When you guys see new anglers fishing for bass what is the most ridiculous and strange lure setups you see them throw? I always feel bad when I see a bobber and crankbait rig. But then I remember to myself that we all started somewhere in our fishing journey. What about you guys? What newbie rigs have you seen that make you cringe/feel bad? 

A hulapopper with a few giant splitshots about 10 inches above it, weirdest rig i have ever seen.

Working at a boat landing as a dock boy you see it all. Hard to isolate any one set up but a rental boat came back to the dock with ocean rods and reels that had metal fish stringers with each clip with a lure, about 10 lures in all. What was more amazing is they caught trout trolling those stringers with lures.

Tom

My sister in law uses swivels bigger than the jigs she uses . She doesnt catch anything either .

I was that person growing up.

Beetle spins, night crawlers, worms with spinners , hard plastic grasshoppers. 

 

Remember hanging up alot, braking rods and snapping line but managed a few fish. 

 

It wasn't until 1977 when I meant a nice older fellow at county fair who fished local tournaments. 

We talked bass fishing and told him about our 7 acre farm pond and invited him over. 

 

He gotta a hold of that pond and put on an absolute clinic with a Zara spook, big fish.....think I was throwing salmon eggs. Lol

 

He revamped all my tackle, gave me a really nice Shimano baitcaster and we went on fishing together for many years. 

He has diabetes really bad now but still get together. 

 

Those youngsters just need to be shown. 

28 minutes ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

I always feel bad when I see a bobber and crankbait rig.

Can't say I've ever seen that.  And if I did, it would be the oddest setup I've ever seen.

9 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Can't say I've ever seen that.  And if I did, it would be the oddest setup I've ever seen.

Maybe it's a lipless and he couldn't get live minnows so is faking it.

A old buddy of mine wanted to go fishing with me a few months back.  It was the first time we had been fishing together.  We show up and had a rig set up with three Zoom tiny Flukes set up at different depths, and a red and white bobber up top.  He would just cast it out there and let it sit, motionless, for hours at a time.  I tried to help him out, but he wasn't interested.  It didn't help my case much that I didn't catch anything either.  

54 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Can't say I've ever seen that.  And if I did, it would be the oddest setup I've ever seen.

There's an old man at my pond that throws a deep diver sexy shad on a saltwater rod and size 4000 reel, max depth is 12 feet in one hole and the rest is only 5 feet. He asked me what I used and I told him gummy worms because I'm not giving my competition an edge like that. Told him Have fun catching catfish bud LOL

I fished a river where you could only use one single hook.  The most common lure was a magnum Wiggle Wart.  You could buy Wiggle Warts with no back hook and the front one connected to the front hook hanger, with a short bead chain swivel.  More than once I had to tell someone that the bait would dive down to the fish better if they tied their line to the split ring on the front of the lure rather than attach it to the split ring on the back.

Coming in for weigh-in at the BFL Championships a few years ago, I saw a few kids fishing from the bank and I noticed one holding his spinning rod upside down. 
 

It bothered me so much that after the weigh was over and after packing up I went over to them and showed him the right way. 
 

They started asking one question after the other and before I knew it over an hour went by. 

 

 

 

Mike
 

5 hours ago, Bankc said:

A old buddy of mine wanted to go fishing with me a few months back.  It was the first time we had been fishing together.  We show up and had a rig set up with three Zoom tiny Flukes set up at different depths, and a red and white bobber up top.  He would just cast it out there and let it sit, motionless, for hours at a time.  I tried to help him out, but he wasn't interested.  It didn't help my case much that I didn't catch anything either.  

Sounds to me like he just wanted to hang out with a good friend!  Sometimes it isn't all about the fishing.

5 hours ago, TriStateBassin106 said:

There's an old man at my pond that throws a deep diver sexy shad on a saltwater rod and size 4000 reel, max depth is 12 feet in one hole and the rest is only 5 feet. He asked me what I used and I told him gummy worms because I'm not giving my competition an edge like that. Told him Have fun catching catfish bud LOL

Gummy Worms...LOLZ

Throughout the years I have seen many unusual techniques and learned to not criticize them since many of those techniques are surprisingly effective. For example I know people that catch bigger bass on hand lines than many people with expensive combos. 

