Bass Fishing Guide for Beginners

Bass fishing is a wonderful sport to get involved in, and you can have great success with your bass fishing by making yourself educated and learning some helpful tips and techniques. A good beginner tip would be to not purchase a fishing boat until you learn how to fish for bass, then after your skills increase you can determine if you want to make it an on going part of your life. As a beginner it would be best to rent a boat to use during your first several fishing trips.

There are also many bass clubs available that you can join which allow you to be able to fish out of the back of someone else’s boat and just share the expenses for the day.

Choosing your Equipment

Before you begin fishing you will need to select the proper equipment. The first piece of equipment that you should be concerned with is your rod. Fishing rods come in a large variety of different lengths, sizes and weights, but you don’t need to be intimidated by all this or the price tag when you go to purchase your first rod and reel.

The line that you choose for your bass fishing is also going to be very important here. It should be relatively inexpensive if you are a beginner because you are sure to make many mistakes early on. After you have your rod, reel and fishing line it’s time to choose some good quality bass fishing lures.

Make sure the lures you get are specifically made with bass fishing in mind. You can get working baits to help you hook one during the summer months when the bass go to the deeper waters to avoid the heat. However, it is best during regular bass fishing to use a prop bait, especially if there is a bit of wind to help you work with it, it is also a great way to practice with your lures on speed and power.

Beginner anglers often choose the popper baits when learning bass fishing. Popper bait is easy to use because you just cast it out, let it rest a short while and then pull to pop it back. After experimenting awhile on the amount of drop noise, you can learn to make smaller plugs with less noise, then work on the pause between each twitch of the wrist, then you will be sure to begin catching the bass of your dreams.

Bass fishing can be an incredibly rewarding hobby, one that you will really enjoy, and it is a sport that comes with a truly fascinating history. Bass fishing is known to go back as early as the 18th century and many people today consider it one of the best outdoor sports in the world.

The tarpon is one of the world’s finest sporting fish. Stunningly beautiful and known as the Silver King, their aerobatic leaps make them a favourite of anglers worldwide. Each spring thousands of tarpon travel through Key West Harbour on their way to the spawning grounds and fishermen flock into town in order to pit their wits against them.

There are many varying fishing styles for hunting tarpon, the method varying depending on the type of water that is being fished. Tarpon can be caught on sand or mangrove flats and also in shallow river inlets. In this case the favoured method is either fishing a fly coupled to a very strong rod and line or using an artificial lure. At some venues for example Islamorada the favoured style is fishing with small live fish such as herring or pilchards. The favoured fishing style in Key West is using a by-product from shrimp fishing. Let’s explain what we mean by shrimp boat trash. Many shrimp fishing boats fish the waters in the Gulf of Mexico and apart from catching shrimp they also net a lot of small fish called menhaden. These are bagged up in onion sacks and sold as bait to the tarpon fishing boats in Key West.

The method sees the skipper cutting the manhaden into small pieces and continually dropping them behind the anchored boat to attract the tarpon. The anglers fish with a whole menhaden on the hook, and it is drifted back in the current down to the feeding tarpon.

The tackle recommended for Key West tarpon fishing is very simple. Our favourite tarpon fishing rod is the 7ft 9in Conolon Boat  12-20 lb test curve rod from ABU. It retails here in the UK for £74.99. ABU also offer a 3 piece version of the rod (the Conolon Boat Traveller) which might be more suited to the travelling angler. That one sells for £79.99 in the UK. By the way, I use that Conolon Boat rod to fish for sturgeon in British Columbia and last year landed my biggest ever fish with a length of 9ft 1inch and weighing…who knows, there was just the two of us fishing and there’s no way we could lift such a beast but we estimated it at around 400 lbs. Anyhow, returning to tarpon fishing. The most popular reels whilst fishing for tarpon are the TLD15 and TLD20 lever drag multipliers from Shimano. The TLD 15 retails at around £80 in the UK, whilst the TLD 20 is about £15 more expensive. Whatever reel you decide on, it has to be super free running, since you’re trying to make your bait drift down in the current at a similar speed to the bait being thrown in by the skipper. I prefer to use the bigger TLD 20 because the larger spool spins slower when you are running your bait down in the tide with the other advantage that it takes less turns of the handle to reel in when your bait has drifted as far you want. You’ll need the reel fully loaded with line, I go for the grey Ande nylon in breaking strains of either 15 or 20 lbs. At the end of that is securely knotted a 10 foot leader of 50 lb fluorocarbon and a large circle hook. Of course all of the light tackle boats have excellent tackle for you to use if you don’t have your own.

