Hi, I'm new here and I'm just wondering if anyone might be able to tell me as to how to go about selecting the right rod, reel, tackle box and tackle for me.
I've been fishing in the past, but I haven't done it in a long time and I'm interested in buying myself a rod, reel, tackle box, and tackle so that I can go fishing when I want.
I however don't really know much about this stuff because when I did it a long time ago all we did was just grab the rods & tackle boxes and went. It wasn't something that we really put any kind of real thought into because it was just for fun.
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Gonna need a little more info from ya.
What do you plan on fishin for?
Where's some of the places you plan on fishin?
What style reels did you use when you fished before?
Also you can always go to a reputable sporting goods store ,, feel out some rods and reels, they should be able to get you pointed in the right direction.
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Well I suppose you should clarify more as to how and what you want to fish for. I would suggest, not knowing the details, a good general purpose rod. Look for a medium light to medium action spinning rod. What flavour you choose is up to you but I suggest a graphite rod. Match up as good a quality reel as you can afford. I like Shimano but there are lot's of good choices out there. I suggest 8 pound test Berkley Trilene XT in the blue box. I've used it for years and it's great stuff.
Now tackle. In the states, crankbaits seem to be king. Myself, I toss more spoons lately, I like the simplicity. Select lures heavy enough to cast effectivly but light enough to allow the lure to work properly. Buy a selection of lures in various colours and sizes. I prefer natural colours over bright colours. I also do the opposite of what the pro's say; I use smaller lures as opposed to bigger lures. (Actually I do most of my fishing with light action gear, but that's anither story)
If your fishing for pike or musky, bump up your line weight and stock up on wire leaders. Trout, lighten up your line a bit. Everything else 8 pound is good to go. For a tacklebox I prefer hard boxes. My current box is a large Plano box that holds my big plugs. In the bottom I have smaller boxes, each full of jigs, small spoons and spinners, weights, hooks and such. Theres about 4 boxes inside my main box. That way if I want to spend the day in my little boat chasing trout, I need only grab my trout box.
You'll also need pliers, forceps, bug spray, rain gear, a good knife, bells, a measuring tape and whatever else you think you need. I keep a good supply of pickeral rigs and various snelled hooks as well. Good luck and have fun.
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you looking for action or relaxation or relaxation with a chance of some action?
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I'm just looking to do it for part time fun when I can as a hobby.
I just want to make sure that I get the right equipment because I sure as hell don't like that feeling of using substandard equipment or equipment that I can't grow into.
I'm not really sure as to what I would fish for at the moment, but there's a possibility that I may eventually even want to try saltwater fishing.
Right now I'm just looking to get started with things, but it's hard to really know as to what to get as there is a lot to choose from.
Who knows, maybe I might even choose to eventually try bow fishing as well someday.
No harm in exploring different interests. Who knows as where I'll really go with things.
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ok, I will suggest a rino spin cast rod and a shimono quick fire spinning reel combo,
if it comes with line on the reel, strip it off "no matter what the sales guy says" You will want to put on 6-8 pound test line.
This will put you on trout, bass, gills, perch walleye, crappie, pike, and yes even carp under 15 pounds.
you can troll with it, "not with a down rigger"
You can cast with a bobber,
you do set lines.
you will want a packet of different size sinkers, a cople different sizes bobbers, a packet of swivel snaps, an asortment of different size hooks.
[ol][li]Five lures I would suggest are.[/li][li]Rooster Tail, Yellow[/li][li]Repalla, silver "split is best but not nessesary.[/li][li]Black or Frog or Watermellon Gitter Bug.[/li][li]crawler harnes, "single, double or triple hook" You can use store bought or make your own. I enjoy making my own while watching the tube.[/li][/ol]
If you go salt water fishing you will need entirely different equipment.
I target other species of fish as well and have different equipment for those. I fish for stergeon salmon and channel cats which if you know what is good for ya, you will get beefier equipment for those.
