CalebWVU

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I live a few hours away from the nearest BPS, so I'd like to avoid shopping there if possible. I know I could order online, but shipping is a hassle. I can't really find any cheap Curado or Citica reels, plus I don't really want to take apart my spinning combo for the rod. I'll keep an eye out though. The Johnny Morris reels looked like a great buy, but the sig series and gold series are both out of stock. Can someone explain what the main difference is between round reels and low profile reels? Is it just a comfort thing, or is there some other different I don't know about besides line capacity? Anyway, I'm not necessarily partial to Abu Garcia, but they seem to have the most combos locally and in my price range. Considering either the Silver Max combo, the Ambassadeur combo, the Daiwa Exceler combo, or a Cabelas Tournament ZX combo right now. Shimano combos are just too expensive :x Abu Garcia Ambassadeur http://www.dicksspor...4414799.4414833 Abu Garcia Silver max combo w/Cabelas Tourney Trail Rod http://www.cabelas.c...80;cat104822280 Daiwa Exceler http://www.cabelas.c...80;cat104822280 Cabelas Tournament ZX w/Tourney Trail Rod http://www.cabelas.c...80;cat104822280 Any suggestions from those 4, or any other advice would be great. Not sure how comfortable I am buying a Cabelas brand combo, so if anyone has experience with those I'd love to hear about it.

Hey everyone. I imagined this topic would have been posted a thousand times before, but running a search for "baitcasting" "first" or "beginner" brought back way too many irrelevant results for me to sift through, so sorry if this is a common topic. Anyway, I plan on buying a baitcasting combo, but I really don't know what to get. I do have some specific features/limits in mind I'd like, so hopefully you guys can point me to a few recommendations based on that. So first off, price. I'd like to spend around/no more than $100 for the combo, although I can stretch it to ~$120 if I absolutely have to (broke college student budget here). I'd rather buy a pretty good combo that will last a while rather than a cheap one, so if there aren't any decent combos for this price range please just say so rather than recommend a shoddy combo in my price range. As I said before, I'm on a college student budget so I don't have the luxury of having a different rod/reel for each fish species. I don't have the means or desire to have a combo specifically for crankbaits, specifically for bass, specifically for catfish, etc. I understand this is a bass fishing forum, but I also enjoy catfishing so I need a combo that will be able to handle most freshwater situations. No 50 pound monsters or anything, but it should be capable of handling a ~15 pound catfish as well as sensitive enough for the 3-4 pound bass. I need a combo that's good at everything rather than great at one thing. Third, I'd really prefer a combo with a left handed retrieve, but it's not a dealbreaker by any means. Also, I do some occassional night-time catfishing, so I'd like to have a reel with a bait clicker to notify you when drag goes out. I've never used a baitcaster before, so I don't know how much sound the drag makes when it goes out for reels without a clicker. If reels with the clicker are all too heavy for bass or too expensive, I can do without it as long as I can hear my drag going out. Lastly, I imagine most good quality baitcasters are all about the same as far as difficulty in using/learning to cast, but if that isn't true then I'd prefer something that is somewhat beginner-friendly. Please be as detailed as possible in your replies, because I really am completely unfamiliar with the baitcasting world. Somewhat off-topic, but it'd be great if you could include the type and # line to use with the recommended combo. Thanks so much everyone for all the help. This site has done wonders for me already.

Thanks for all the advice. I haven't gotten to go fishing again since I posted this, but I will hopefully get out tomorrow. I always thought I was fishing my lures slowly enough, but maybe I wasn't after reading some of those articles, especially the one posted by RW. 30 seconds between movements is a lot slower than I was working it, about 8-10 seconds between movements. Plastic powerworms and such might be a good idea as well. I was rigging the crawlers just once about 1/4 of an inch back from the head. What exactly is the difference between a trick worm and regular worm or powerworm? So many worm types Also, what exactly do some people have against live bait? I understand it may seem less sporting than actively working a lure, but is there any other reason why it's so frowned upon by some anglers or why they won't use it for certain species but will for others?

Well, I ended up going to Urgentcare and they took an x-ray to see if a piece of bone or spine broke off. They said the x ray didn't show anything but there still could be something in there. Gave me a tetanus shot and said keep an eye on it, and if it gets worse then come back. I'd rather them have just cut it out there, but we'll see what happens now. Thanks for advice.

