Who was the most help teaching you how to fish for bass?

[BankBassing]

     I am just learning myself, and while I don't know anyone who fishes for bass, I've been really thankful for the willingness of strangers to teach.  I've picked up a ton from watching YouTube videos like the ones Bass Resource puts up, even some of Rob Terkla (LunkersTV), Alex Peric (APBassin), Jon B. (Fishing the Midwest), and Andrew Flair (Andrew Flair Outdoors). 
     I also greatly appreciate the help I've already received on the forum here.  Thanks guys!
     Then yesterday, I took my son to the county fair where they were having a pitching, flipping, and casting contest he took part in.  Turned out it was run by the Northern Mountaineer Bass Club, and I was able to sit and pick the brain of one of the older gentlemen there who told me the best spot and specific bait that was sure to help me catch some smallmouth locally, along with inviting me to join their club (even though I'm a total noob).

I know guys are secretive sometimes about their "honey holes" but as far as general teaching, the whole community has been very welcoming and encouraging.  I just wanted to say thanks, and ask others to share their similar experiences.
 

[N Florida Mike]

A friend that I played baseball with lived on the lake I now live on.He taught me all the basics of bass fishing.The first time we went out  he caught 6.I had some good bites but didn't know how to set the hook right so I got skunked.

But I got the fever from seeing his fish.I learned quickly enough that when Him and me fished a tournament later on he caught 8 and I caught 7 and we came in first!

But my dad taught me FISHING.

Have met a couple friends on the forum I am learning from also.

 

[ww2farmer]

There is no more valuable lesson than spending time on the water and learning for yourself what works for you.

That being said, some of the people whom I have learned a great deal from over the years have been:

#1 My grandpa, he taught me the basics when I was a kid that has led to a lifelong enjoyment of fishing

#2 bass resource member, and friend wnybassman. I was very very "green" in tournament bass fishing when he and I first met, and just by fishing with him both for fun, and in a lot of tournaments over the years, I have learned on an expidited curve the past 10+ years several things that might have taken me ages to figure out. Especially when chasing smallmouth, and tournament fishing.

#3 almost every other single person I have fished with.............too many to list. Your never too old to learn.

#4 this place............the wealth of knowledge, and the good people willing to share it here is nothing short of amazing.

 

[Gundog]

Bill Dance and Hank Parker. Long before there was the internet there was tv. And every saturday morning during the long cold pennsylvania winters I would watch and learn new baits and techniques. Everything after that was pure day to day experience. 

[BiteFiend]

We fished more saltwater than freshwater, but I learned the basics of how to target bass from my grandfather. I lived with my grandparents for much of my childhood and we were fortunate enough to live on a pond. In the pond was a deep ditch that we caught a lot of bass from, which taught me the importance of fishing structure. He also taught me how to flip jigs and live bream into holes in grass and taught me how to feel out the bottom with T-rigged worms.

I learned other things from reading books and watching fishing shows like BillDance, Roland Martin, Jimmy Houston, etc. when I was a kid (pre-i ternet). 

I learned the most from simply putting in the time and being on the water. Sure, you can learn things from the internet, books, shows, seminars, etc. However putting in time on the water is where one puts what they learned into practical application. You get a feel for what works and what doesn't in the waters you fish. Nothing will teach you more than just going out and fishing. 

 

[everythingthatswims]

My neighbor's pond, and an incredible amount of evenings after school. I learned to fish a lot of different conditions by fishing the same place week after week, seeing how fish reacted to changes in their environment.

[Senko lover]

BassResource is huge!! The wealth of information on here is astounding, and the members are so incredibly helpful.

Glenn taught me an incredible amount. YouTube in general as well.

And time on the water. Nothing beats time on the water.

[MIbassyaker]

Dad taught me the basics of live bait fishing for catfish, pike, the occasional walleye, and whatever else would bite in the river back home growing up. But he is not and never was a bass fisherman, doesn't know anything about them, and neither did anybody else we knew.

Bass I taught myself, starting from that background, but with lots and lots and lots of trial and error added on over many years, many fits and starts, and some help here and there from random books, magazine articles, and fishing shows, and a smattering of academic knowledge of aquatic ecology, and vertebrate physiology and behavior. It honestly took me years to pick up on things I could have learned in an afternoon on somebody's boat. But I didn't have somebody or his boat. I didn't even have my own boat. All I had was some curiosity, inconsistent time to spare, and inconvenient places to spare it, and lots of distractions in the way. I've managed to claw my way up to some moderate level of skill, perhaps, regardless.