I would shy away from bait casting reel combos unless you realy want to pratice a lot on casting. they are good equipment but do requier a cirtain amount of skill level to use.
What info the other guys are looking for is, where do you live "generaly" and the species you are looking for.
I find most people who give the responce you give are one of two type of angler, they are looking for primarily bass, or they are looking for what ever will bite.
Toss these guys a little more info and they will jump in with some good advice.
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[quote rdonovan1]Hi, I'm new here and I'm just wondering if anyone might be able to tell me as to how to go about selecting the right rod, reel, tackle box and tackle for me.
I've been fishing in the past, but I haven't done it in a long time and I'm interested in buying myself a rod, reel, tackle box, and tackle so that I can go fishing when I want.
I however don't really know much about this stuff because when I did it a long time ago all we did was just grab the rods & tackle boxes and went. It wasn't something that we really put any kind of real thought into because it was just for fun.[/quote]
maybe try your local fishing shop! im sure they will be happy to help you..to get you started
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Hi rex, I see your new here.
as most people here will testify to with more than enough first hand experiance, Quite often is the case will be that when you get in to a store, thier main concern is to sell you something.
Then you got those store clerks who havent got time to stop and talk to some one and explain anything to them.
Then there are the kids working there who may never set foot on the waters edge or dropped a line over a boat.
This is one of the biggest perks of this site, there is ample members here who can and will take the time to help some one get started. If you hang around and go though our backlog of post You will see this is true about us here at bft....
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Like many of the posts above indicate we need some more information
In order to determine your setup.
But if you are looking to keep cost at a minimum i would recommend walmart or bennies
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I just thought I'd get some ideas from all of you because I sure as hell don't want to be making the wrong choices.
Ya'll know how pushy some of those sales people can get and not all of them are going to be truthful with you about what you need and don't need.
Some of them are just out to make a buck and they really don't care if anyone gets hurt from it either.
Never hurts to be a smart, savvy shopper in a world of sharks.
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no doubt that some of these guys are working on commision, and they can get presured from the boss to push certain items.
we would need to at least know what type of water your going to be fishing, fresh or salt. River, stream, or lake.
With a little genneral info like a county and state we can figure out where would be the best place for you to start.
while a lot of equipment is overlapable for differnt applications, it is best to have a genneral ideal in order to give you some genneral info...
By the way, I dont work on commision. [cool]
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I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico right now so all of the fishing that I might do would be freshwater based.
If I ever move to someplace near the ocean then I can look at upgrading at that point, but right now I'm basically just concentrating on freshwater and I'm not too picky about what I catch either.
Hopefully I won't get bullheads or too many crappies, but you never know. I've caught a lot o crappies in the past. Some were keepers, but most weren't.
Don't know why, but I never caught much of anything else. Seems like the crappies were the one's doing most of the biting when I went fishing.
It almost kind of makes you think that they were intimidating all the other fish in the lake.[laugh]
I just like the idea of seeing what I can catch and hopefully I'll be smarter than the fish, but that's not always the case because sometimes they tend to outsmart you.
I've had that happen several times in the past. They've made it seem like you've caught one, but then when you go to real them in you find out that they were just playing with you and that your bait is now gone.
I'm not sure, but I tend to sometimes think that they just love to do that just to piss you off and to tease and taunt you.
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I gotta run out to do some yard work befor the rain and snow sets in tonight to I will get back to this a little later today.
just an fyi, Crappie are a much saught after species, I hope to get me a few in the next couple weeks.
Another name for Crappie is calico bass and there is another nick name that suits them well, "Paper Mouth"
The reason why they are called that by some of the old timers is, the have a mouth that is as thin as paper.
I like mine to be at least 9 inches long, tho I prefer 10 but will take them smaller if I have seen that I have mortaly wonded them.
They get up to about 17 inches and 3 pounds. and the big ones put a good fight.
as I said, I gotta get out before I loose my daylight, back in a couple hours
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trick to catching big crappie, well more crappie.
use a number 4 wire hook, live or pickled minnow no bigger than a couple inches.
