Catching Largemouth Bass as Beginner

 

Bass is one of the most popular fish species to catch in America. Partly because they are so widespread throughout the country. That means a lots of anglers have a change to catch it and there all the needs for communities emerge.

Other reason why bass is so caught fish, lies in the aggressiveness and challenge they offer when fighting back. At the same time it is not really hard to get it hooked when you have figured out the right spot.

They are not the smartest ones and will generally hit any bait near their area when the time is right.

In this article we are going to teach and go over some of the essential things how beginners can start bass fishing. Just to be exact we focus on largemouth bass in this article, because they are generally more popular than their smallmouth counterparts.

Right Gear for Bass

We are going to focus on lure fishing the bass, but before that we should go over some piece of fishing tackle. That means we are going to explain and find out open face fishing reel, rod and line that are going to improve our changes of landing nice and big trophy bass.

Rod is only tool to feel and learn the bottom of the water. This is of utmost importance because largemouth bass tends to be around rocks, weed beds and other structures under water. Make sure that rod is not too whippy or stiff. The reason for that is these features will decrease your contact with the bottom

Rod length should approximately be 8-10ft. This length enables you to cast from far enough not to spook away any bass and at the same time keeps bites recognizable.  Great spinning rod example is G. Loomis E6X.

Reel should first of all, go hand in hand with the rod you picked. In our case G.Loomis GL2. Reel should fit about ~200 yards of 10lbs line. Something like Shimano Stradic CI4+ is considered to be one of the best spinning reels for bass, it is light and strong at the same time. Plus it is the favorite model among pro anglers too.

Best line type is debatable, some groups tend to support braid, others favor mono. The problem with braid line for bass fishing is that you will often fish around rocks. That may significantly damage braid line over time due to the lack of stretch.

Choosing the Lure

Now it comes time to pick out the right fishing lure. I would not say that using the right bait is the key element when targeting bass. It is animal that hits pretty much everything when it happens to be in the right mood. Still it is good to know most effective lures inherent to our particular specie.

Spinnerbait–  This is affordable, proven bait to work with bass. Single blade is most of the times all that you need.

Plugs– Crankbait are must to angler. It will help to have wide variety of them anything that go from 7ft water to 1.5ft of water. Floating plugs are great for walk-the-dog type of approach. They enable fishing in shallow areas, where bass often times is located because it is easy to ambush prey there. Also try to stick with neutral color schemes like metallic, white, red.

Stickbait– Angler has to use its own hands to make the lure play after the initial cast. These lures are meant to be thrown in to shallow waters. Their mission is to attract fish from the bottom by creating disturbance on the top of water when they land.

Places, Techniques and Weather for bass

Like I stated before, equipment and baits are not the biggest concern. Locating the bass itself is what matters. We are going to list different factors what you need to look for when trying to find that sneaky creature:

• Look for a rocky beach where boulders are mixed with weed beds. Best places are where you can see structures underwater not places where water forms dark depths.
• Keep a eye on places where bait fish group or can easily get trapped into. This is easy prey bass is looking for.
• Look out for tides, especially big ones. Bass like to move in during tides. Rocks, weed beds, ebbing tide makes perfect combination.
• Bass are known for being very close to bank. So make sure you approach the inshore quietly. Plan your casts accordingly.

It is easy to find proven fishing spots in America because there is so many forums and discussions here.

For international anglers I highly recommend checking out this blog, it covers fishing places & techniques in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina along with frequent updates starting from 2009. Worth checking out for even Americans just to have a slight glance of Europe’s beautiful nature.

At last some bass fishing tips and tweaks useful to know:

• Smooth retrieve is most of the times working best. No need to play with the speed of retrieve.
• Feel the bottom. Find out where structures are planted and use it to your advantage.
• Bass scare very easily. To avoid that, try to blend yourself with the background.
• Great website for learning how to tie fishing knots that can save new anglers from some initial trouble and lost catches: Animated Fishing Knots by Grog