with us, I was the only one to catch ANYTHING. I caught 2 dinks and a bluegill. He didn't catch anything with the small boot-tail grub I rigged up for him.

[Sam]

Yes.

Use Nightcrawlers.

Minnows are also good but Nightcrawlers are less expensive and easier to take with you. You can get them at a tackle store or Wal-Mart.

Get him used to feeling the bite and watching the line plus having his finger on the line coming off the spool to feel the hits.

Then move up to a Senko or a trick worm on a shaky head jig head.

After he has mastered the plastics technique move up to a Shad Rap, crankbait, Chatterbait or spinnerbait, with the understanding that bites do not come along very often as they do with the live bait.

[wademaster1]

i'm with sam on this; float and nightcrawler will catch some fish for them; this way it holds their interest while learning; they will learn to and get the hang of casting and getting used to the rod and reel and get used to casting more accurately; after a while or a trip or two or when you feel like they are ready go to plastics and cranks maybe topwater; this is exactly what i did for my gf and it worked wonders; within like 4 trips she is using several different lures and catching fish steadily; good luck

[mikey5string]

if youre teaching how to fish for bass, I would start using texas rigs. This will teach him about rigging, hooks, weights, different soft plastic options and imparting "action" on the bait.

[grampa1114]

I tend to agree with Mikey, a 4"black curlytail worm, texas rigged with a 1/8 weight will have a weedless, forgiving hook and be down in the weeds to show him some cover. 1/0 hooks should work as well for you as they did for my wife. Remember to tell him that this is "fun".

Grampa

[BassAssassin726]

For the last four weeks I've caught a friend of the farm how to fish. Started out with live worms and crickets to give him plenty of action and keep him interested. At first the biggest challenge was getting the hang of tthrowing a light spinning outfit. Once that became routine I moved onto small crappie jigs and cranks, and at this point he's got the fever. Moved onto a medium sized spinning outfit with a Texas rigged trick worm or baby brush hog. Lots of action, and frequently landing shorts. Biggest challenge has been distinguishing between the way structure feels as opposed to a fish, and then setting the hook. Of course this takes years to master, as well as routinely making a good cast and providing good action staying within the strike zone.

This guy spent a lot of time in trouble with the law growing up, so it's been extra rewarding for me introducing him to a healthy hobby. Bass fishing also teaches discipline and persistence. Nothing like sharing your passion with others. I've found a new fishing buddy.

Love this. Fishing does teach a person how to stay focused, be persistent and patient. I used to be a very im patient person until i started bass fishing. Fishing helped me in a way that I will never be able to repay. Had substance abuse problems really bad with presciption meds ands when i cleaned up i picked up bass fishing and it just helped to keep my head clear. An amazing sport indeed. As far as teaching someone to fish Id say start them with minnows or shiners to keep the action up and keep them into it. Then once they learn to cast and such switch to plastics and spinnerbaits.

[Raul]

I taught my compadre, my nephew and nieces, my son and my daughter how to fish, I never used live bait. There´s many lures good for beginners, in-line spinners and spinnerbaits are excellent lures to teach someone to fish, there´s not too much science in simply cast, allow to sink a little and crank the handle.

[Bladesmith,]

Teaching someone to fish is going to depend a lot on the capabilities of the individual you're trying to teach. I usually start with artificials that are relatively easy to fish. Spinnerbaits in grass or brush and crankbaits in fairly open water. With these lures he can catch a few fish before he has to deal with distinguishing between a bite and a stump as with soft plastics. I never use live bait.

[ClackerBuzz]

don't forget swallowed hook removal:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/12981-how-do-i-remove-a-hook-a-bass-has-swallowed/page__st__15

[SirSnookalot]

If I were teaching an adult how to fish for bass a senko would be my choice. An adult should have a bit more built in patience than a younger person. A senko or any plastic worm is about as easy as it gets for bass fishing, highly productive, with a greater potential for a larger fish. The worm can be fished in a variety of ways, with or without heavy vegetation, and no need for sophisticated equipment to teach new angler how to detect a bite and set the hook.

[wisconsin heat]

i persuaded my best friend to come bass fishing with me, (he had never gone fishing except for trolling huge spoons for trout when he was a little kid). I decided to start him out with a senko, he wasin complete doubt that a fish would even go near it.I tried to explain how to fish it, but i ended up making a cast to make a demonstration. I caught a bass on that cast and he was pretty excited. he caught like 5 bass that day and although he doesnt fish much, he is a senko freak. My vote goes to senko's

[(='_'=)]

i had to teach myself how to fish... i began with spinnerbaits and cranks, as i assumed those were the easiest lures to catch a fish on, basically just cast them to visible cover, then reel them in... the fish basically hook themselves... now i use several retrieves, stops, pauses, twitches, etc... but at the biginning i would just throw and reel, and i would catch fish...

now im progressing to soft plastics and really loving it.... hopefully by next year i will be able to fish a jig....

[redboat]

Whatever you have him fish with, use an old reel with line you don't mind throwing out when he gets it all tangled, and add one of those rod floats for when he drops it in the lake.

[(='_'=)]

Whatever you have him fish with, use an old reel with line you don't mind throwing out when he gets it all tangled, and add one of those rod floats for when he drops it in the lake.

i have a couple of Zenco 33 reels for this purpose.... but, i changed the line to 15 lb mono, since i dont know why, my GF and friend always manage to hook weeds or get stuck in the rocks, and the 10 lb that came with the reels breaks easily... after a couple lost spinnerbaits and cranks, i changed the line...

[Diggy]

bread bobber and hook...bream all day

[Sam]

Depends on their age.

Small children through age 14 - live bait as their focus on fishing dwindles rapidly and they lose interest fast if they do not catch anything.

15 and older you can start them out with either live bait or atrificals but once again, depending on their maturity factor and their interest in fishing, they can lose interest easily.

The main goal is to have them feel the enjoyment and fun of catching something, be it a bream, catfish or a largemouth bass. JUST CATCH SOMETHING!!!!

[J Francho]

It depends on what you are fishing for. If it's lake run trout in streams and creeks, then heck yes, I'm hooking them up with egg sacks all day long. If it's blue gill and crappie, then jigs tipped with worms or grubs, no problem. Bass, usually I like to start them with a moving bait with sharp hooks so the fish hook themselves. Once they are proficient at landing them, then I'll move to a drop bait, like a whacky rigged senko, or dropshot worm, if we're fishing deeper. These are two more techniques where a hookset isn't really necessary. After that, a Texas Rig is the natural progression, and you can teach the reel down and set.