Fishing Forum

Hey guys. My dad's gardener took me and my stepbrother fishing last weekend and we had a blast so we decided to get some rods to use on our own this summer, but both of us have just about no experience fishing so we could use some guidance. I assume what kinds of gear we will need depends on where we will be fishing, so:

We are going to be fishing mostly in Maine. There are several lakes up there. I researched them last night and the fish up there are: Landlocked Salmon, brook trout, smallmouth bass, all kinds of perch, and a few other fish.

My dad has a sailboat up there as well though, so we thought it might be fun to fish off the boat in the saltwater. The saltwater fish are: mackerel, bluefish, strieped bass (they only listed the fish for a few bay/channel areas near shroe so I assume there are many more fish further out).

Kinda dragging on here, let me get to the point.

Again we are both almost completely new to fishing, and we want to get more into it this summer, but we don't know what we need to buy. What kinds of gear, bait, lures, rods, or anything else will we need to fish the kind of fish listed above + maybe some slightly bigger fish further from the bays int he ocean.

Is there a type of rod/gear that we can get that is relatively noobie friendly and would work in the fresh and saltwater? Also what kinds of bait do we need to catch fish like that?

P.S. I heard that landlocked salmon are coldwater fish so to get them we need some kind of special attachments that would get our lines down deeper in the lakes or something? Can anyone tell me about that?

Thanks so much!
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Hey welcome to the board. Since I am not from that area (I am out west) I am unable to help. But here is a link for the Maine page. I think they will be able to help you out.
[url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?forum=32"]http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?forum=32[/url]
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the first place to start is to let us know what you want to target,

second place is to let us know your price range,

These will decide the type, quality and quantity of what you will want.

were you fly fishing or casting? This will also help us to know what your intrest are.

most people fish for salmon during thier runs in the spring and fall, summer time down riggers are used to get down to the depths you need to be.

there is no silver bullet that will do the all the work your intrested in having it do. to catch every thing you mentioned, you will want a 2 or 3 different rigs.

a spinning reel combo for your smaller species like bass on down to perch, for salmon you can get a combo rod and reel set up made of stainless steel so that you can use it both on fresh and salt water down riging rigs.

from your post I am getting the impression price is not a major issue, but I am not going to go that route.

the closest I can suggest that will handle fall runs and bass and posibly pan fish such as perch crappie and gills.

Rino rod or an Ugly Stick with a "Diawa" Jupiter 2500 with extra spools for different line weights.

Or somthing simmilar, How ever this rig will not be anything you will want to use on a down rigger system. You can fish deap with them with sinkers but not at the speed that a down rigger would give you.

for down rigging, you want a 30 pound class rod with stainless eyes and a large bait casting reel simmilar to a Penn 500

below are suggestions for combo that can be used on both fresh water and salt water.

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[url "http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/index/index-display.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/subcategory/subcategory-index.jsp.32_A&_DAV=netcon&id=cat601991&navCount=1&parentId=&navAction=push&returnPage=&returnQueryString=&cmCat=netcon&parentType=subcategory&rid="][/url] Saltwater Conventional Combos

[url "http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/index/index-display.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/subcategory/subcategory-index.jsp.29_A&_DAV=netcon&id=cat601990&navCount=1&parentId=&navAction=push&returnPage=&returnQueryString=&cmCat=netcon&parentType=subcategory&rid="][/url] Surf Combos

[url "http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/index/index-display.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/subcategory/subcategory-index.jsp.23_A&_DAV=netcon&id=cat601988&navCount=1&parentId=&navAction=push&returnPage=&returnQueryString=&cmCat=netcon&parentType=subcategory&rid="][/url] Saltwater Spinning Combos

[url "http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0057379321104a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=salt+water+fly+rod+combo&Ntk=Product_liberal&sort=all&Go.y=15&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&Go.x=35&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1"][/url] G.Loomis® Xperience/ Cabela's Presitge Plus Fly Combo with Fly Line
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as for panfish, any moderately priced combo will do, stay away from the cheep stuff, you get what you pay for, and if you get a combo with line on it, strip it there at the store and have some good line placed on it.

the line that comes with the rod and reel combos are garbage.
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I live and fish in maine so if you want send me a message and i will help!
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are you going to fish the ocean or a lake(stream)
because they are way different
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My advice would be to join a local club. Also, start with the person who introduced you...your dads gardener. If he cared enough to introduce you to the sport, he'd probably be thrilled to hear that you loved it and want to learn more.

Most clubs love new members and you can learn a lot from the meetings and the other members.

I would search out something that's not competitive though. Just a friendly club that gathers and fishes together.

Going to a bait and tackle shop might be helpful as well but I've found that a lot of the guys in the shops are just out to sell. They'll tell you what you want to hear to sell you some stuff.

Before I started to carp fish I went into a local shop because I saw the carp jumping all over the shore during the spawn. I asked him about it...the guy ended up selling me about $75 in hooks, sinkers, baits, etc.

Long story short - carp don't bite during the spawn.