WIGuide

You have to teach her to fish just like you would any beginning angler. When you start out, you have to take short trips a most importantly CATCH fish. Bass fishing probably isn't the way to start things out. You'll want to start out panfishing, or crappie fishing, or get her on a school of white bass. It doesn't matter what's on the end of the line, but you wanna make sure that the action is steady. Again, keep the trips relatively short, maybe 2 to 3 hours at the most. From there maybe transition her into bass fishing. You could take her in the late afternoon starting out fishing for whatever is easiest to catch and as the lower light period starts to begin and the bass become more active, go ahead and switch over. Give her something easy to start out with, something like a spinnerbait. Also, if you can find a good topwater bite I think you can get anyone hooked. There's just something about a bass blowing up on top that can hook anyone. If she's made it this far you can then start to lengthen up the trips a bit and transition more into bass fishing most of the time. Most Important Key Points You MUST stay patient. No matter how many lines you have to untangle or hangups you have to retrieve etc, etc You HAVE to stay a gentleman and keep your best foot forward Keep it fun and entertaining and don't be afraid to take breaks. Maybe pack a lunch to bring along and stop and enjoy the day. Probably the MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember is that fishing is not for everyone. If she likes it, that's awesome! If not, you have to be ready to be ok with that. Also, remember that people can like fishing in different capacities so she might still like it, just not as much as you do. Again you need to be ok with that and not force it on her. If you do, you will ruin it for her, along with the chances of her ever really getting into it. Best of luck to you!

There are a few shows that have female hosts, such as North American Fisherman and Fishing with Shelley and Courtney. I think the fishing industry could use more female hosts and fishermen for that matter. One thing you have to remember though, is that fishing is a very consumer driven industry. If I'm going to watch someone on a TV show, generally I'm going to be more interested or willing to watch if it's someone I know or someone who has a publicly known resume. For instance, would you rather watch a show with KVD as the host, or would you watch one with Mr. No-name instead? Even if you don't like KVD, you know there's a lot more credibility that goes with his name vs. Mr. No-name. Being that both B.A.S.S. and FLW have no professional female anglers, it's hard for them to gain the notoriety as the male anglers. There used to be a Bass'n Gall tour, that was part of Bassmasters that unfortunately folded due to lack of participation. Also noteworthy, although there are a lot women who do fish, it seems that the number of female boat owners is significantly less. The shows are going to keep catering to the majority of the demographic that they can get the greatest return from. I think until we see the demographic a little bit we aren't going to see much of a change in the marketing demographic either. I agree though, it really would be good to have a more diverse population of fisherman represented.

Personally I like the split grips. They lighten up the rod a little and offer more consistent casting. For those concerned with balance points on spinning rods, this shouldn't be as much of an issue do to the heavier nature of a spinning reel. When it all comes down to it though, it's all a personal preference.

I'd suggest 12lb Berkley 100% Fluoro. If you're fishing around really heavy cover, you might want to bump that up a bit, but I find 12lb to be great all around.

At least they moved his automatic qualification (from winning in 2013) to the 2015 Classic.

If the sky is the limit, go for the lithium ion batteries. There are a few brands out there, but they're much smaller, lighter, and more powerful. Check out this article on Bassmasters.

Cabela's should have something coming up as the season approaches as well.

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That choice is for you to make. Personally, I like straight fluoro. It gives me a better feel and better hook sets than mono does and personally, I like the feel better than braid. If you do go the straight fluoro path, be sure to buy a good quality line such as Berkley 100% fluorocarbon. It was developed to be slightly limper than a standard fluoro and was made specifically for use on spinning reels.

If you get a touch unit instead, you no longer need the sonar hub just the lss-2 transducer which is $300. Otherwise you can get the bundle from Bass Pro for $1700. The regular gen2 after sonar hub and lss-2 transducer is going to run you $1600. Both units should come with a sun cover. (I know touch does for sure) On the other side of things, you can get a Humminbird 999 for $1500. You might be able to find a closeout 998 for even less. So it really comes down to what features you really want in your locator, and that will be a personal decision.

