Beginning Fishing Tackle

[beginningfisherman]

I have been fishing for awhile, but have never had a clue what I was doing. I have recently started watching lots of videos and reading lots of forums to try to figure it out. The one thing that has been most hard to understand is the vast amounts of baits and lures everyone talks about. It is very overwhelming and I don't have near enough money for all of them. When I go to the store I just end up buying whatever looks cool. If I was to spend about $100 dollars, what is everything I need? Thanks

[Wprich]

Some soft plastics worms and lizards(simple colors a watermelon, pumpkin, and junebug), flukes, with 3/0 or 4/0 hooks, and 1/4 ounce bullet sinkers.  A few crankbaits like red eye shads(shad imitation, firetiger, crawfish colors) and rattle traps(chrome), and a few spinnerbaits(white,chartruese, dark color) should be fine to get you started in my opinion.

[dignan2121]

I'd agree with the above but I'd add in a topwater like a popper or buzzbait. I'd also maybe switch out the spinnerbait for a chatterbait. It's a little more versatile but either will do. 

[Fishinthefish]

That kind of a budget is quite tough to get a good variety so I'm going to advise bang for your buck. This way instead of spending six dollars on a single square bill you will inevitably lose, you can spend six dollars on a pack of 8x worms or something along those lines as far as quantity goes. With that said you will need at least two bait styles that are hard baits you will lose to have a decent variety of moving, and slow baits.

Go out and buy yourself 3x packs of worms. Research where you will be fishing, the colors depend on water clarity, and times of day/conditions you'll be fishing. A safe bet is a dark pack that is or near black, a natural middle area color, peanutbutter or greens, and a light color, whites, charteuses things like that or slightly darker. Due to your budget I would recommend going with gulp products for your worms specifically to save on cost of attractants.

Next I would go with some type of swimbait, personally I use Keitech but it is more on the expensive side for soft swim baits at roughly 8 dollars per pack. Keeping your budget in mind and you're just starting out I would start with zoom super flukes. Three packs of these as well, with the same color scheme for the same reasons as the worms. By this point you're at roughly 42-43 dollar range.

A pack of single tail grubs, in white. These can be used on a small hook texas rigged, they can be used on your spinnerbaits as trailers. They're just so versatile and one of the origional techniques.

Next up would be two spinnerbaits. Personally I heavily use 3/8ths of an ounce Terminator Golden Shiner, and White double willow blade spinnerbaits. I would look into Booyah for a decently priced decent quality spinnerbait in roughly those colors again depending on your water. This puts your total in the sixty dollar range.

Now what comes next is entirely based off your situation. You at this point have covered basic late spring, summer, and early fall baits. You have 40 dollars left, and have two choices. If you will be able to expend more money in the relatively close future on your fishing tackle I would start buying rattle traps, square bills, and jerk baits. Maybe one of each, and spend 20 on basic terminal tackle. However if you plan on this budget covering many outings over a longer period of time you're going to need the majority of your 40 dollars to go to terminal tackle. You'll need EWG off set shank hooks for texas rigging, you'll need either bullet weights or split shots, you'll want a pack of swimbait hooks to swim your flukes. If you have any money left after buying this, I would invest everything left into creature baits, craws, beavers. Stuff like that, soft plastics will get chewed up, buy some crazy glue and glue the head of your baits in place. It isn't perminate and you'll be able to twist them off with ease but it will increase their durability. Using that simple trick and focusing on soft plastics will be the cheapest route to the most verstile arsenal you can get and easily master. Good luck.

[Ads7633]

You really can become a very effective fisherman on a budget. I used to do the same thing as you where I would buy whatever looked cool, only to find out I had no clue how to use it. Then I simplified and mastered a few tecniques and become pretty good as now I have slowly started to expand my arsenal of lures again. But here are some simple, cheap, multipurpose lures to get you started.

