New to site & fishing Need advice please

[Kevin Zheng]

I ve gone fishing multiple times at my local lake. Really want to catch some bass or cats, but I always get the darn bluegill. I m fishing with a weight & a hook above it. Only have used worms, & at 1st my worms were all getting eaten. Went with a smaller hook & caught about 30 bluegill in a hour today. Other days I get about 18-20 bluegills. I have only caught 3 bass & 1 cat, that were pretty decent sized. I want to stop catching these bluegills as I don t eat them & usually give em away. I know I need to get bigger bait, any reccomendations? And what size hooks should I use? I ve never fished with dead bait, so any help would be greatly appreciated. I ve a pretty novice fisher, as I have only used worms in freshwater & shrimp in saltwater. I fish from the shore by the way. I m dead & tired of these bluegills taking my bait or hooking them on, before the bass or catfish do. Only other type of fishing I ve done, is to throw a small bluegill back down into the water hoping it ll attract a cat or something but no luck. Any tips would be great, mainly on how to get rid of catching these gills & reeling in some bigger fish. Advice on how to set the line & when to set the line would also be great. Sorry for all the questions, but I ve had no one teach me how to fish as no one in my family does.  
Thanks !!

the local lake mentioned above is joe pool lake in fort worth by the way

[trick worms]

36 minutes ago, Kevin Zheng said:

I ve gone fishing multiple times at my local lake. Really want to catch some bass or cats, but I always get the darn bluegill. I m fishing with a weight & a hook above it. Only have used worms, & at 1st my worms were all getting eaten. Went with a smaller hook & caught about 30 bluegill in a hour today. Other days I get about 18-20 bluegills. I have only caught 3 bass & 1 cat, that were pretty decent sized. I want to stop catching these bluegills as I don t eat them & usually give em away. I know I need to get bigger bait, any reccomendations? And what size hooks should I use? I ve never fished with dead bait, so any help would be greatly appreciated. I ve a pretty novice fisher, as I have only used worms in freshwater & shrimp in saltwater. I fish from the shore by the way. I m dead & tired of these bluegills taking my bait or hooking them on, before the bass or catfish do. Only other type of fishing I ve done, is to throw a small bluegill back down into the water hoping it ll attract a cat or something but no luck. Any tips would be great, mainly on how to get rid of catching these gills & reeling in some bigger fish. Advice on how to set the line & when to set the line would also be great. Sorry for all the questions, but I ve had no one teach me how to fish as no one in my family does.  
Thanks !!

the local lake mentioned above is joe pool lake in fort worth by the way

Use a cut bluegill for catfish bait. For bass, read all the get started fishing stuff to learn some lures to use. I caught my first few fish on a Texas rigged worm. Good luck!

[Kevin Zheng]

3 minutes ago, trick worms said:

Use a cut bluegill for catfish bait. For bass, read all the get started fishing stuff to learn some lures to use. I caught my first few fish on a Texas rigged worm. Good luck!

how should I cut the bluegill? & do I cut them as I catch them, or set a day to just catch bluegill, & then freeze them? Or should I just cut them so they bleed & throw em back? 

Thanks for the reply

[trick worms]

1 minute ago, Kevin Zheng said:

how should I cut the bluegill? & do I cut them as I catch them, or set a day to just catch bluegill, & then freeze them? Or should I just cut them so they bleed & throw em back? 

Thanks for the reply

Use the head. Maybe someone else will chime in I'm not sure how to cut the rest of them but use the head.

[Kevin Zheng]

8 minutes ago, trick worms said:

Use the head. Maybe someone else will chime in I'm not sure how to cut the rest of them but use the head.

Hmm, will that work for bass as well? Or do they tend to stay away from the dead bluegill?

[trick worms]

5 minutes ago, Kevin Zheng said:

Hmm, will that work for bass as well? Or do they tend to stay away from the dead bluegill?

That's pretty much for catfish only

[Kevin Zheng]

7 minutes ago, trick worms said:

That's pretty much for catfish only

Anything for the bass?

[Darren.]

Welcome aboard, Kevin!

For bass I like to use soft plastic baits
like Senkos and wacky rig them. Throw
them near downed trees in the water,
around docks, and so on. Fish them slow
and hang on!

Search for "how to wacky rig" in our search
box and you'll get a TON of advice on how
to and where and all that. It is super easy
way to start bass fishing. You can get your
confidence up and try new techniques.

Good luck!

[Kevin Zheng]

20 minutes ago, Darren. said:

Welcome aboard, Kevin!

For bass I like to use soft plastic baits
like Senkos and wacky rig them. Throw
them near downed trees in the water,
around docks, and so on. Fish them slow
and hang on!

Search for "how to wacky rig" in our search
box and you'll get a TON of advice on how
to and where and all that. It is super easy
way to start bass fishing. You can get your
confidence up and try new techniques.

Good luck!

Thanks for the help ! Will I have to throw the Senko rigs far so they can cover more distance or do I just cast them out randomly?

[Darren.]

10 minutes ago, Kevin Zheng said:

Thanks for the help ! Will I have to throw the Senko rigs far so they can cover more distance or do I just cast them out randomly?

You cast them at the docks, at the downed trees,
or grassy areas and let them sink. As they sink
they do a wiggle, or a shimmy that bass find quite
enticing.

If you do throw into those type of areas, you might
want to get the same hooks but with weed guards
already on them.

[the reel ess]

Hot dogs, cut into about 1/2" slices will catch the cats and cull the rest of the fish, assuming they're channel cats. But soft shelled turtles like them. I caught my biggest channel cat on a hot dog. Search YouTube for alternate catfish baits. There are plenty that other fish won't touch.

