West Coast Angler Posted December 10, 2020 Posted December 10, 2020 Hello all! My name is Peter and I am a rookie angler! I'm glad to be a part of this community! My motto is to catch and release! I look forward to being the finest angler I can be and I am on a quest to find that monster bass! A little bit (or a lot) about my fishing experience! My first time fishing ever was nearly 15 years ago in my early teens. I was invited to go on a fishing trip with two of my cousins. I didn't care much about the fishing part, as I've never fished before, but went anyways just to have good quality time with them. Of course we didn't catch anything and I didn't think much of it. I had no clue what I was doing, lost a lot of floaters and came home with no desire or even a thought about fishing again. Fast forward to the early 2010's, I became friends with a co-worker who happened to enjoy fishing (he is now one of my closest friends). He would always invite me, so I would go once in awhile, and even invited my cousins (they all became mutual). It wasn't until 3 or so years later that I caught my first fish ever, a rather small largemouth bass. That still didn't pique my interest for fishing. In that stretch of time (early 2010's up until a few months ago), I probably only went fishing a total of 10-15 times and caught a grand total of 3 fishes, and quite honestly never really knew what I was doing. I met some new people through the years from my friend and became mutual with them. Up to this point, I only fished because I enjoyed the company of my friends and family, and not so much fishing itself. I was convinced that it just wasn't my thing. A couple months ago, I was invited to fish with the same friends, and I went just to enjoy their company (as usual). This was during the notorious California striped bass "striper boil" season. My friend would lend me his spare setup and we went for a month or two on a regular. Catching more fish in that time alone than I ever did my entire life, I started to notice a trend; I was asking my friend to go fishing instead of him asking me. I soon found myself doing research online about different types of rods and fishing lures just out of my curiosity. I finally caught my first legal size striped bass just less than a month ago and it was a very proud moment, but I think my friend was more excited for me than I was for myself! The excitement it gave off was rewarding enough to warrant myself buying my own setup. My friend told me if I cheap out on the setup, it may hinder my fishing experience and naturally I'd want to upgrade to something better. Not wanting to have that in the back of my mind, and being the hard lesson learner that I am, I went big, just in time with the Black Friday sales! I've quickly noticed that while striped bass fishing is fun, it's less rewarding than largemouth bass fishing, for me personally. A largemouth bass jumping out of the water is just so iconic, even I knew what it was when I had no experience fishing. I've since been exploring local ponds for the past 2 weeks, figuring out the forage and cover/structure to fine-tune my arsenal and technique. My personal best has only been a 2 lb bass (rough estimate) from the 2 weeks. I understand it's not the season for bass, but I've been practicing to get better on every trip to better prepare myself for the spring. I am still a rookie as I've stated, it's still hard for me to identify a bite when I am fishing bottom contact, as my main technique right now is jig fishing. I'm hooking bass in an odd way, so getting as much repitition as I can is my focus right now in anticipation for when (not if ?) I catch the big one. I look forward to being the finest angler I can be and I am on a quest to find that monster bass! 2 Quote
Global Moderator Bluebasser86 Posted December 10, 2020 Global Moderator Posted December 10, 2020 Welcome! 1 Quote
Super User soflabasser Posted December 10, 2020 Super User Posted December 10, 2020 Welcome to the forum. 1 Quote
Super User A-Jay Posted December 10, 2020 Super User Posted December 10, 2020 Hello Peter and Welcome to Bass Resource ~ A-Jay 1 Quote
Super User GaryH Posted December 10, 2020 Super User Posted December 10, 2020 Welcome aboard Peter 1 Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted December 10, 2020 Super User Posted December 10, 2020 Welcome aboard! 1 Quote
Super User Log Catcher Posted December 11, 2020 Super User Posted December 11, 2020 Hello and welcome to the forum. 1 Quote
Super User Darren. Posted December 11, 2020 Super User Posted December 11, 2020 Welcome aboard, Peter! 1 Quote
Super User J._Bricker Posted December 11, 2020 Super User Posted December 11, 2020 Hello @West Coast Angler from Northern California, just wanted to say welcome Peter to Bass Resource and the Forums! 1 Quote
West Coast Angler Posted December 11, 2020 Author Posted December 11, 2020 Thanks all for the warm welcome! Quote
Super User Darth-Baiter Posted December 15, 2020 Super User Posted December 15, 2020 And on a jig! im still looking for my first jig bass. 1 Quote
BassResource.com Administrator Glenn Posted December 24, 2020 BassResource.com Administrator Posted December 24, 2020 Welcome home! We're glad you're here. 1 Quote
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