Seen a bottom bouncer used for walleye trolling being cast from shore with the typical spinner rig but a senko hooked on it.

Something that always kills me that I've seen a gazillion times...and I laugh every time...is people holding there spinning reel upside down.

A lot of the people fishing spinning reels upside down are left handed people who have not been taught how to change the reel handle to be more comfortable. Eventually they learn how to change the reel handle to fish the spinning reel correctly and many of them will eventually become very good fishermen. 

4 hours ago, Mike L said:

Coming in for weigh-in at the BFL Championships a few years ago, I saw a few kids fishing from the bank and I noticed one holding his spinning rod upside down. 
 

It bothered me so much that after the weigh was over and after packing up I went over to them and showed him the right way. 
 

They started asking one question after the other and before I knew it over an hour went by. 

 

 

 

Mike
 

That was very nice of you and I am sure they will remember you for being kind to them.

The hooks were fine. But these older guys (I was a teen so they could have been 50 and old to me then lol) were  using Champion spark plugs for sinkers fishing for catfish on the C&O canal on the Potomac. 

8 hours ago, soflabasser said:

A lot of the people fishing spinning reels upside down are left handed people who have not been taught how to change the reel handle to be more comfortable. Eventually they learn how to change the reel handle to fish the spinning reel correctly and many of them will eventually become very good fishermen. 

That was very nice of you and I am sure they will remember you for being kind to them.

Thanks, I’m sure we all would have done the same thing. 

The crazy thing about it was these kids made me feel better than I made them. I didn’t realize how much I missed talking fishing with young kids since my grandkids grew up. 
The 4 of us just sat there in the grass like it used to be.
 

And all it “cost” me was a few bags of Senko’s, a few weights and hooks. 
I thought Mrs Mike was gonna be upset not being home at the regular time, but when I called her and told her what I doin she told me just to make sure they get home ok. 
She’s a good girl ?

 

 

 

 

Mike

14 hours ago, Mike L said:

Coming in for weigh-in at the BFL Championships a few years ago, I saw a few kids fishing from the bank and I noticed one holding his spinning rod upside down. 
 

It bothered me so much that after the weigh was over and after packing up I went over to them and showed him the right way. 
 

They started asking one question after the other and before I knew it over an hour went by. 

 

 

 

Mike
 

I saw a picture of President Bush holding his spinning rod upside down. I can't even count the number of times I've seen it depicted that way in movies...like the famous, and fairly often seen,  bow strung backwards.

23 hours ago, WRB said:

Working at a boat landing as a dock boy you see it all. Hard to isolate any one set up but a rental boat came back to the dock with ocean rods and reels that had metal fish stringers with each clip with a lure, about 10 lures in all. What was more amazing is they caught trout trolling those stringers with lures.

Tom

That was the guy who invented the A rig lol

8 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

The hooks were fine. But these older guys (I was a teen so they could have been 50 and old to me then lol) were  using Champion spark plugs for sinkers fishing for catfish on the C&O canal on the Potomac. 

It must have been something people did at one time, cuz I've seen 2 different people doing the same thing.

Went on an expensive all inclusive group trip to Canada about 15 years ago. One of the guys had never really fished but decided to come along. For weeks before the trip, he sat up reading articles, scanning the internet for tackle ideas. Ended up bringing one tackle tray - it was the 32 assorted Banjo Minnow kit he saw on an Informercial. 
 

He ended up catching about as many fish as the rest of us...

23 hours ago, Bankc said:

We show up and had a rig set up with three Zoom tiny Flukes set up at different depths, and a red and white bobber up top.

Believe it or not that rig would work well if you could find a school of em.  Ive seen people use a similar rig but with no bobber.

23 hours ago, Mike L said:

I saw a few kids fishing from the bank and I noticed one holding his spinning rod upside down. 

My buddy fishes like that for some reason, multiple people including fishing guides have told him he was fishing his reel upside down but he does not listen. ? 

I have seen a baitcaster put on a spinning rod. This was by an adult that should have known better.

I found this crankbait in the bottom of this picture last week with a gargantuan snap-swivel attached. That's a 1.5 sized squarebill for scale.