[ul][li]for pickled minnow, hook him in the top of the back so that when it is sitting in the water it looks like it is upright and level.[/li][li]for a live minnow, hook him though the upper lip so you will keep him alive.[/li][li]use a split shot one foot above your presentation, this is important in that it allows the crappie the oppertunity to play with its food. Yes I said play[/li][/ul]Crappie hit the minnow from the back, this is where it is important to remember to use this trick when fishing for them, and this is true when using suspended jigs and worms
using a bobber just big enough to suspend your presentation at the depth that the crappie are at. the cheep little round bobbers work just fine.
[ul][li]now, here is the trick, [/li][li]earlier I said they like to play with thier food, it takes anywhere from a few seconds to a whole minute to five minutes for them to decide to take the whole bait. It is vary important that you allow the bobber to go all the way down. and when I say down I mean down for the count. crappie when they hit like to swim down when they can.[/li][li]using to big of bobber can cause you to loose a lot of bites, when begining to run if they feal the bobber they will let go. This is the same reason for hooking a live minnow by the upper lip, this way the crappie dont feal the line untill it is to late. Since crappie hit from the back side, if they bump in to the line they will look like they are biteing when they are not even close to being ready to set the hook. This is where you get tons of false bites when using minnows that are hooked from the tail.[/li][li]Line, I mentioned crappie fealing the line, This is where you dont want to use anything bigger than a quality 4 pound test. Cheap line will have thin spots and will break on you. and always cut off about five feet of line when making a new rigging.[/li][li]Setting the hook, earlier I said they are called paper mouths, the is so vary important, and dose take a nack but is not hard to pickup on in time, Do not set the hook like you would with a large mouth bass, when you do you litterialy rip apart the mouth of a calico bass "crappie" the tecnique is to with rod in hand just flick your rist up then maintain even preasure, do not horse them in. [/li][li]This means setting your reel's drag to about 3-5 pounds max. This is so Important when fishing for the bigger crappie, one would thing that the bigger the crappie the tougher themouth, this is not true for crappie, paper is paper. Bigger crappie are strong swimmers and can break them selves off the hook and that is why they need to be able to run. So on my rigs, I use a spool loaded with six pound line and I make my leads around 12 inches and hang them below a swivel snap.[/li][/ul]But you said you dont want crappie, so I will move on to the next post.
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who to avoid crappie,
use heavier line, 6 pound and up
Crappie will hit rapallas, so with those you will have to take the good with the bad. or go to another lure like curly tail soft plastics, no garentee they wont hit on them, just you will get a lot few hits from crappie. The up side of useing repallas is that if a crappie dose hit you will be looking at a respectable sized fish. The biggest crappie I ever caught was on a repalla and it was 17 inches long, "The crappie not the repalla"[:p]
Flat fish jitter bugs and spoons have yet to produce crappie for me, but do bring in the bass and pike.
Crappie swim in schools, so where you catch one, others are not far behind, get up and move, or set your presentation higher or near the bottom. Dont move to far cuz where you find crappie, LMB's and SMB's gills pike and perch are not far away.
Using single double and three hook crawler harneses will reduce the intake of crappie and will increase the production of bass.
Bigger the bait bigger the fish rule.. well this is true when trying to avoid crappie, larger spoons flat fish and plugs will get you in to the big mouth fish like those in the black bass family and pike family.
all this being said, [#0000ff][size 5]we know that you will be looking for trout, gills, bass and pike. but mostly Large Mouth Bass..[/size][/#0000ff] so in the posts to follow we will start posting products that will get you in to your targeted range of fish that are available in your area.
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I don't know where most of you are from, but I'm originally from Minnesota.
From what I noticed as I was growing up there was that Walleyes and Northern Pike were the most popular fish for people to go after there.
And it seemed like everyone had a fish story to tell. It was kind of funny to watch back then because almost everyone seemed to want to tell their story of the big one that got away or that they caught. It was very competitive to say the least because it was always that age old story 'Mine was bigger than yours'.
