Hey Guys, 

 

I am new to fishing within the past month. I have been fishing quite a bit. Only thing I have caught is a northern pike. Any recommendations on some simple plastic fishing lures to use for bank fishing? Nothing complicated. And also how to use them. Texas rigging? Ned rig? It’s overwhelming picking colors, and what to get sometimes. Any help is greatly appreciated. Weedless is what I need. I seem to run into that a lot bank fishing.

 

Scott 

Maybe a split shot rig...leader about a foot or so with a curly tail of your choice Texas rigged weedless. Just slowed rolled around cover.

Weightless Senko is as simple as it gets, even catches fish.

Weightless senko rigged weedless(texas rig style)...colors green pumpkin in clean to stained water black and blue or June bug for stained to dirty water

I’m on the weightless Senko train. Either Texas rig (slow retrieve- as someone said “let it crawl”) or wacky-style. Yeah, I get the weeds too. But wacky-style really works for me, with or without the O ring (you just save more Senkos using an O ring). You can’t go wrong with green pumpkin or green pumpkin and watermelon. 
 

if you have tree limbs hanging in the water, rig a Senko wacky-style and flip it close to the branches. Let it sink 90% of my strikes are pretty much as soon as I cast and it starts sinking. 
 

Take my word on this. I have pretty much been a live bait angler all my life. I figured I just stunk at catching a decent fish on a lure. Plastic worms? Maybe got two strikes and that was it. I’ve been fishing these Senkos only for less than two months and I am catching bass every time I fish. Sometimes only one or two. Sometimes several. But I’ve caught more bass on a plastic bait in less than 60 days than in almost 60 years. They made a believer out of me! 

Senko, finesse worm or wacky worm.  Go with light line and light weight.  NO TERMINAL TACKLE!!   Tie your line directly to the lure.   Slow down, be patient and you will catch fish.  

 

Gary Yamamoto should be richer than Bill Gates

Just now, Smells like fish said:

Gary Yamamoto should be richer than Bill Gates

lol. True! 

Didn’t read the comments until today. I bought a Rapala Top Water Popper lure yesterday, and caught two bass. They love that thing apparently haha. Anyone else Fish with top water lures? 

Heres the thing with most beginners . They tie a lure  on , cast out and reel in . After awhile they tire of that lure and repeat with another . I'm not saying thats what you do but most do . I was that way . 

 

No random casting . Its okay to cast straight out in the water but do so with intent . A sinking lure will let you know how deep it is .  Let lures sink to the bottom and retrieve with lures either hopping on the bottom or close to it . Bass will usually be near the bottom or an object .By keeping the bait near the bottom you are keeping it in the strike zone .If something is caught pay attention to how deep it was.  Look for signs of depth changes , rocks , wood , weeds , anything. All lures work . Figure out what the cover and topography is and choose lures that will work well there .

25 minutes ago, Scott Harm said:

Didn’t read the comments until today. I bought a Rapala Top Water Popper lure yesterday, and caught two bass. They love that thing apparently haha. Anyone else Fish with top water lures? 

You are on your way to meeting the bait monkey and becoming a bass angler.

Congratulations!

Tom

11 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Heres the thing with most beginners . They tie a lure  on , cast out and reel in . After awhile they tire of that lure and repeat with another . I'm not saying thats what you do but most do . I was that way . 

 

No random casting . Its okay to cast straight out in the water but do so with intent . A sinking lure will let you know how deep it is .  Let lures sink to the bottom and retrieve with lures either hopping on the bottom or close to it . Bass will usually be near the bottom or an object .By keeping the bait near the bottom you are keeping it in the strike zone .If something is caught pay attention to how deep it was.  Look for signs of depth changes , rocks , wood , weeds , anything. All lures work . Figure out what the cover and topography is and choose lures that will work well there .

I think you are spot on. I started casting lures without a true plan, caught nothing off the bat and quickly moved on to another lure with the same results. 
 

if it’s decent water, the bass are there. I caught a decent bass yesterday casting around the same spot many times. I knew there should be something there and kept at it. I changed the lure but kept working around that spot. It paid off. 

1 hour ago, Scott Harm said:

Didn’t read the comments until today. I bought a Rapala Top Water Popper lure yesterday, and caught two bass. They love that thing apparently haha. Anyone else Fish with top water lures? 

Top water is fun! Enjoy it!  

A weightless senko is a pretty good suggestion, or even a weighted one. I prefer a 7" Power worm personally, I have better luck with them in general than the senko. I usually fish them with 1/8oz or 1/4oz weight -- 1/4oz casts much better on a med. heavy power rod, so that's my universal goto weight most of the time. A ned rig can also be a big producer.

 

Sometimes a 1/4oz popper (I like the Megabass Pop-X but the Rebel Pop-R or Rapala X-Raps still work great!) can catch a ton of fish and they're fun to catch.