1.) Zoom Super Flukes- fish them weightless on a 4/0 EWG worm hook. They are fantastic because you can slowly twitch them when the bite is slow or pick up the pace when the bass are active. They can even be fished top water. I would start with a bag of watermelon seed and a bag of white. This is still my go to bait when I can't catch them only anything else. Plus they are cheap.

2.) stick worms- Gary Yamamoto Senkos or Yum Dingers (these are much more cost effective). Again Texas rig them weightless on a 4/0 worm hook and just let them fall, wait, pick up your rod top and let them fall again while watching your line. They are fantastic! Try natural colors like watermelon and green pumpkin.

3.) while you can use those two baits for almost everything! I would also get a few search baits(fast movers) for when the bite is hot. Try a white spinnerbaits or a chrome lipless crank bait.

you can literally buy everything I just mentioned for under $50 and I swear those are the only things I used for like 4 years of my life. If you learn how to use them I promise you will catch lots of fish. I hope this helps! Have fun!

[S. Sass]

All good suggestions above. One thing I will mention is most Walmart have a clearance section. Tackle warehouse always has a sale as well as numerous other places. Look for promo codes etc to eliminate or cut shipping charges on orders that dont make the free shipping minimum $. 

Also one very good place to shop is the Flea Market section of these forums. You can use a calculator and see how cheap some sell baits in package deals for. So far everyone I have dealt with would negotiate and were honest and friendly. 

Shop smart I have bought nice baits and terminal tackle on the cheap just being patient and methodical. 

[MIbassyaker]

On youtube, Andrew Flair has a nice video on picking up basic tackle box essentials at Bass Pro Shops for $50. I don't agree with all his choices for a beginner (I think I'd ditch the frog and get a regular hard topwater popper instead, like a hula popper or a rebel pop-r), but most of this would be a good start. I also like the suggestions above for grubs, flukes and a spinnerbait.

 

[roadwarrior]

Topwater:  Zara Puppy, Pop-R and Jitterbug

Shallow:  Original Rapala and Norman Fat Boy

Intermediate: Red Eye Shad, Rapala DT4, Bandit 200 and Wiggle Wart

Soft Plastics: Senko, Fat Ika, Rage Baby Craw & Craw, Menace, Cut-R and Structure Bug

Blade lures: Chatterbait, Fogy or Rage Blade Rage Blade, Siebert Outdoors Cosmic Spinnerbait

 

[blckshirt98]

If you're on a $100 budget I'm assuming you don't have a boat, and only have 1-2 rods.  So going with the assumption that you're a shore guy carrying two rods (a finesse spinning rod and a M or MH casting rod) -

Stick to mostly soft plastics - drop shot, split shot, c-rig, t-rig, shakey head.  A lot of the plastics/terminal tackle for these techniques can be used for more than one technique.  Hardbaits from shore you don't need a whole lot, I'd grab a couple of squarebills and a couple of lipless cranks.  I'd wait on topwater and swimbaits as you may need more specialized gear for those.

One place where people sink a ton of extra money, and where your money can quickly disappear, is buying different colors of the same bait.  You really only need a lighter shade and a darker shade, and most of the time you just need one shade (some kind of watermelon/green pumpkin variant).

So I'd get something like this -

$7 - (25) 1/8oz drop shot weights from eBay
$4 - beads for C-Rig, T-Rig - buy these at a craft store like Michaels or on Amazon
$88 from Tackle Warehouse - the Senkos and Rage Craws are pricey so you could always substitute, but I haven't found a better bang-for-the-buck than the Zoom Trick worms and Yum Sharpshooters  

    
Yama 5" Senko Watermelon w/Black&Gold Flake
Color: Watermelon w/Blk&Gld
Size: 5"

