New bass fisherman!

[Shamster]

I've been fishing a bit as a kid growing up, but mostly just surf fishing with my dad many years ago. Well recently it just kinda hit me that I wanted to start fishing again and I live just a few miles away from a lake now! I bought a spin casting reel/rod combo for about $30 and some basic tackle to get started. I've always wanted to know how to bass fish, so I bought some basic lures to get started. I've caught 2 bass so far!! It took many many many hours before I caught the first one, but I learned a lot in the process. Here they are!

The first one I caught on a senko, the 2nd one was on one of the wal-mart Luck-e strike worms!

I seem to be having some luck with softbait hitting the edges of some grass, then sliding it into the water and letting it fall. I REALLY want to catch some bass with one of my top water lures, any advice on this? I have spinners, buzz bait, a zara spook, a zara pup, and a clear tiny torpedo. The water I fish is very dark/stained. I'm in southern alabama.

Any tips/advice for a newbie is much appreciated!

[Shamster]

Also, are these largemouth or smallies?

[D4u2s0t]

welcome, and those are largemouth.  easiest way to tell is largemouths are usually more green, while smallies are more brown.

You picked the right place to learn about bass fishing, check out the articles section, it covers most everything you could want to know about.  When you have specific questions then you can post them up and we'll do our best to help.

[Shamster]

Thanks! It took me probably 20 hours before I caught the first one, I probably had some terrible techniques going. I hooked one at probably hour 16 on a rattle trap, but he threw the hook. Jumpy wretched.

[Osprey39]

Another good way to tell the difference between largemouth and smallmouth is with the mouth closed, the hinge of the jaw on a largemouth extends behind their eye.  On a smallmouth it won't. 

Color is a good indicator most of the time but on one of the lakes I fish, most of the smallmouth have a greenish tint as well.  The jaw hinge never lies though.

[Beastie Bass]

WELCOME SHAMSTER! I would definetely reccomend learning to "walk the dog" with that zara spook. This time of year i catch a ton of fish with that lure. You make a long cast and then twitch youre rod tip kinda like 1,2,3 pause 1,2,3 pause, when the cadence is right the lure dances to side to side. Start with youre rod tip high at the end of the cast and as you get closer you need to lower the rod to keep the action the same. It's a really fun way to fish. The tiny torpedo is a killer with it's own built in action.

[flipin4bass]

The Bait Monkey has been put on high alert.....get ready sir, you may have been bitten by the bass bug!

[Shamster]

I'm so excited about catching a bass on topwater bait i cant even explain it.  I'm dying to see a good topwater hit, but no luck so far.  Everytime I use a topwater bait right now, I feel like I'm wasting time b/c I know I can snag em on the soft plastics. 

I should probably take a day and only take my top water baits out to try and make myself catch one that way.  I want to see it so bad!

[Fishohio]

I hear ya shamster. that's exactly what I did to learn different presentations. I would recomend sunrise and sunset for topwater . Be careful the first topwater bass you Hook you might just be Hooked yourself! As with anything practise,practise,practise! Good Luck and welcome to the greatest sport there is!!

[Shamster]

I hear ya shamster. that's exactly what I did to learn different presentations. I would recomend sunrise and sunset for topwater . Be careful the first topwater bass you Hook you might just be Hooked yourself! As with anything practise,practise,practise! Good Luck and welcome to the greatest sport there is!!

I think I'm going to try sunset today on a different lake nearby here.  I'm just dying to hook one topwater!

[Osprey39]

I hear ya shamster. that's exactly what I did to learn different presentations. I would recomend sunrise and sunset for topwater . Be careful the first topwater bass you Hook you might just be Hooked yourself! As with anything practise,practise,practise! Good Luck and welcome to the greatest sport there is!!

I think I'm going to try sunset today on a different lake nearby here. I'm just dying to hook one topwater!

