Educational

[new2this]

Hello.  I am new to bass fishing.  I have went fishing several times and have not caught anything.  I have literally been out on the water all day long.  I would like to know if there are videos that anyone would reccommend for me to purchase that will give me some tips.  One thing is that I think that I am not feeling when they pick my bait up.  There was one time that I was reeling in and had a fish and did not even know it.  I keep asking how do you know and I am told it is a spongy feeling.  What is this spongy feeling.....?  The only thing I can think is to educate myself through videos.  Please help.

Newbie

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

I'm sure you will get several suggestions as the day goes on. We generally have more activity in the evening, so be sure to recheck your thread tomorrow for suggestions. However, if you want to jump-start your new hobby, hire a fishing guide for a day or two. You'll need the right guy, someone who is willing to work with you and really teach you a few things, but they are out there.

Here is another thread you might find helpful:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1182371999

[JCrzy4Bass]

There is no substitute for experience. I lost tons of fish in my first few months fishing (early this summer) and still lose a few now. It's part of the game. A suggestion... learn one bait very well. I think the easiest to start with is a crankbait or a soft plastic. The reason for this is because with the crankbaits, you just wait til' you see your line moving and feel the pressure (most important), reel down to it and then pull up snapping the rod tip up. You know when you get a bite with this type of bait because if you retrieve it in a straight motion there will be a distinct and different motion of your line and you will feel the pressure. You just feel for anything out of the norm and don't hesitate to set the hook. Sometimes you may even believe your hung up, but it might be a fish just being stubborn and not wanting to come up, don't hesitate. It just takes the expereince of hooking a fish on one of these baits and you'll get it. My recommendation: A Mann's Minus 1 Shallow Running Crank and a Rat-L-Trap for deeper applications (as this can cover a lot of water and depth). Pick some different colors and judge how to use them based off water clarity and time of day.

The soft plastic... theres nothing like that... "tug tug" feel on your line. Rig weedless or texas and wait for the couple of pulls on your bait, raise that rod tip up quick and pull hard. Hook sets are very dependent upon your hooks you use, the type of rod you have and the plastic you are using. Plastics that are a bit longer I like to wait til' that second tug or so before I ram the hook home (brush hogs, 10" power worms, etc), ones that are smaller like the 5" senkos I generally won't wait long at all to set the hook. I recommend EWG Gamakatsu worm hooks size 3-4 for plastic worms.

Just start off small work one or two baits til' you get the feel of them and then move forward. Some guys like to focus on lots of baits at once, others spend as much time as a year or so on a particular bait and ONLY take that specific bait out with them to get a feel for it leaving the rest of their tackle at home so they are not tempted to use it. You will gain confidence in certain baits after a few outings and that my friend is the most important part of bass fishing. Confidence.

Work hard and before you know it you'll be yanking them up to shore or puttin' em' in your live well. Good luck out there and hope some of this helps.

I guess I should make my attempt at answering your question too... I haven't seen any videos and I've only read biography type books when it comes to fishing. I watch this show on www.lunkerville.com though and have seen a pro that makes appearances on this show regularly catch tons of bass using soft plastics. He has his own site and his own dvd collection, the main one being "How to Fish Soft Plastics Like a Pro". His name is Mike Delvisco. I don't know whether many people have found this video useful but I've been thinking about picking it up because he teaches you how to rig (many ways) and how to run each particular bait. After watching his technique on the show and listening to him he sounds incredibly knowledgeable about bass in general and the baits he uses. His site is www.bassbytes.tv. Lunkerville is actually surprisingly helpful as well, I've learned a lot from the average joe weekend warrior fishermen that make appearances on that show each week. Some provide some pretty good tips on how they fish (mostly northeast united states, but some mid atlantic and southern state areas).  The video is all free and streaming online, so just plug in headphones and check it out.  Each of the 22 episodes or so is about 30 minutes long.

