For newbies... I agree with a lot of what was already said.  Tubes are awesome baits.  Really popular 5 years ago b4 the Senko craze.  BUT... they are harder to keep the fish stuck sometimes.  In general... I would find 2 or 3 techniques you like and master those. Find one fast and one slow for sure... Especially if you are in the back of the boat most of the time...  it's hard to beat the split shot finesse worm, especially if your boater partner is flippin.  Plus you can always switch to a swimmin a grub if he speeds up all of a sudden.  Don't worry too much about color.  Something for clear water, and something for dirty is all you need.    Learn how to "pitch" with a baitcaster and a spinning reel. Putting your lure in the best spot at the best speed is the key.  With that said... I will be in my driveway pitching under a desk into a coffee can tomorrow 

My suggestion would be to concentrate on one slow presentation, and one fast presentation. To get really specific, I'd suggest Splitshotting and Spinnerbaits.

Splitshotting will catch you a lot of fish, it's quick, easy, and cheap to rig, and shockingly snag resistant. It will teach you how to rig plastics straight, watch the line, and feel the strike. I like to splitshot craws and lizards. They seem to cause less trouble with rolling during retreive than a lot of other style baits. There are lots of plastics that work, few that won't. Tips: Use for 20' max water depth, light winds, blue skies or cloudy.

To my mind, the spinnerbait is the obvious choice for a new baitcaster user. This bait is very snag resistant, so if you don't cast it exactly where you want, you still have a good chance of getting it back, and you can put in more casts per day than about anything else.  Casts well in the wind, and catches fish, too.  The spinnerbait is a complex subject, lots of tricks and potential for tweeks and mods. This is a bait that's worth spending several seasons really learning well and gaining confidence in it.  Tips: Use when cloudy, windy, rainy, shallow or deep water, at night...clear water > fast retreive. Dirty water > slow retreive....vary the weight, color, and blade type to work for each situation.  Did I mention AT NIGHT?

Brenda, listen to the older guys cause their experience came on the water not from the books (nice tootoo Nickie)

Like Rob/Dave said learn a couple techniques to begin with.  I think the main ones would be Carolina/Texas, dropshotting, and spinner/cranks.  Probably the first 2 are the easiest and cheapest and will produce just about anytime.  Once you become proficient with these then you can broaden your horizons  Also, like they said it is the time on the water that really helps.

A lot of people try to get everything they hear about in the beginning and end up with a backroom full of stuff they never use because they eventually find their niche and it doesn't require a lot of the "junk" they have.  Which is why we have the ANNUAL SWAPMEET at the monthly meeting this March.

Rich

Brenda,
another piece of advice is to challenge yourself to a few techniques. A really good bass fisher person is really good at 3 techniques. That what I begin to consider a versitile angler. If I'm trying to learn a new technique I'll go out to a lake full of numbers of bass and not quantity and I'll only take the rod condusive to that technique. Yes I'll only take one rod. That's how I learned to fish a jig and also how I gained confidence. Remember it's all about patience.

P.S. Dave you won't have to worry about me in the arties crafties store any time soon alone. When that happens I'll be taking the wrong turn. That will be about the same time I show up to a meeting in a purple tootoo.LOL

I know why that elbow is really screwed up, but this is a family site.

Brenda, stick with red or clear beads. And Dave was right about trying a few at a time. I would work on the dropshotting and texas rigging techniques. Rig one spinning outfit dropshot style and another with a light wire 1 or 2.0 hook with a 1/8-3/16 ounce bullet weight. With this setup I would start with a single tail grub. Throw it out, let it sink and work it back with different retrieves. You can switch to skirted grubs, double tail grubs, worms, lizards, etc. on that same setup. You can throw various baits on the dropshot but keep it simple.

These two rigs will catch fish through a lot of the season and will work pretty consistently. Time on the water is the ultimate factor to catching fish though. You can read all the books and magazines in existence, but experience on the water is what will make you better.

Hey Bassing Woman,

I just want to give you my little advice on techniques and baits..    They are all tools to be used at the appropriate times!!  Treat them as such.  I would advise you to pick out a couple and stick with them untill you get efficient with them and gain confidence in them. Then try a couple more.  It would be best to use natural colored baits.   If you try to catch fish with all of the 1000 baits, techniques, and a trillion colors, you will get frustrated and spend a bookoo of money.

Nick!  Tubes catch fish using almost any style, including caralina rigs.  I have a harder time hooking up, so I use a thinner wire hook.

And if your wife, mom, girlfriend goes to the craft store and you HAVE to go along .  The bead section is a good place to shop.  But of course I would never go alone

Larry,

I bought a bunch of glass beads at Michael's craft store. Paid almost nothing.

Of course, I took my kids along as camouflage...

Stu

Larry,

The glass beads at the fabric store are usually half the price of a tackle store.

Knittersbo,Senkbo,armbo its all the same.
Russ is back and ready to kick bass.
RB

Uh....Russ.....ummmmmmm.....uh........

FABRIC STORE........

Senkbo my #$%^

KNITTERS-BO MAYBE!

bassing woman,

Bead size doesn't really matter as long as they are glass.
They make more noise that way and you can get them cheap at your local fabric store.
Russ

  Hello all! I am getting supplies. I was wondering on glass beads.....what size(s) are recommended and color.
I really appreciate this info! Thank you everyone.

Quote:


In my family when the SR.s start giving 'advice' it's time to start thinning out the Bourbon:Coke ratio. 

thanks Guys

Hey Nick....Tubes work very nicely carolina rigged especially with our Smallmouth populations as they mimic baitfish so well....when rigged carolina you have to give them more "Pop" when you lift your rod tip to shake the beads and it will launch the tube to give that "I'm a dying baitfish" twitch and they will usually hit it as it falls.
I use a longer leader with a tube than when I throw a lizard...about a foot to foot and a half longer to get more natural fall.

the old man come with some good wisdom young man, thats why we call them wise old men....I've learned that when a SR. talks advice...listen!!!