Let me give you some helpful advice then.  Don't set the hook immediately when fishing topwater baits.  Wait a second after the strike.  A lot of times fish will swipe at it and miss.  If you don't jerk the bait away from them, they will often hit it again.  That said, it's d**n hard to do but try anyway

[bonzai22]

you should try throwing a buzzbait really early in the morning through weeds

[brushhoggin]

shamster, welcome dude. do yourself a favor and buy some Stanley Ribbit frogs and the zoom 5/0 horny toad twistlock hooks. just toss em, reel em in, set the hook with your rod to the 12 oclock position like you're trying to pull china through the ground, and hold on.  this way you can catch fish on topwater while you learn to walk the dog with a spook ;D should be some real nice fishin over there.

[fishermantony]

The best topwater fish I ever caught was from shore using a ribbit.  It was early evening of a hot summer day in about 2 feet of water by some grass. 6-7 feet away from me this 5 lber exploded full body out of the water and devoured the frog.  My adrenaline is going even telling that story. 

[Senkoman12]

with the zara spook walking the dog will help but i have caught fish just jerking the lure and making all kinds of noise with it

[Gangley]

Large Mouth Bass: Generally a single dotted line going down his "lateral line".  Green to bronze on top with a pale/white belly that can go up to the lateral line.

Small Mouth Bass:  Generally solid bronze or copper with multiple verticle stripes along the length of the body and has a noticably smaller mouth.  Can have a white belly, but the white portions will generally be much smaller than that of the Large Mouth.

hope that helped

[dman]

you should try throwing a buzzbait really early in the morning through weeds

and try a little past dinner time...between 7-9 pm with a black buzzbait and its inevitable that u will eventually get that topwater bite (smash!)

[Shamster]

No luck yet, I may try again this evening.

[fishermantony]

Focus on your bait, top water strikes vary from timid gulps to explosions and if your not ready it's easy to miss the fish.  Look forward to the post after you land one!

[fishinfiend]

Shamster-- Where in South Alabama do you live?

I live in Baldwin county. As another member mentioned, wait to feel the fish before you set the hook with topwater baits.

[Shamster]

I'm in Dothan, AL. Actually on Ft Rucker, but close enough! So far I've just been fishing on Lake Tholocco, but once my boat gets fixed(2-3 more weeks) I want to make some trips to eufala.

Tholocco isn't too terrible, and its only about 2 minutes from my house!  I've been stuck hitting it from the shore.  I bought an older boat and am redoing the transom and such now.  It's a 1975 wellcraft Airslot 165.  Not setup for fishing exclusively as its a new hobby to me.  I'll probably use it about 50% for skiing and tubing and the likes with some friends and 50% fishing by myself or with a buddy.  I'm in the process of restoring the basically everything except the motor   Brand new interior, brand new deck/transom.  When I'm done it'll be a beautiful boat!

[Fishohio]

Another tip shamster is change up your retreive. stop, jerk,speed up slow down,ect. When you do get that hit try to duplicate the retreive the fish hit on. Don't get me wrong, you can catch um just using a steady retreive but I like to change it up a bit. Atleast thats my opinion. You'll have to post some picks of your rig in the boating section when she's done.

[Shamster]

Another tip shamster is change up your retreive. stop, jerk,speed up slow down,ect. When you do get that hit try to duplicate the retreive the fish hit on. Don't get me wrong, you can catch um just using a steady retreive but I like to change it up a bit. Atleast thats my opinion. You'll have to post some picks of your rig in the boating section when she's done.

Definitely will do on the boat.  I can't WAIT to be done with it.  Every day its not done, I sit on the shore fishing watching guys roll through just killing the bass.  Then off in the distance I see guys wakeboarding and skiing and I cry a little inside!  A few more weeks and it'll all be finished. 

I still haven't had any luck with topwater lures.  I've had great success with pretty much any plastic worm(pink'ish seems to be working the best atm).  I'm going to try drop shotting this afternoon, just rigged up a rod a minute ago.  I think it will work REALLY well for the area that I'm fishing from the bank.