740angler

Wow, first off let me say thank you! I genuinely appreciate the effort you put into that post! Let me try to start from the beginning and cover all the bases. I started off fishing young with my dad, mainly for bluegill, with the occasional crappie or perch. He passed when i was 15, and no one else in my family had any interest in fishing, so there was a long period where I didn't really have the resources to fish. Eventually I started fishing with a buddy, mainly for catfish, occasionally we'd do some baitfishing earlier in the day to use for catfishing that night. Even then, I hadn't really ventured beyond Walmart level gear. Now, being 27, I've finally decided to get into bass fishing (apologies to my wallet). My soon-to-be 17 year old nephew really got into bass fishing earlier this year and joined a team through his school so that helped sparked my interest, and my wife loves to fish as well so I'm a lucky guy. Now as far as typical fishing for me, I'm in southeastern Ohio. No boat (yet) so 99% of my fishing is bank fishing, so I'm trying to get to the point that I have enough rigs ready to go that I can cover as many techniques as possible while not overloading myself and making it a pain to lug it all around. I know 5 or 6 setups are typically referred to as the golden number. Majority of my fishing is on small ponds, smaller lakes, reservoirs, and creeks. So I'd say the water varies from clear to chocolate milk. I do live close to a fairly large river as well as some of the largest inland lakes (acreage) in Ohio, but without a boat it's a little difficult to fish effectively, I usually have to pick my spots and try to cover as much ground as possible but I'm still missing probably 99% of the lake in those situations. As for vegetation and structure, (I'm still trying to get better at recognizing and breaking down structure so I'm probably missing some things here) I'd say it's close to a 50/50 split between soft and hard, rocky bottoms, typically see quite a few laydowns, some ponds have standing timbers in them so a lot of wood, and I target riprap whenever I can find it. I didn't start going out regularly until late August, so I'm not too sure about spring/summer conditions as far as how grassy they tend to get. So far only one out of the maybe 10 places I've been to so far had any lilypads, but it's also probably been one of my favorites to fish. I enjoy fishing ned rigs, shakey heads, crankbaits, chatterbaits, and frogs. I haven't had much success in general but I suppose I'd say I feel more confident with those. I haven't had any luck whatsoever with a weightless Texas rigged Senko, wacky rig, buzzbait, spinnerbait, whopper plopper, or jig. Let me know if I've left anything out! Thanks again for all of your help!

Same boat as me! I hadn't done any fishing regularly since 2011, and that was mostly catfishing, just got into bass fishing around the beginning of August. Haven't had a whole lot of luck, but a lot of places are too hard to fish effectively without a boat, so I've been scouring around trying to find good bank fishing.... still looking. Haha. In the meantime I just keep throwing money at it waiting for spring.

Yep, originally from Cambridge, now in Zanesville. Dillon's not the greatest, but there's some other areas around Zanesville that are pretty decent. I really enjoy Cutler Lake down in Dillon Falls/Blue Rock, it's much more manageable for bank fishing. Planning on hitting up Lake Saint Joseph and the Hocking area next year. Also spent a lot of time in the AEP lands, great area to get lost in for a day or two. Only been to Wolf Run once, and I'd really like to get down to Tycoon at some point.

Thanks so much for the input! Are there any other rods or reels you'd recommend that would pair better with anything I already have for more techniques? Any techniques I'm missing out on that I need a totally different setup on? Which of the above would you throw a chatterbait on?

Hi all, I'm Jeremy. Just got into bass fishing this year. Live and fish in southeastern Ohio, closest to Dillon Lake, Salt Fork, Seneca, as well as the AEP ReCreation Lands. Tons of great info here, been reading for a long time and finally joined up today.

Hi all! I just got into bass fishing earlier this year and am still working on acquiring more equipment. I plan on using the winter months to continue to buy more as well as organizing, rigging etc. so that I can head out in full force next year. I’d like to list current equipment as well as planned future purchases below and ask for any and all input on which rod you would pair with which reel as well as a line suggestion (brand, type, test, etc.). I realize a lot of this is personal preference and everyone will likely have differing opinions, but I would genuinely like to hear from as many of you as possible. The more input the better. Also, if you have any suggestions for any other rods, reels, etc. that would be beneficial I’d love to hear about those as well. Rods: Cousins IM-8 Graphite Cranking – 7’3” Medium Heavy/Medium Fast Castaway Taranis – 7’ Mag Medium Heavy/Moderate Fast Kistler Magnesium 2 – 6’9” Medium Heavy/Fast Reels: 6.6:1 baitcaster 8.1:1 baitcaster 7.3:1 baitcaster (pre-ordered, should arrive early 2017) I also have a Lew’s Mach II spinning combo. As far as future purchases I plan on getting a Shimano Scorpion 200HG as well as a Powell Max 3D 736 CEF Frog rod. Thanks!