Well after a few weeks of fishing with my son and alone I'm starting to get the hang of fresh water fishing. See I was always a saltwater fisherman, in Puerto Rico all you need is a pole reel and some squid sliced in strips. Cast and wait. The fish usually are more aggressive in the sea so usually they swallow the bait.

Needless to say i been having a hard time with the more panicky picky fish you find in fresh water, that and the fact that I am fishing in the Monongahela river here in western PA makes fishing  a bit frustrating. I don't own a boat, so all my fishing is done from boat ramps or along the river banks, snags and hang-ups are plentiful adding to the frustration.

But today was different. Today I went to a new spot and worked the bank of the river up and down, i like moving instead of sitting in one spot, i used some gulp white minnow but did not get a bite with hem I noticed that they do not jiggle, they are very stiff so I'm pretty much done using them. Then I started using live worms and ended up hanging up 3 times and loosing the bait and hooks. I only had like 20 minutes before I had to call it the day it was starting to get dark. I had one hook left and decided instead of using live bait that I was going to try my luck with a minnow I got on a trip to Gander Mountain. It's called the mimic minnow, it's about an inch big, very small and the head is a weight. I could not get the minnow very far out but I was getting far enough to make a decent presentation, after a few cast between the bank and a sunken coal barge I had a hit, but I did not set the hook good and ended up losing the fish when it surfaced.

I was all pumped up so I decided to stay a bit longer and work around the barge. After a few more cast I landed 2 fish, they looked like they where crappie but I'm not sure I have to wait for the pictures to get developed so I can ID them good. Needless to say I'm happy that slowly but surely I'm starting to learn how to fresh water fish. Sure they are no bass but I guess with more practice and better equipment I will be able to land my first bass.

Anybody has had good experience with the mimic minnow? I'm starting to favor plastic lures more than live bait but I need to work on my presentation more anybody can recommend lures that will work for the bank fisherman? Would a baitcaster reel work better for casting weightless lures or lures that are light? Currently I only have one spinning rod and reel combo I got from Dick's sporting goods for 19.99, so I know I have to upgrade soon. The River I fish is full of sunken logs, structure and lots of way to loose lures so I'm guessing I have to learn how to set up my lures in a way I wont loose them.  Thanks for the help and advice.  

The key is to keep trying, and to vary your technique.  I was always, and foremost, a saltwater angler.  With the beach nearby and the fact that, for a while, I worked deep sea fishing.  I had always thought it was a waste of time to fish these local resacas (oxbow lakes left by the Rio Grande).  I didn't know the first thing about bass fishing when I started.  Now I'm hooked (sorry for the pun).  For me, it was one thing at a time.  I began with lipped cranks....once I started to get that down I moved to lipless cranks...then spinners....and eventualy I became comfortable with softbaits (not that this is any recomendation of the order you should learn in, just the way I happened to go about doing things).  Basically, what I'm saying is not to let it intimidate you.......have confidence in what you are doing and eventually you will posting pics of your new PB in no time.  Browse some of the topics in the Tackle section, it will give you a decent idea of how to work various baits (I just wish I would have known about this site when I started).

Good luck, and good fishing.

Thanks For the advice j-bass I'm also glad that i found this website, it has a lot of information that has helped me and pointed me in the right direction. I'm going to wait for my next pay cycle and invest in some new tackle, mainly a baitcasting  combo and some senkos and hooks to go along with those. I been watching some videos and reading some post here that lead me to belive that senkos are the go to lure for catching fish. But my question is, will senkos only work for bass? or will they work for the panfish you are likely to encounter in a river like the monongahela or  allegeny.

The reason i dont fish pay lakes or streams is because the mon river is only a walk away and it saves a lot of gas money. Im also a bit new to the area I live in so I don't know where the good spots are at yet. Hopefully with the info in this site and a few more trips to the river I get to land my first bass.