Okay guys, I've been getting pretty frustrated with fishing lately. I'm new to fishing in the sense that this is my first year going often, but I go fishing at least 4 times/week now and love it. Anyway, for some reason I just can't catch bass on anything besides a nightcrawler. I've tried Zoom super flukes, jigs, spinnerbaits, crankbaits (KVD square bill and Rat-L-Trap), Rage tail baby craws, and probably other things I can't think of at the moment. I fished yesterday for about 4 hours at a hole where I usually catch quite a few bass. I spent over an hour throwing a super fluke, switched to a baby craw for another hour, switched to a jig after that hour. After over 3 hours with 0 bites, I finally went to my worms (who were barely alive at this point lol). On my first cast with a nightcrawler, I nailed a largemouth bass. Ended up getting 3-4 bites and 2 bass in that last 45 minutes using nightcrawlers. I've watched countless YouTube videos for jigs/spinnerbaits/crankbaits/soft plastics, and read even more articles. But for some reason, I just can't get bites using anything other than a nightcrawler. I really want to transition away from live bait, if for no other reason than to stop catching bluegill. For the life of me I can't catch a bass, or even get a bite, using any of my lures. I've seen and heard of some people catching an easy 10-20 fish in an hour using the same lures I am, and I know I'm in a decent spot. Am I the only one who has this problem? It's driving me crazy!

For someone who is planning on buying a baitcaster, what's the consensus here? I've always fished spinning reels with a left hand retrieve, so I assumed I'd buy a LH retrieve baitcaster. Apparently that's not very common, and some companies don't even make them that way. Would it be right saying if you are just learning to use a baitcaster then to start with a LH retrieve? I understand it's personal preference, but I'd rather not spend $100 to find out I liked it better the other way.

Man what a catch! I don't know what I'd do if I hooked a big'un like that haha. Congrats to you both, especially your dad for a personal best.

I'll preface this by saying I highly doubt this has happened to anyone but me, but I figured it's worth a shot. Anyway, 3 weekends ago I was doing some bass fishing. I caught a small bass and was holding him around his back, not paying as much attention as I should, and he thrashed unexpectedly. When he thrashed, my hand slid against the grain of his scales and his scales cut me a bit, nothing major it all. I ran some water over it and didn't think anything else of it. Well, here I am about 18 days later. The cut has basically completely healed, but there is a faint purple bump on my palm where the cut used to be. It hurts if you apply pressure to it, somewhat like a really nasty splinter. I don't even know if this is possible, but I'm thinking that somehow a scale broke off of the bass and got lodged into my hand, and then my hand healed over it. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this, and do you have any suggestions? I'd like to avoid cutting my hand open to get it out, but I also feel a bit ridiculous going to the doctor for something like this lol. I don't want too wait much longer though and risk any infection. Any tips on what to do? Edit: Sorry if this isn't the right section, but I had no idea where to post something like this.

Thanks for all the replies guys. Really detailed and helpful. I'm thinking smalljaw is right about it not being the best conditions to shore fish a fluke now, but I'll be sure to try these other suggestions next time I go out on the water.

Sorry if this topic has been brought up one million times, but I searched the forums and couldn't find anything detailed enough. I'm rather new to fishing, and I've heard really good things about the super fluke. I went out and bought a pack of pearl white w/chartreuse tail super flukes, and went to the river. After about 3 hours of struggling, I gave up and switched to a jig. I had the super fluke texas rigged weightless, but what techniques do you guys use for the retrieve? I tried jerking it lightly then pausing for a second, then reeling in slack and jerking it again, but I wasn't having much luck. I know the rule of thumb is colder water is slower retrieve and warmer water is a faster retrieve, but is there a point where warm becomes too hot and it's better to go slow again? Also, what conditions are best for super fluke fishing? It's been unusually warm here (95+), so maybe flukes aren't well-suited for temperatures this warm? Finally, what type of structure/formation do you guys look for when using a super fluke? I tried throwing mine across the mouth of a creek as well as around a downed tree (only in about 3-4 feet of water though), but are there any other places where a super fluke works well? I don't own a boat, so it has to be limited to locations accessible from shore. I tried working it semi-quickly across the top of the water with pauses, as well as a very slow retrieve deeper in the water column, and still couldn't get a bite. I'm not ready to give up on the fluke yet, but I'd like to get some feedback so I'm not wasting my time if it just isn't good conditions for them. Sorry for all the questions, but thanks for any help.

Hi everyone. Let me start off by saying this forum is great; there are so many helpful articles and posts that I couldn't help but register. Anyway, I'm a 20 year old college student attending WVU who just recently got into fishing more seriously. I learned a lot of lessons the hard way so far, but I still have a ways to go so you can expect to see some dumb questions lol. I fish as often as I can, about 4 times a week or so, but only from the shore as I don't own a boat...yet. I prefer bass fishing, but I'm happy catching just about anything aside from bluegill. I've always fished with live bait, but recently have been trying to make the transitions to lures. It's not going quite as well as I'd have hoped, but hopefully I can get better after browsing the forums for advice. Well, thanks for the welcome and I'm looking forward to sharing fishing stories with people who are as/more interested in it than I am!