Other than that, if you want some good info on learning how to fish for bass this site is huge and helped me a ton. Go to the article section. Seeing as we are in fall mode now, I would focus a bit on learning what to expect in this particular season, what baits work the best, what is a "turnover period" and how to judge whether or not your lake or river may be going through that right now. Look at the tips on how to work the baits, etc. This site is unbelievable and you'll be surprised how much you can learn in even a day. I learn something new every time I get on here. It's incredible.

Last but not least, If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask no matter how dumb you might think they may be, trust me. Someone in here can answer almost every question you have, and if they can't they will point you in the right direction.

[Matt Fly]

Welcome to the forum.

Matt

[Catt]

How Y'all Are  

[Pond-Pro]

    I would highly recomend the BPS dvd's.  They are very informative.  As others have mentioned, the best way to learn though, is by actualy fishing.  Remember to keap your line tight and you will usually feal the bite.  It also helps to watch your line.

 

[skillet]

WELCOME to the forums!!!

                                  As Ever,

                                   skillet

[Needemp]

Don't let anybody tell you that educating yourself is not necessary. Experience on the water is huge, you need it, but if you don't educate yourself it will take you a lot longer to learn things. Can be quite a bit longer. You study then fish, then study, then fish, then study, etc. Gotta have both. That education can elevate you pretty rapidly.

In-fisherman, Bill Dance and BPS has some good videos. But don't forget to read. I read anything that is written by the pros. They don't reveal everything, in fact they don't reveal a whole lot. But the one thing I have noticed is that they speak differently than the ordinary fisherman. They get it. They have to be good fisherman or they have to get real jobs. Almost everyone of the big name pros have admitted that at the beginning of their fishing, they studied everything they could get their hands on. They learned tons from their hero's in fishing. KVD, Ish and Ike just to name a few.

Mostly what they teach is basic stuff. But that is good. They do teach some advanced things, but they mainly just give a couple of pieces of the puzzle and you have to figure out the rest. Although redundant at times, it is repetitiveness that is a key to learning.

[Hookemdown.]

Welcome to the forums...

and listen to RW. Hire a guide, it will shave years off of your learning curve.

[grimlin]

I've seen quite a few books in book stores about bass fishing....i know it's like $20 but it reveals so much stuff of how to and why.It will up your knowledge of lures,techniques and bass behaviors themselves.I wish i could remember the name of this book but i can't now.I saw it at Barnes and noble.

[morieeel]

Hello.  I am new to bass fishing.  I have went fishing several times and have not caught anything.  I have literally been out on the water all day long.  I would like to know if there are videos that anyone would reccommend for me to purchase that will give me some tips.  One thing is that I think that I am not feeling when they pick my bait up.  There was one time that I was reeling in and had a fish and did not even know it.  I keep asking how do you know and I am told it is a spongy feeling.  What is this spongy feeling.....?  The only thing I can think is to educate myself through videos.  Please help.

Newbie

Try to find out what bait works best in your lake/pond.  Sometimes other fisherman protect their disclosure of lures like the pentagon, but you should be able to get some info from a local bait shop.

Stick to that lure/bait and leave all other lures at home.  Just change colors, sizes etc.  By sticking to the lure, get a good feel of how to fish it, before trying other things.

I have problems with feel on a spinning reel.  If you know how to use a baitcaster, keep a finger under the line when reeling in learning to distinguish the feel of weeds, logs, bottom of the lake.  

If your using a crankbait hooking is easier, but I had to learn how to use worms, soft baits, so getting a feel of  a bite takes time.  If its a bass most of the time, you'll feel a tick and then a tug.  Wait till you feel the bass tugging on the end of the line then set the hook and keep the line tight.  

Lastly, slow down.    