I use both. Generally I use the cylinder weights when I'm fishing around chunk rock and grass since they don't get hung up as much in the rock and don't pull as much grass. Everywhere else, I generally use round or diamond weights.

As mentioned, overstockbait.com is a good place to start. Also, taking advantage of anything on sale. Gander Mountain always has stuff on sale (at least in my neck of the woods anyway) Bass pro will have their spring fishing sales soon and Cabelas will too. Also, ***.com is a great place. Every year they have the 25 days of Christmas where they mark down a new thing every day for 25 days. You can get some killer deals on there then. I usually save over 50% on stuff I order. Also, they have a 4th of July sale where you can find some really good deals as well.

They aren't the top of the line by any means, but they aren't bad. They're a pretty good value. Ones to avoid though would be the really cheap ones.

My family and I eat them on a semi regular basis. In my opinion Largemouth taste great. Smallmouth don't taste nearly as good.

Nice work!! Congrats on your success!

Personally, I would go with the braid. Fishing in WI I encounter all different types of cover and I've never had an issue with braid in any of them.

Also, it makes it easy to change weights based on changing conditions or depths. With a crimp style weight I can't change weights in a matter of seconds, where as with a weight that's tied on I have to cut it off and retie it, which doesn't take a LONG time, but it's significantly longer than using the crimp style.Also, when doing so, every time you tie a new weight on you end up shortening you leader.

The Mojo line is a great series of rod. I've got a few of my own, and although I don't have that particular model in the Mojo series, I haven't been disappointed with any of their other Mojo's. I do have the Wacky rod in the Legend Tournament Bass line which is the same action, and it works well for light moving baits as well.

I'm not sure if line size really makes a difference, but I figure if downsizing gets me even one more bite a day, then it's worth it.

Body size can affect how big a fish looks in a picture. Being 6'6" myself I can say I've had plenty of big fish look smaller when I hold them vs anyone else. That being said however, there's no way that fish is 11 lbs! Even if he's a 7 footer it's not that big.

As stated here we catch them in WI all the time and they'll hit just about anything. I'd recommend using a spinnerbait though. You can use it without a leader with little chance of getting cut off. Also, using a willow leaf will up your chances a little bit because of the added flash. Color wise chartreuse is always a good place to start. Try targeting shallow weed beds and I don't think it will be long before you hook into one.

2500 is a good size, I actually like their old 2000 size better, but 4000 would be overkill for bass.

I don't fish shaky heads much but here's some food for thought that I found about graphite on another site. IM6, IM7, etc.: These are trade names for particular graphite produced by the Hexcel Corporation. These numbers are not industry standards or an indication of quality, especially since other companies use the designations to refer to graphite not made by Hexcel. At best, they allow you to compare the quality of the material used to build different rods by the same manufacturer. You can be confident that the IM7 rod would use better graphite than the IM6 rod if both are made by the same manufacturer. It's more difficult to say the same about rods from two different companies, since they could be made from material from completely different manufacturers. Modulus: As stated above, modulus refers to the stiffness of the graphite, not the amount of material used or the number of graphite fibers incorporated into the sheets. Buying a rod based solely on the modulus rating is a mistake because other factors must be considered. For instance, you don't want the stiffest rod for light line techniques or cranking. In addition, other qualities must be incorporated in the graphite itself and the rod must be designed correctly to ensure the best performance and durability of the rod. The other components that go into a quality rod can also add significantly to the cost.

I'd suggest that you take the reel you intend to use with you to your local tackle store and see how each rod feels with each in hand. Base your decision on how they feel. Split grips have a little advantage of a slight reduction in weight and help aid two handed casting, otherwise it's pretty much just an aesthetic. Personally, I'd go with one of the St. Croix just because I know their attention to quality and detail is second to none. They also have a great warranty and flat out make awesome sticks!

I prefer to T-rig my creature baits and use them mostly for pitching and flipping applications. My go to presentation with them is to just hop them. If you head over to the Missle baits webpage, they have videos of all their baits where John Crews talks about them and then they show the actions of them under water. http://missilebaits.com/index.php/d-bomb.html Hopefully that will help you out.