There is no doubt that bass fish are one the most abundant freshwater fish in the United States; however, as a beginner, knowing your basics and certain tips and tricks can boost your success rate each time you go angling. Well, the purpose of this post is to share certain bass fishing tips for beginners to boost your confidence and give you great results out there on the water.
Tips Before Going Fishing:
Just before we dive into the tips, we will like to highlight that: You should always check your state and local laws and regulations about fishing. With that out of the way, let’s dive into the tips:
Understand The Behavior of Bass:
There are 9 types of bass fish; however, the most common type of bass is the largemouth bass, and understanding its behavior, will help make your catch easier.
The first behavior of a largemouth bass you need to know is that they are lazy hunters. As such, they will easily try to eat any live fish and lure that comes their way.
Secondly, these fish tend to be very aggressive during their spawning season; therefore, they tend to attack any threat that comes near their territory.
Also, these largemouths tend to spend most of their time living and sleeping in low-current waters as opposed to living high current waters. This is because they want to save their energy for feeding.
Largemouth bass love to hide, and you’ll usually find them around docks, water beds, submerged trees, rocks(during spawning season), and bridges.
Finally, when water levels are normal or high, you will find them around the banks of the water; however, when water levels begin to drop, they will move to the deeper end for safety.
Tools needed to Catch a Bass Fish:
One of the most basic bass fishing tips for beginners is you will be fishing with a rod, reel, and baits, this section will focus on that. We won’t look at the dress and whatnot.
Fishing Rods
Getting the right rod for your bass fishing is important. We recommend you get a casting rod since they tend to be more accurate. However, if you are a bit tight on budget, getting a spinning rod and reel combo shouldn’t hurt either, but then you will need to practice with the rod to improve accuracy.
Also, the rod’s length should be between 6- 7-foot, and it should weigh around 7 weights.
Lures and Bait
The type of lures and baits you choose for your bass fishing is crucial. As stated earlier, bass fishes are lazy yet aggressive hunters, and as such, they tend to prefer wounded eating wounded prey, as recommended by Anthony Gagliardi. Therefore, you need to ensure your bait imitates wounded prey. As such if you are using a worm, shinner, or shad as your bait, you might want to beat them up a bit, to make them look injured.
When it comes to lures, most professionals recommend that you use either a plastic worm (ensure it is beaten up), a spinner bait, or a crankbaits. For spinnerbaits and crankbaits, you want to ensure that you get those with either a redhead or a red hook since they give off the appearance of being injured.
That being said, there are certain times of the year when you want to use these lures:
- We recommend that you use a crankbait during the winter, summer, and spring. In addition, if you notice that water levels are low and the bass fishes have moved to the deeper ends, then a shad-colored crankbait will be ideal for such situations; however, if water levels are normal and medium, then you want to use medium diving crankbait. Also, crankbaits work great in clear waters.
- For spinnerbaits, we recommend you use them during spring and fall. Spinnerbaits are ideal for shallow covers; however, they should work pretty great with most fishing methods. Also, spinnerbaits work great in muddy and clear waters.
- Just like with spinnerbaits, plastic worms work great during late spring and summer. That being said, plastic worms tend to get torn up easily; however, when it does get torn up, feel free to use them as bait since the bass fish will fall for the bait again.
Regardless of the type of bait or lure you use, the idea is to make them appear injured or wounded, and you should get great results. Also, spinnerbaits and crankbaits can be used year-round; however, the recommended seasons are the periods where they work the best.
Fishing Line
When it comes to fishing lines, there are three types recommended for bass fishing:
- Monofilament: Monofilament lines are being used by most pro anglers, and we recommend you use them when you are making a short cast. Also, if you are using a crankbait or a spinnerbait, then you may use a monofilament.
- Fluorocarbons: If you happen to be using a plastic worm or a crankbait, then you can use a fluorocarbon line.
- Braided lines: As a beginner, you might have heard a lot of bad things about braided lines; however, they can be used in certain circumstances. For example, in vegetated lakes.
Hooks
When it comes to hooks, we recommend them based on size and type. In terms of size, we recommend you get a hook between 1/0 to 6/0. In terms of types, we recommend either a straight shank, a drop shot hook or an offset wide gap hook.
Tips While Bass Fishing:
Now you know what to get before bass fishing. Whiles, you are on the water, there are certain tips you can employ to boost your chances of catching a keeper, some of which include:
Cast Halfway
As recommended by Mike Ioconnelli you do not want to cast fully, you want to ensure that you cast halfway (just like a check swing in baseball) to allow for the lure to hit the surface of the water. Doing this enables the lure to get to places like under docks.
Knowing the Best Lure To Use
Whenever you are confused about a lure to use, it is recommended that you catch at least one bass, and then put the bass into your live water well, and then you want to observe the color and type of food the fish spits out. This will give you a great idea as to the type of bait/lure to use. This great tip was given by Matt Herren.
Use The Wind In Windy Conditions
As stated earlier, bass fish will move with the current, and as you may or may not know, one of the factors that affect water current is wind. Therefore, you want to use it to your advantage. The idea here is to face the direction of the wind since most bass will be feeding toward that direction. This is because, during windy conditions, there is more oxygen in the water, as a result, they tend to get more energy to feed, and they will prefer to feed in the direction of the current to conserve energy, since going against the wind current will require them to expel energy.
In Conclusion
When it comes to bass fishing tips there is a plethora of information out there, and when you are a beginner bass fisherman it can be a daunting task trying to learn every tactic and way experienced bass anglers know. That is why we compiled these tips targeted toward learning beginners. We hope this article helped you in some way, and get out there on the water!