 

["hamma"]

Bassmasters magazine and time trial by error. seeing as most of the stuff they printed back then was intended for southern fishing I had to tweak it.

and joining a bass club

[crypt]

Bassmaster,Fishing Facts, Bill Dance,Jimmy Houston,Hank Parker,Virgil Ward,Jerry McKInnis. ……spending time outside,on the water. just going and paying attention to what's going on was the best teacher.  But the one person I owe all that to is my father. He was not a fisherman but he just knew I would take to it.God was he right. thanks Pop !!!!!!!!!!

[Catt]

1965: Spend the entire summer working on my uncle Joe Addison's charter fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico and learned how to locate deep water structure.

1972: Started bass fishing seriously on Toledo Bend at my father-in-law's camp on White's Point in the mouth of Lowe's Creek.

1974: Joined two bass clubs whose members included John Torian, John Hall, John Dean, Villis P "Bo" Dowden SR, Harold Allen, Larry Nixon, Tommy Martin, & Zell Roland all guides at Toledo Bend's Pendleton Harbor Marina. Ray Scott would latter come up with the "The Hemphill Gang" moniker arguably the most successful group of professional bass anglers to ever emerge from one small region of the nation.

1976: Attended a seminar in Houston Texas that totally changed my outlook on bass fishing. The man putting on that seminar was Elwood L. " Buck" Perry, not only did I buy his books but I became a devout student of his teachings. 

I'm an avid student of the following

Elwood L. " Buck" Perry & Bill Murphy: Finding & understanding deep structure

Douglas Hannon & Shaw Grisby: Understanding bass behavior

Rick Clunn: Mental aspects of bass fishing

Bobby Murray: Big bass can be caught on light line

[MassYak85]

My dad was the one who really got me into fishing, he taught me a lot of the basics. But it wasn't until a few years ago that I started really trying to learn about bass fishing and all the little nuances that neither of us really knew about. Before that a day of fishing basically consisted of me throwing a weightless worm, and he would throw a spinnerbait, and if we didn't catch any, or that many, we just chalked it up to be a bad day of fishing and left the lake stumped. Articles online, YouTubers (Glenn probably gave me the most help early on), and online forums like this one especially have provided invaluable insight and information and we both have benefited and it has really shown in our success the last few years. Last spring I got my first fish over 4 pounds (5.40, and my PB), and this year not only did I tie my PB again (5.40....exactly), but I have gotten four fish over 4 pounds. Once we got a rough grasp of the spawn a couple seasons ago my dad got a couple nice ones pushing 5.

[WRB]

My mom was more help then my dad because he worked. My bass fishing mentor was Red(Jerry Cohan) who managed Pleasure Boat landing at Big Bear lake in the 50's. My older brother worked for Red and I tagged along between age 8 to 10 years old and Red taught me how to cast a bait casting reel using a Hawiian Wiggler #3 weedless spoon. Red shown me how to retrieve over weed beds into open pockets or along the weed bed edges. I caught lots of bass doing this and learned when and where to fish for bass.

The man that broaden my interest was Jason Lucas editor of Field & Stream magazine and read every issue plus his book Lucas on Bass. When 12 years I wrote Jason Lucas a letter asking what rod and reel to buy, he wrote back suggesting Conolin rod and Langley lure cast reel. Saved up and bought both, still have the reel. Jointed Pikie minnow plug became my favorite along with River Runts, Injured minnow, Jitter Bug. Hawiian Wigglers #1, 2 & 3 and Doll Fly jigs thanks to Jay  and Red.

Tom

[scaleface]

My dad got me fishing . Virgil Ward probably was my best teacher . At the end of every episode , he would demonstrate the lure he used in an aquarium . Almost every show , no matter what the lure , he was raising it and letting it fall . That has become my strongest suit , bouncing lures off the bottom . Lipless cranks , spinnerbaits , spoons , T-rigs , jigs , grubs , Little George , Gay Blades.......

[Bankbeater]

My Dad taught me how to fish for bass using crankbaits when I was about 10 or so.  He turned me into a fisherman. When I got back into bass fishing seriously, after about an 11 year break, it was this forum that helped me the most.  No matter what the question there is always someone with the answer.  If I couldn't find an answer, someone always pointed me in the right direction.

 

 

[hoosierbass07]

Professor YouTube taught me all that I know with a little thrown in here and there from this forum. 

[everythingthatswims]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

1965: Spend the entire summer working on my uncle Joe Addison's charter fishing boat in the Gulf of Mexico and learned how to locate deep water structure.

1972: Started bass fishing seriously on Toledo Bend at my father-in-law's camp on White's Point in the mouth of Lowe's Creek.

