I grew up fishing from our boathouse and dock on Lake Bridgeport TX and continued to fish the same way my whole life.

i started bass fishing last year after we bought a new pontoon boat. Its got a Lowrance 9in Hook Reveal triple shot installed but for the life of me, we cant catch/find any bass. We go out every weekend during the summer and ever few weeks during the winter and the only thing we can catch are bull heads and channel cats.

Also Im 99.99999% sure im not using the fish finder correctly and I dont know what the hell im doing

 

Welcome to BR we have lots of members from Texas who may know your lake well. 
Can you share what lure or bait and rod and reel you use, it will be helpful.

Tom

Hello and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

A-Jay 

56 minutes ago, WRB-2.0 said:

Welcome to BR we have lots of members from Texas who may know your lake well. 
Can you share what lure or bait and rod and reel you use, it will be helpful.

Tom

Mainly Crank baits (rattl-traps, surface and diving cranks) I did buy some 4,5,6 inch glide baits in bone, shad, and dirty bone with chartreuse colors. (berkely Nessie, chop block and Cull shad)

i have about 13 various baitcasters -7-Lews, 2-Shimano DC's,1- Kast-King, 2-Abu Garcia,1- BPS prodigy)

and 5 spin reels, rods

all of my rods are Med-Hvy fast action and are 7-7'3 in length.

I have a few drop shot rigs that I havent used yet and just started buying some ned type heads/plastics but havent used those either

Suggest you take a breather from trying to buy tackle to solve your bass catching issue. Too much info too fast creates overload that overwhelms the learning process. 
LMB are predominate where you are located so let’s focus on LMB.

Bass (LMB) have a few predictable behavior traits that govern their behavior.

The Bass calendar is dependent on water temperature that affects their location and feeding habits.

The basic seasonal periods are winter (cold water period), Pre Spawn the transition from cold water to warming water and the Spawn cycle. Bass are active feeding during the Pre Spawn period and slow way down during the cold water period that you are in now.

Bass don’t eat prey during the spawn period, they are focused on pro creation laying eggs and protection the bed site from egg eaters. This occurs as the water temps warm to the low to mid 60’s.

Not all bass spawn at the same time, it’s occurs in waves over weeks.

The Summer period (warm water) the bass scatter from the spawning areas and now have a wide variety of prey to feed on. 
The Fall period follows Summer as the water cools and the start to group and feed actively on baitfish that are adjusting to colder winter water coming.

Winter the go deeper to stay warm and are less active.

Pre Spawn the come into shallower water to feed before the spawn.

Spawn the bass seek out wind protected areas in shallower water between 8’ to 2’ deep.

Summer the bass scatter and can be anywhere a good prey source is located.

Fall the bass follow schools of bait fish.

Winter the bass go deeper and slow way down.

Lures you ave are good for active feeding bass.

Lures you need are soft plastics and jigs that move slowly at the depth the are located. 
That it in a nutshell.

Location and depth are the key to catching bass. It’s a puzzle we all try to solve.

Tom

 

 

 

Welcome from Illinois. Although I am of zero help in your questions I agree with Tom that someone on here will be able to help you on here and look forward to hearing about your progress.

Welcome 

Welcome aboard 👍

Welcome aboard! I'm also no expert at reading Fish Finders.

One of the reasons I instead call them depth finders  .

Welcome aboard…. Listen @WRB-2.0 there’s a wealth of knowledge right there. 

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Hi from the Sunshine State of Florida 

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