Go buy yourself a 20 pack of Zoom Trick Worms. I much prefer the bubble gum color. Texas rig it on a 3/0 offset shank worm hook and fish it weightless. If you're using spinning or spincast gear, you should be able to cast it weightless. Just let it settle and drag it. Occasionally, give it a twitch off the bottom and continue dragging it. You can also fish it with a bullet weight, wacky or Carolina rigged. This bait flat catches the bass-and some big ones. I've had one tied on the same rod for 2 years!

[frosty]

Check out YouTube, BassResource, LunkersTV, 1rod1reel. Watch their how to videos, then get on the water and find out what works for your area. Personally, I've never caught one on a wacky rig, but with the same color senkos I'll kill them on a weightless Texas rig. You have to find out what the bass want. 

[roadwarrior]

"Just Getting Started"
Guaranteed To Catch Bass
I just cant catch bass
Learning to fish on your own

 

[Kevin Zheng]

On 7/6/2016 at 9:27 AM, the reel ess said:

Hot dogs, cut into about 1/2" slices will catch the cats and cull the rest of the fish, assuming they're channel cats. But soft shelled turtles like them. I caught my biggest channel cat on a hot dog. Search YouTube for alternate catfish baits. There are plenty that other fish won't touch.

Go buy yourself a 20 pack of Zoom Trick Worms. I much prefer the bubble gum color. Texas rig it on a 3/0 offset shank worm hook and fish it weightless. If you're using spinning or spincast gear, you should be able to cast it weightless. Just let it settle and drag it. Occasionally, give it a twitch off the bottom and continue dragging it. You can also fish it with a bullet weight, wacky or Carolina rigged. This bait flat catches the bass-and some big ones. I've had one tied on the same rod for 2 years!

great ! Thanks for the reply

On 7/6/2016 at 9:30 AM, frosty said:

Check out YouTube, BassResource, LunkersTV, 1rod1reel. Watch their how to videos, then get on the water and find out what works for your area. Personally, I've never caught one on a wacky rig, but with the same color senkos I'll kill them on a weightless Texas rig. You have to find out what the bass want. 

Hmm I see. thanks for the reply. I've caught bass on worms, but not as often as I always reel in bluegill. by the way what size hook do you recommend?

[frosty]

1 minute ago, Kevin Zheng said:

great ! Thanks for the reply

Hmm I see. thanks for the reply. I've caught bass on worms, but not as often as I always reel in bluegill. by the way what size hook do you recommend?

I use a 3/0 offset for senkos, but it varies by your bait and presentation. I'm referring to plastic worms, senkos, yum dingers, not night crawlers. I fished with love worms a lot, using a 2-#4 hooks about 3-4" apart, put a hook in each end of the crawler and let it fall, you can catch a lot of bass and big bluegill this way, but I do find using artificial lures more rewarding and more involved. 

[Kevin Zheng]

6 hours ago, the reel ess said:

Hot dogs, cut into about 1/2" slices will catch the cats and cull the rest of the fish, assuming they're channel cats. But soft shelled turtles like them. I caught my biggest channel cat on a hot dog. Search YouTube for alternate catfish baits. There are plenty that other fish won't touch.

Go buy yourself a 20 pack of Zoom Trick Worms. I much prefer the bubble gum color. Texas rig it on a 3/0 offset shank worm hook and fish it weightless. If you're using spinning or spincast gear, you should be able to cast it weightless. Just let it settle and drag it. Occasionally, give it a twitch off the bottom and continue dragging it. You can also fish it with a bullet weight, wacky or Carolina rigged. This bait flat catches the bass-and some big ones. I've had one tied on the same rod for 2 years!

I'm using spin cast & baitcaster, Thanks for the advice !

[Kevin Zheng]

23 hours ago, Darren. said:

You cast them at the docks, at the downed trees,
or grassy areas and let them sink. As they sink
they do a wiggle, or a shimmy that bass find quite
enticing.

If you do throw into those type of areas, you might
want to get the same hooks but with weed guards
already on them.

I got a couple packs of senko's today. I got the watermelon with red flakes. Might try them out tomorrow. By the way, I've read that weightless Texas rigging is the way to go. Have you had any luck drop-shotting of split-shotting? Not a big fan of wacky, but I'll give it a try tomorrow while I'm testing these senko's out. ? Forgot to get the gamakatsu hooks, but I'll just try out the my snelled ones, & hope for the best I suppose .. ?

[Darren.]

3 minutes ago, Kevin Zheng said:

I got a couple packs of senko's today. I got the watermelon with red flakes. Might try them out tomorrow. By the way, I've read that weightless Texas rigging is the way to go. Have you had any luck drop-shotting of split-shotting? Not a big fan of wacky, but I'll give it a try tomorrow while I'm testing these senko's out. ? Forgot to get the gamakatsu hooks, but I'll just try out the my snelled ones, & hope for the best I suppose .. ?

There's almost no wrong way to fish a Senko.

Don't cut wacky rigging short, though. It provides
a different profile and fall than a TX rigged Senko.

Both are very effective.

I drop shot all the time, but usually use smaller
baits, specifically the Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm.

Also split shot. All are good techniques.

My most productive are wacky and drop, FWIW.

[.ghoti.]

what do you have against bluegill? they are better eating fish then bass or catfish.

[Kevin Zheng]

3 hours ago, .ghoti. said:

what do you have against bluegill? they are better eating fish then bass or catfish.

Nothing against them at all. No offense to you in anyway ?. Just nowhere as fun to fish as bass. And to me, nowhere as tasty as bass ?. Maybe a bit better than some cats though. I'd love to give you some of my bluegill ? Went again this morning to get rid of my left over night crawlers & come home with 15 bluegills using only 6 nightcrawlers that were cut in 1/2 ?