Sometimes the stories were true, but most of the time they were just fabricated.
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Now the stuff I am going to suggest to you is what I like to use and matches my style of fishing. and is a good place to start for novis to intermediate anglers.
The lure asortments suggested will give you years and years of fun, and rods and reels are something if moderatly cared for you can pass down to your kids.
first comes the reel,
[ul][li]to be able to target all the species available in your area, the first thing I am going to suggest to you it to stay away from any real that cost less that 30$. And I do include any thing 29.95 and under... not that they arent good reels, its just that they wont live up to the years of quality service that you will be wanting to get out of your equipment.
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[ul][li]From Bass Pro.... Shimano® Spirex® RG Rear Drag Spinning Reel SR4000RG
LEFT/RIGHT-HAND RETRIEVE Rated for 12 pound test line. Grab a spare spool or two to load with lighter lines. The two most important features of this real I like is the quick fire trigger that allows for one handed casting and the rear drag that allows for quick changing of the settings when it becomes nessisary to do so because you got ahold of a species you wasnt targeting but still want to land the fish. " I dont recomened this for steelhead and salmon "
[/li][/ul][li]Rods, one of two would I recomend for startup gear.
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[ul][li]Zebco Rhino ZRS66MT 6'6" Med 8-14lb 2Pc Glow Tip - I own one, it is a vary tough rod with medium action that will hold up to steelhead and salmon, and yet with the right reel and riggings will handle all the panfish and trout bass and pike you can muster. Good Luck finding one this time of year, it is a hot potato on the shelf come christmas time.
[/li][li]Shakespeare Ugly Stik Spinning rod. SPL110260. rated for 6-15 pound line and lure weight 1/8 to 5/8 ounce.
[/li][/ul][/ul]Lures
[ul][ul][li]Rapala Husky Jerk 4 to 6 inch silver or brown "beer color"
[/li][li] Rapala® Original Floating Lure 4 to 6 inch silver or brown "beer color"
[/li][li] Rapala Jointed Minnows 4 to 6 inch silver or Brown
[/li][li] Rapala® Countdown Minnows 4 to 6 inch silver or Brown
[/li][li] Arbogast Jitterbug® all sizes and colors, primarily black and frog
[/li][li] Mister Twister 351-Piece Curly Tail Kit this is a best buy for soft plastics it gives you the best asortment of presentations.
[/li][li] Kalin's 10" Big N® Grubs
[/li][li]Cabela's 97-Piece Bass Jighead Kit
[/li][li]
Cabela's Gallon-Size Bass Bucket
[/li][/ul][/ul]The jig head kit you can use with most any of the soft plastics from any shop you go to. They can also be painted and repainted as needed by using simple acrilic fingernail pollish that can be found at garage sails. You can get get jig paints at some of the larger outdoor centers.
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Sounds like I'm really going to have to do my homework before I buy anything.
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I am in michigan
and here every thing is target except gobi and zebra mussles.
no doubt about the fish stories, gotta love them. I have posted a few here my self. you can look them up for a little fun reading. just do a search on a species and enter my user name in the criteria and you will get stories and photos from my adventures, in addition you can go to our photo galleries to see what every one is bragging about.
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the one thing I did not put in the list is a camera, Wished I had taken more pictures earlier in my fishing adventures, 50 years of fun and only my ability of spinning a good yarn to show for catches, and well maybe a half inch of belly jelly here and there... I do like fish for dinner, lunch, and yup breakfast.
this is why I suggested the peices I did, they are the basics,
and if you want to go in to live bait riggings, let us know, That requieres rigging setups, we have a lot of that alreaded posted here or just ask and we will jump in with our own favorite riggings.
just ask for riggings by species and you will a sloe of replies from some of us old timers.
one last thing I did not put on the list above is the line you will want to use.
my prefferance is Silver Thread N-40 what ever test size you like. Its extra fine diamiter and flexibility makes for better bites from line sencitive fish.
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