Addicted Australian Angler!

[Jaylikeajaybird]

Hi there, my name is Jay, and I'd like to tell you guys and gals a little story about how YOU got me addicted to Bass Fishing. Pull up a chair and grab a cold drink, because this might take a while, but it's worth it if you've got 10 minutes up your sleeve.

My parents recently immigrated to the USA, my mom was born in Detroit and is an American Citizen, my dad became a permanent resident when they made the move over here, but as a family, we spent our entire time growing up in Australia. We are from an area on the East Coast of Australia, just South of the Great Barrier Reef, salt water fishing is big business and a common past time for most everyone around there. We spend our weekends out battling the waves, chasing everything from Snapper, Giant Trevally, Bream, Jewfish, Tailor, Whiting, heck even Bull Sharks (which are a problem species in record numbers). I can literally count the amount of times I had been fresh water fishing before arriving here on one hand. It's just not even given consideration when you have an entire ocean out in front of you teeming with aquatic life.

The house my parents have here is located in Southern Michigan on a private cottage lake, their back door is literally a dock. Since back home I fish pretty much every day, it was nice to see I had such easy access to a fishable body of water. Within 2 days of arriving, I had the itch, I packed up the random assortment of rods my dad had in the barn with whatever lure was attached to the end of them and jumped in the boat full of bravado. How hard could it be to catch some fish on a lake I could make a lap around in 10 minutes, when I'm used to navigating the Pacific Ocean?

Off I went, with my false sense of superiority, in half a day I'd managed to pull up a handful of pan sized Blue Gill, and a couple of random Crappie. I came back in for lunch and quizzed my dad on what the lake had to offer that was a little bigger and more challenging than these midgets. His reply was instant: Largemouth Bass. I quickly googled what type of baits they preferred and set myself up on a small chatterbait. An entire afternoon passed... where were these fish? I mean cmon I've been fishing for hours and nothing. Defeated I settled in for the night, and set myself up with the laptop, determined to find out what I did wrong.

It was then that I stumbled on bassresource.com, I spent most of that evening reading through the articles and discovering that there were many nuances to catching these fish with any kind of consistency. My interest was piqued, I hadn't anticipated finding it difficult to catch some finicky fish on a freshwater lake I could just about swim across. Humbling experience!

I spent the next few weeks, darting between the boat and the computer, reading articles, then trying to apply what I had learned out on the water. I was making progress and pulling up small LMB, but still nothing notable. Thirsting for more knowledge, I found these forums, I've been lurking them for months now, gleaning knowledge from the various threads posted by members. Slowly I started to build a bank of information in my head, what lures to use when, how water clarity affected the fish, weather conditions, building basic patterns, how to identify structure and cover likely to be holding Bass. I was still a beginner by any stretch of the imagination but things started coming together, and at least I was learning and making progress.

The size of the fish I started pulling in were getting bigger, the first 2lb'ers were emerging from the depths. I'd check these forums every night for new topics I could read and gain more information from. Then I saw a post which linked a video on youtube. I'd discovered my holy grail. I musta watched all of those videos three times over by now. Combining what I saw in them, with information from the topics, I had new found confidence.

And then it happened, my first DECENT sized fish hit the line one day while out fishing nothing other than... a fluke. It was only 20inches long, and just on 4lbs but boy did it put up a fight. Launching out of the water, head shaking furiously, that moment right there I knew it, it wasn't just the fish that was hooked, so was I!

Over the course of my stay, I've managed to learn how to throw a baitcaster, flip, pitch and skip lures, the nuances of various presentations... everything and anything I could get my hands on. All of my spare time is spent either Bass Fishing, or reading, watching and learning about Bass Fishing, and it's all your fault!!!!!

I've already posted a portion of my salt water gear up for sale, and when I return home I'll be hitting up some fresh water estuaries not too far from home chasing some Australian Bass.

Thanks so much for this awesome website, it's awesome community full of helpful and friendly members, and a special thanks to Glenn May for all his amazing and informative videos. You guys have opened up a new passion to me that I can see being one that lasts a lifetime. I can't thank you enough for the time and effort you put into all the content on this site, I am definitely converted.

Of all the fish I've ever caught in my life (and there's been a bunch) without a doubt, the most exciting and rewarding of them all to boat are Bass.

[00 mod]

Congrats on the addiction and welcome to the forums!
 

Jeff

[lanzbass]

Greetings Jay and Welcome

[whitwolf]

Welcome............

[Glenn]

WOW!  What a great intro! 

Welcome Home!

[Tuckahoe Joe]

Hello and welcome!

[JayKumar]

Cool man! Usually all it takes is one good bass....

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Welcome!!