Let’s now take a look at the actual fishing method used in Key West. Your skipper will have motored out to one of the top tarpon spots, maybe the entrance to Key West Harbour, the yacht basin, the North West Channel or maybe Bokacheeka. The boat will be anchored at the bow and if there are other boats fishing they’ll very likely be only a few feet away. The idea is that if every boat is chumming then there should be a good supply of bait going down to the fish, keeping them in one substantial shoal rather than splitting them up. The skipper will start throwing in the cut up baits and you’ll put a whole fish onto your hook. There’s a definite way to hook these baits but don’t worry, the captain will demonstrate how it’s done. You now let your little fish drift down the tide, paying very close attention to where your line runs from the reel spool. A bite can be quite gentle and will normally be just a speeding up of the line leaving the spool. As soon as a bite is detected you have to reel like hell….don’t strike !!. The beauty of a circle hook is that it kind of hooks the fish itself once you tighten the line by reeling in as fast as possible.

Once a tarpon is hooked all hell will be let loose, the tarpon will almost certainly leap out of the water and it will certainly start running towards Cuba !!. Remember when playing a tarpon that if he jumps he’ll get rid of the hook unless you swiftly lower the rod to lessen the tension on the line. This lowering of the rod is known as “bowing to the King”, and you’ll get plenty of comments from anybody else on the boat if you lose a tarpon because he jumped and you didn’t bow. If the hooked tarpon is of reasonable size the Captain will let the anchor go and set off in pursuit of the fish. It’s not unusual to unhook a fish a mile away from where it was hooked. It can be a tiring and long fight but with a bit of luck you will finally have the tarpon alongside the boat ready for a swift photo before it is safely unhooked to fight again some other day. I remember a ‘first-timer’ fishing with us one year. He hooked his first tarpon and as it jumped he excitedly asked “how big is that” to which one wag replied “about forty minutes” !!.

The Florida Keys stretch some 100 miles out into the ocean and have oceans on all sides and fish galore. Keys such as Islamorada have a huge reputation for world-class fishing but Key West wins the prize as the top spot because of the vast variety of fish swimming around the island. Key West Fishing attracts anglers from around the world and for very good reasons.

With inshore fishing for tarpon and sharks, reef fishing for snapper and grouper plus offshore fishing for sailfish, dolphin, kingfish, wahoo and countless other species, it’s a fisherman’s paradise. With the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other, there’s no excuse for having a poor day’s fishing whatever the weather gods can throw at you.

Although there are a number of offshore boats operating out of Key West, our primary interest is light tackle fishing. If you’re not a keen angler you’ll be asking what I’m talking about, so we’ll begin with a simple explanation. The offshore boats tend to be bigger with a more luxurious setup such as a large air conditioned lounge and full bathrooms. They motor around the ocean towing a number of lures behind the boat and when a fish hooks itself the designated fisher sits in the fighting chair to bring the hooked fish to the boat. A light tackle boat is quite a bit smaller, being somewhere around 26 – 30 ft long, with an open deck and no creature comforts such as bunks or saloons. Normally powered by twin outboards, they reach great speeds and are able to fish spots many miles from Key West. Each person on the boat is armed with a rod and reel, and when a bite is detected it is up to the angler to strike and reel in the fish unaided. The offshore captains tend to operate in at least 200 ft of water whereas the light tackle boats are much more versatile fishing anything between 20 ft deep for sharks in the harbor to 200 ft deep offshore whilst fishing for dolphin, wahoo or sailfish.

You don’t need to be an experienced angler to fish from a light tackle boat, the captains enjoy nothing better than seeing someone reel in their very first fish. All of the skippers are very helpful and they will do their very best to make sure that you have a great fishing experience, and hopefully a fish or two to have prepared at one of the local seafood restaurants. All of the light tackle boats have a large selection of fishing tackle for anyone that doesn’t have their own tackle. All you need to take with you for a great day’s fishing is food and drink, sunglasses, a hat and plenty of sunscreen.

Planned future articles will describe in greater detail a day fishing for tarpon, tuna, sailfish or grouper, but in the meantime we’d suggest that you to get out there and catch some of our wonderful fish.

Retired couples may wish to find a sideline that can keep them busy and provide some income for their later years. Opening a tackle shop may be just the answer they are looking for. Good bait shops are needed in every area that has access to fishing in rivers or lakes, and even coastal towns. The best kind of bait shop to open is the kind that becomes a hangout of sorts for the local fishermen. Small towns where everyone knows everybody else are the perfect place for this kind of shop. It provides a place for the fishermen to start their day and end it as well.

