WOW, i could not figure out where this beginners page was at.  i kept going back to the forum front page and never saw anything.  so i decided to click "home" to the actual bass fishing website and if you can believe it, there was a whole bunch of reading material behind the tabs.

thanks, i am reading now!!!!!!!!  

Welcome to the wonderful world of bass fishing.  Whether you spend a little or spend alot, you'll find one thing that is the great equalizer.

Fish don't care what you spend on your tackle.

If you go to any of the larger fishing tackle stores, ask their opinion as well.  I am sure that if you tell them what you are fishing for that they will point you in the right direction of what you can buy within your means.  

If you can afford about $65 I picked up a nice Abu Garcia Cardinal spinning reel with Fenwick rod at Wal-Mart. Rod is a MH which is what I like the best and reel had 7 bearings. Very nice for the money.

Fishing can be so frustrating when you're not catching anything. We've all been there dude. But you seem to be keeping at it. Right on man! All this stuff will make more sense the more you learn and, more importantly, once you actually start to catch fish. For the fish part, I suggest you also pick up a package or 2 of plastic worms. They are bass catchers, pure and simple. Cranks can be hard to use from shore, but worms are hard to fish wrong. Now, worming can get complicated, don't get me wrong. Its my confidence bait but I learn new worm techniques every year. But I also think it's a great way to learn bass fishing. I suggest you pick up a bag of Senko worms to fish weightless and a bag of hooks that says Off Set Worm Hook or Wide Gap Worm and you're good to go, even with your current set up. Once you get a new rod/reel, you'll ghave a sturdier tool, plus the ability to cast further and more accurately.

http://www.bassresource.com/fish/plasticworms.html