1974: Joined two bass clubs whose members included John Torian, John Hall, John Dean, Villis P "Bo" Dowden SR, Harold Allen, Larry Nixon, Tommy Martin, & Zell Roland all guides at Toledo Bend's Pendleton Harbor Marina. Ray Scott would latter come up with the "The Hemphill Gang" moniker arguably the most successful group of professional bass anglers to ever emerge from one small region of the nation.

1976: Attended a seminar in Houston Texas that totally changed my outlook on bass fishing. The man putting on that seminar was Elwood L. " Buck" Perry, not only did I buy his books but I became a devout student of his teachings. 

I'm an avid student of the following

Elwood L. " Buck" Perry & Bill Murphy: Finding & understanding deep structure

Douglas Hannon & Shaw Grisby: Understanding bass behavior

Rick Clunn: Mental aspects of bass fishing

Bobby Murray: Big bass can be caught on light line

I have to say, you don't seem like the fairy wand type of fisherman

[DogBone_384]

Bassresource.com.... combined with my daughter reaching her teen years and 'not wanting anything to do with Dad anymore' and the boss, err, wife, going back to work full time....

[papajoe222]

With me, it was a bunch of guys that wrote for Fishing Facts magazine back in the day.  Them, Buck Perry and some contributions by the Linder brothers. 

[The Young Gun]

Glenn has been a huge driving force for me to learn fishing. But what has taught me more than anything, is going out there being as stubborn as I can trying to learn and make a certain technique work. And seeing other people succeed made me work my butt off to be able to be the angler they are. 

[gim]

I learned how to walleye fish mostly from my Grandfather.  He had 65 years of fishing under his belt and taught me a lot about it.  However, I learned to specifically bass fish myself.  One summer I worked for the MN DNR as a Surveyor and I was assigned to conduct creel and scientific surveys on three lakes as a part of a specific study.  When I had down time though, I passed it by fishing.  The lakes were all pretty small and the primary predator was largemouth bass and northern pike.  I had a DNR owned 16 foot Lund Rebel to use for the survey and it was a basic setup but it worked fine to fish out of.  I knew how to cast before this, but I really honed my use of a bait caster and the finesse techniques using soft plastics during this time period.  I've passed along my knowledge and information about bass fishing to several of my close friends, my brother, and my father about it now.

[You_Only_Live_Once_Fishing]

My family is fortunate to have two homes, one of which is on a small lake. We (my family) has always been outdoorsy. My dad and I would always spend weekends fishing for perch.

My grandfather would always want to to go fishing with me, and he still does today.

My uncle is a commercial fisherman, and i always have things to learn from him.

Last summer I went on a road trip to the Smokey mountains of Tennessee. My dad and i packed two Ugly Stiks. We stopped at a campground that had a small lake with many small bass. We were near a Bass Pro, when we went to the store, we picked the brain of a worker. He gave us a rig for using live bait. Without a net, I managed to catch bait with my bare hands (my former strong suit). That day I caught 3 small bass. The rest of the trip was spent fishing.

Once I found the internet...GAME OVER. I would spend 4 hours a day (and still do) reading articles, watching tutorials, or memorizing the specs of every product made for fishing, literally.

Bassreasource also helped a lot.

I now fish 6 days a week along with doing 3 other sports competitively.

[IamNewbie]

I credit 1Rod1Reel the most. First Youtube fisherman I got hooked on about 2 or so years ago. I have no one in real life that can teach me so I go to people like Glenn and 1Rod. Lunkers has some good tutorials in his older videos, but I've never really learned anything from Peric, Jon B, and now Lunkers. Their videos are purely for aesthetic and vlogging purposes. I should also give thanks to Extreme Philly Fishing/Leo, he really got me into Pan fishing. 1rod got me onto Bass fishing, and Leo got me onto multi species/panfishing. Uncut Angling also got me into fishing a little before I got into 1Rod1Reel fishing.

Anyways, while I think Jon/Peric/Rob are great video producers, I've never learned anything from their post-2014 era newer stuff. They're also great fishermen but in their latest videos they don't explain much about their choices, it's just them catching the fish. Rob's underwater footage in his pool has helped me tons as to which baits are better and how they look in the water as most of the lakes I fish are stained or muddy. Credits to: 1Rod1Reel, EPH, and BassResource.

[Jd_Phillips_Fishin]

My dad is the one to blame for my fishing addiction.

[j bab]

I have learned quite a bit from youtube. Matt Allen taught me most of what I know about big baits. Besides that I prefer watching clips of pros giving tips rather than kids my age (Flair, 1rod, Jon B...). 

Then there's the stuff my dad and friends from the lake have taught me, you can't beat that.