What technique would you teach to a beginner angler?

[A-Jay]

 A lightly weighted Texas rigged worm or stick bait on spinning gear.

Rig is easy enough to learn to handle & cast.

Bait is heavy enough to cast but light enough to still allow for easy bite detection.

Lastly, it's nearly impossible to 'fish it wrong'.

A-Jay

 

[Catt]

Texas Rigged Plastics ?

 

Master this & you can master anything!

[evo2s197]

The split shot setup, with a 4 inch curl tail worm such as a zoom dead ringer, or powerworm.

 

A 4 to 5 inch straight tail worm like a Iovino fat boy or spade tail also works wonders, especially in the S20 color.

 

Make sure the barb is crushed since beginners tend to gut hook with this style of fishing.

 

When everyone and their mother is throwing ned rigs, try the old Dick Trask method.

[Crestliner2008]

There are many great presentations to use and for a beginner, it's quite overwhelming. I'd recommend you view any presentation as a tool to accomplish a goal. Select an appropriate tool to fish a) top water b) mid depths and c) bottom.

 

A popper would be appropriate to start with on top.

 

A spinnerbait will cover most mid depth sections of the water column.

 

A jig or plastic worm will take care of the bottom.

 

Select one or two lures in each of these categories and learn the WELL. Then expand your arsenal from there - gradually. I see the biggest mistake most folks starting out in bass fishing as buying a ton of gear and then looking at the water and saying to themselves, "now what do I do?" Very common.

[J Francho]

@Crestliner2008 Good to hear back from you!

[RB 77]

Inline spinner if they want to cast, drop shot otherwise.

[deadadrift89]

Texas rig down South 

Swimbait and dropshot up North

[TriStateBassin106]

10 hours ago, jbmaine said:

First thing I showed my wife how to use was a Senko. To this day that or a swim Senko is all she uses, and more often than not she'll out fish me.

hahahaha I know this feeling.. what have you been throwing? Lol!

[keagbassr]

I would definatly say a spinnerbait cuz If your gonna fish with me you gotta keep up with me.?

[TriStateBassin106]

Just now, keagbassr said:

I would definatly say a spinnerbait cuz If your gonna fish with me you gotta keep up with me.?

Power fishermen UNITE!

[Shimano_1]

A jig would be my vote.  So much versatility and something I have tied on year round anywhere I go

[WRB]

The simple jig is IMO the most difficult lure to learn to catch bass with.

The key to success for any new bass angler is catching fish not trying to catch them, they will have a lifetime doing that.

Having taught dozens of youngsters and adults to bass fish, including my kids, is selecting a very high percentage presentation where bass are located.

If the bass will react to a moving treble hook lure that is a good choice, if they are not hitting them it's a poor choice. When you consider pass are active about 20% of the time your odds are poor using lures the bass needs to chase down.

My go to presentation is soft plastic finesse size worms using a slip shot rig on spinning tackle. The angler can cast it and retrieve it without snagging often. The bass eats a finesse worm and hooks itself most of the time, the fish starts pulling back.

Tom 

[TriStateBassin106]

12 minutes ago, WRB said:

The simple jig is IMO the most difficult lure to learn to catch bass with.

The key to success for any new bass angler is catching fish not trying to catch them, they will have a lifetime doing that.

Having taught dozens of youngsters and adults to bass fish, including my kids, is selecting a very high percentage presentation where bass are located.

If the bass will react to a moving treble hook lure that is a good choice, if they are not hitting them it's a poor choice. When you consider pass are active about 20% of the time your odds are poor using lures the bass needs to chase down.

My go to presentation is soft plastic finesse size worms using a slip shot rig on spinning tackle. The angler can cast it and retrieve it without snagging often. The bass eats a finesse worm and hooks itself most of the time, the fish starts pulling back.

Tom 

why would jigging be difficult? I would insist it definitely is a slower style of fishing but the same can be said about texas rigging, most kids are very impatient with fishing in the beginning, that's honestly why a moving bait is better to start them off with IMO

[WRB]

Kids are impatient fishing and not catching anything and so are adults.

I am fairly good with jigs and can hold my own using fishing them against anyone.

 You and the vast majority of bass anglers fishing jigs miss the majority of jig strikes.

I know you don't believe that but it's been my experience fishing with and teaching good bass anglers how to jig fish. The simple fact is a very high percentage of bass over 7 lbs strike jigs without the angler detecting it. If you jig fish where there is a good population of bass over 7 lbs and not catching them consistant it's becuase you didn't detect the bass engulfing the jigs before it rejects it. Soft plastic worms bass will eat and sometimes swallow the worm before anglers detect the strike. It's rare that a bass swallows a jig, they get it the throat sometimes but that isn't very common and knowone misses that aggressive strike.

If skilled bass anglers miss jig strikes a novice angler chances are very low unless it's a very aggressive strike.

It's almost impossible to miss a slip shot bass, nothing to give the bass any reason to reject the worm.

Tom

                                      

[Bird]

I'd start a child in the river with an inline spinner and tiny torpedoe.

 

Or wait for perch beds and use worms and bobbers.

 

If they don't get action they're gonna want the Xbox. Lol

[Swamp Yankee]

I’m surprised that so few have mentioned it but I agree that it’s most important that beginning anglers be put on to lots of fish and quickly. 

 

Assuming that there are plenty of fish and they’re biting this rig - then a  weightless T rigged Senko or similar, easily cast soft stick bait would be my choice. They’d learn how to read the water and figure out where the fish are, how to cast accurately, how to watch and feel the line for strikes, and, hopefully, how to set the hook and fight the fish. And all this would be done with a minimum of snags. 

 

 

[TBAG]

I was taught as a kid to fish with only moving presentations (crankbait, spinnerbait and topwater), while it helped me learn I wish I had been taught the texas rig or weightless finesse worm earlier.

[Fishes in trees]

Every fall, I fish a charity tournament, the Fishing for Freedom event put on by the Leavenworth Bass Club & Long Shoal Marina on Truman Lake.  The event is pretty straight forward - take active duty/ retired / whatever soldiers out on the water for a day of fishing.  Most of the guys I've take out had minimal fishing skills but they wanted to learn or else they wouldn't have signed up.

 

My better experiences at getting my boater on fish has been to set them up with the same or similar bait that I'm using and just go for it, trying to explain the nuances of the bait as I go.  I've tried setting guys up with " easier" baits and after a half hour or so of not catching fish, the first question that gets asked is "If this bait is so good, why aren't you using it?"  Early fall on Truman, my best presentation seems to be going back into coves looking for shad and then throwing square bills or spinner baits at them.

 

Most of the guys I've take out seem to get the hang of throwing the square bill within an hour or so and once they get over the fear of snagging or losing the bait, they get to where they throw close enough to objects to get bit.

 

So to answer the question, I'd assess the situation that day, decide what bait I'm going to throw that, IMO will get me the most bites and then tie them on the same or a very similar bait.

[CrankFate]

Patience. 

[gilkeybr]

I would add my vote to the moving bait side, either a spinnerbait or a lipless crankbait.  If its an adult beginner, then either would be available.  If its a young person, I might lean more towards the spinnerbait just because there are less hooks getting slung around!

[jbsoonerfan]

If I was going to teach them on a T-Rig, I would at least teach them that a T-Rig ALWAYS has a weight. There is no such thing as a weightless T-Rig. Other than that, I would try a spinnerbait.