2
update
In Stock    $7.49    $14.98
    
Strike King KVD HC Crankbait Neon Bluegill 2.5
Color: Neon Bluegill
Size: 2.5

1
update
In Stock    $5.69    $5.69
    
Strike King KVD HC Crankbait Sexy Shad 1.0
Color: Sexy Shad
Size: 1.0

1
update
In Stock    $5.69    $5.69
    
Strike King Red Eye Shad Chili Craw 1/4
Color: Chili Craw
Size: 1/4

1
update
In Stock    $5.89    $5.89
    
Strike King Red Eye Shad Chrome Sexy Shad 1/4
Color: Chrome Sexy Shad
Size: 1/4

1
update
In Stock    $5.89    $5.89
    
Gama Offset EWG 3/0 5pk

1
update
In Stock    $3.49    $3.49
    
Gama Offset EWG 5/0 5pk

1
update
In Stock    $3.49    $3.49
    
Zoom Trick Worm Black Red Flake
Color: Black Red Flake

1
update
In Stock    $4.19    $4.19
    
Zoom Trick Worm Watermelon Red Flake
Color: Watermelon Red Flake

1
update
In Stock    $4.19    $4.19
    
Danielson Removable Split-Shot Sinker 4 15pk

1
update
In Stock    $0.89    $0.89
    
Bullet Weight Egg Sinkers 1/2 7pk

1
update
In Stock    $1.99    $1.99
    
Bullet Weights Painted Black 3/16 5pk

1
update
In Stock    $1.79    $1.79
    
Bullet Weights Painted Black 3/8 5pk

1
update
In Stock    $1.79    $1.79
    
Owner Shakey Ultrahead Green Pumpkin 1/8
Color: Green Pumpkin
Size: 1/8

1
update
In Stock    $4.69    $4.69
    
Gama Drop/Split Shot Hooks 4 6pk

1
update
In Stock    $2.99    $2.99
    
Gama Drop/Split Shot Hooks 2 6pk

1
update
In Stock    $2.99    $2.99
    
Strike King Rage Craw Black Blue Flake
Color: Black Blue Flake

1
update
In Stock    $5.49    $5.49
    
Strike King Rage Craw Road Kill
Color: Road Kill

1
update
In Stock    $5.49    $5.49
    
Yum Sharpshooter Ghost Shad 4.5"
Color: Ghost Shad
Size: 4.5"

1
update
In Stock    $2.99    $2.99
    
Yum Sharpshooter Green Pumpkin 4.5"
Color: Green Pumpkin
Size: 4.5"

1
update
In Stock    $2.99    $2.99

Estimated Order Total:    $87.59

 

[DumBassFishin]

7 hours ago, Ads7633 said:

You really can become a very effective fisherman on a budget. I used to do the same thing as you where I would buy whatever looked cool, only to find out I had no clue how to use it. Then I simplified and mastered a few tecniques and become pretty good as now I have slowly started to expand my arsenal of lures again. But here are some simple, cheap, multipurpose lures to get you started.

1.) Zoom Super Flukes- fish them weightless on a 4/0 EWG worm hook. They are fantastic because you can slowly twitch them when the bite is slow or pick up the pace when the bass are active. They can even be fished top water. I would start with a bag of watermelon seed and a bag of white. This is still my go to bait when I can't catch them only anything else. Plus they are cheap.

2.) stick worms- Gary Yamamoto Senkos or Yum Dingers (these are much more cost effective). Again Texas rig them weightless on a 4/0 worm hook and just let them fall, wait, pick up your rod top and let them fall again while watching your line. They are fantastic! Try natural colors like watermelon and green pumpkin.

3.) while you can use those two baits for almost everything! I would also get a few search baits(fast movers) for when the bite is hot. Try a white spinnerbaits or a chrome lipless crank bait.

you can literally buy everything I just mentioned for under $50 and I swear those are the only things I used for like 4 years of my life. If you learn how to use them I promise you will catch lots of fish. I hope this helps! Have fun!

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thomas15]

Every time I'm in walmart I buy a bag of plastics or a spinner bait or crank bait. I do this year round and have been doing this for years. As a result I have a lot of baits but only at about $4.00 at a time.