If a fishing tackle shop is the type of business that you choose to open, then in addition to the obvious fishing tackle and bait that you will need to stock, you should also consider installing a kitchen and acquiring a liquor license. For those fishermen who wish to meet up before heading out to the lake in the morning, you could profit greatly by providing them a place to grab some breakfast and coffee and socialize before setting out. The liquor license would come in handy in two ways. Number one, many fishermen feel that there is nothing better than grabbing a case of beer and heading for the lake for some fishing and fun. Number two, when the fishermen come back in the evening, you could profit by giving them a place to stop in, show off their catches for the day and grab a cool pint before heading home for the night.

Your tackle shop will need to stock a full line of both live and artificial bait, along with quality fishing tackle, like rods, reels and lures. Another important thing that you must provide is accessibility to fishing licenses, boat registrations, and, in the off season, hunting licenses and equipment. You should also look into providing check station services during hunting season.

Once you open your tackle shop, you will need to understand two very important things. Time and change. You must be willing to invest some time. If you are not willing to put in some really long hours, then don’t even consider this line of business. Fishermen are up early and stay out late. You must be willing to conform to those hours. Change is the other issue. You must be willing to make the change from fishing season to hunting season in your displays if you hope to get the attention of both fish and wildlife hunters.

Fishing is more than just a a simple pursuit to certain people. For certain individuals it is a means of living their lives. Certainly, they have day-to-day jobs that give them a means to live but it is the fish that keep them coming back for more. They learn simple joy in just waiting for that large fish to grab the bait and make their day. It is one of the main ways they pass their free time and it is what makes them happy. Enjoyment can be yours too once you take up that rod and reel.

To find out Largemouth Bass Fishing and certainly try Bass Fishing Techniques similarly Smallmouth Bass Fishing

SEGA Bass Fishing : Game Review

Bass fishing games are nothing new to the arcade game market. Sega Bass Fishing has long been regarded as one of the best. Originating in the 1990s, millions of people have played the game. The makers of the Nintendo Wii have come up with a new version that is now considered one of the best bass tournament games that money can buy. Many players find that it is so realistic it conjures up fishing memories from their childhood.

The bass fishing game for the Nintendo Wii is rated E for everyone, and has several different modes, including arcade, practice, tournament and nature modes. Practice mode helps improve the player’s skill at the game, which will better prepare the player for tournament mode. Bass tournament mode allows the player to fish in ten different bodies of water, and allows the player to compete in a fishing competition. Arcade mode is basically an original version of the game. Nature mode allows the player to casually fish in a body of water, without a time limit or any other restrictions. Whatever mode of play you choose, this game can be quite fun and offers several hours of fishing “play.” The different modes of play add to the charm of the game and will keep you from becoming bored.

The controls for Sega Bass Fishing are quite simple and fun. Casting the fishing reel is as simple as flinging the Wiimote. Once the fishing line is in the water, the player is able to wiggle the Wiimote around, although this really serves no purpose. The player is able to reel in the line at any time, using the nunchuk. As an alternate, the buttons on the Wiimote will also reel in the line. As the players reel in more fish, more fishing tackle will become unlocked and available for use. One the user has hooked a fish, an onscreen gauge will help determine the tension of the fishing line. Fish can be reeled in by making a reeling motion with the nunchuk. If the player does not reel in the fish properly, then there is a chance that the line will break, or the fish will get away.

The Sega Bass Fishing game is a great game to buy for your Nintendo Wii. Much like the older versions of the game, you will find the graphics very advanced and the sound mediocre. However, the game is fun and relaxing. If you remember the old arcade fishing games, then you will surely like this version of the bass tournament game. It might actually bring back some memories of the outdoors fishing excursions you took long ago.

Do you have any types of activites that give you satisfaction and creates it’s own rewards? If you do not maybe it is time to find a hobby that can act as your your consolation against the frenzied way of life that plenty of individuals lead. You should learn fishing. It is a great way to spend a easy going Saturday morning and has the ability to give you the gratification of knowing that you were faced against the forces of nature and won. Even if you are a person who doesn’t like to consume fish you still have the option to catch and release. A couple of hours on a lake or river may be precisely what you need yet you will have to get the supplies and the right tools.

For additional helpful information click here Great Lakes Bass Fishing also click here Bass Fishing Tournaments also Striped Bass Fishing