[senile1]

Welcome to the forums.  One thing you will need to learn is how to locate bass.  Learning how to use lures is important but knowing where to fish is going to put more fish in your boat.  In-fisherman's book, Largemouth Bass, has some excellent chapters that discuss bodies of water, their characteristics, and where the bass will be in those bodies of water.  If you are fishing a large reservoir, I would almost bet your biggest issue is fishing locations that contain few or no bass.  

[BackOnTheWater]

Read, study maps, practice, then repeat...as often as possible!

Try starting with the no-brainer lures like a Pop-R, crankbait, spinnerbait, stickbait.

Be careful with the top-water lures, because if you don't let the fish take it down, it can become a 6-hook missile headed straight for your face. It's hard to NOT get excited, but that's what you have to do. Top-water action is unbelievably exciting!

The others mentioned above will, more often than not, stop SUDDENLY when a fish hits. Give 'em a pop to set the hook and real 'em in.

Worm fishing requires more of a feel for the hit...tap-tap BAM! Set the hook with all you've got and hang on! With practice, you'll get it. The hit on a t-rig is, to me, almost as exciting as a top-water hit. But the t-rig (or c-rig) is my favorite way to fish...you become deadly on them after a while...throw a worm or critter EVERY time out...more time in the water = more bites = better at it.

Stay after 'em and don't give up on any lure...you'll need to learn how to work them all eventually. And I don't care how much you read or how many people tell you how to detect subtile hits (it does help), you have to experience them and learn on your own.

[TruflShufl]

The best way I've found to feel whats going on with a spinning outfit is to put your rod holding hand up above the reel and reel the line through your fingers gently, you should be able to feel that distinct "tug tug" (or as I call it, the "thump thump") when you're getting bit at. This works awesome for soft plastics. The best bite to detect though of course is the topwater so get out there early in the morning and give that a shot. That first time you see a largemouth inhale your pop-r and dive hard, you'll be hooked for life!  

[Yodie]

This doesnt help much now, I realize...but...

When you get proficient and feel comfortable with just catching any bass that will bite and start to get that oh-so-common urge to get a BIG one, I highly recomend buying Bill Murphy's book "In Pursuit of Giant Bass" All of his fishing is out west for the REALLY big ones, but the concepts are the same no matter where you go. What I learned from his book about catching big bass is slowly starting to equal what my dad has taught me about catching fish in general. (Although, I dont think it ever will equal as my dad has almost 30 years of tournament experience and is still teaching me something new everyday, but now its mainly locating them, I got the catching thing down....I love my daddy...)

[sal669]

Welcome to the forums. One thing you will need to learn is how to locate bass. Learning how to use lures is important but knowing where to fish is going to put more fish in your boat. In-fisherman's book, Largemouth Bass, has some excellent chapters that discuss bodies of water, their characteristics, and where the bass will be in those bodies of water. If you are fishing a large reservoir, I would almost bet your biggest issue is fishing locations that contain few or no bass.

I'll second this...

*** the majority of fishermen know allready, the most important thing is to FIND THE FISH !!!!!!!!!!!! In real estate they call it LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.

In any body of water, 80% of the fish will be in 20 % of the "water surface". For example, in a 10 acre pond, at any given time, most of the fish will be in about 2 acres of water. At spawning time, most of the bass will be on the spawning flats that offers the best conditions for the eggs to hatch; in the middle of the winter look for them in deep water, etc,etc...

I own the"Largemouth Bass Secrets/An In-Fisherman Handbook of Strategies", and I highly recomand it to any beginner in Bass fishing.

It is of paramount importance NOT to waist your time casting your lure where there is NO FISH.

I recomand that you start your bass fishing in small ponds, where you have access to most of the water surface, and you can FIND the fish.

For the first 2 years I fished exclusively soft plastics on spinning tackle with 6-8lb line, 1/0-3/0 hooks, 1/8-1/4oz bullet weights; I used 4 to 8 inch worms, 6" lizards, tubes, flukes, slug-gos, craw immitations.

Good luck!

And welcome to the forum !