Well somewhat new to it anyways. Have always bass fished alot in local farm ponds where you could catch alot of fish on a regular plastic worm.

Went on my first actual bass outing to a larger lake this weekend and had moderate success. Caught some nice fish on carolina rigged worms and some on zara spooks in the middle of shad schools.

However, all the boats around us seemed to be nailing them all weekend long.

I'm sure this question gets asked alot on here but where do I begin? My tackle box consits of Rat-L-Traps, swimbaits, and several variations of plastic worms, tubes, and lizards.

Welcome Aboard from a fellow newbie to this site. I'll sit back and let the veterans school you up! ;D

Welcome Aboard IF!

Any questions with the site, just holler, that's what we're here for.

Welcome .  You have plenty of the right stuff to get started.  The BaitMonkey won''t agree though .

Welcome and enjoy.

On a first outing to a new lake sounds like you did OK! Could use a little more info on type of lake and such. Actually hard question to answer. This isn't much of an answer, but it could have been a lot of things from wrong area to wrong depth or what my Daddy used to say,"You weren't holding your mouth right ". I didn't think it was funny then either. Pay close attention to what you were doing when you did catch fish...

                              As Ever,

                               skillet

Skillet summed it up!  Welcome!  This is certainly the right place to get info.  It is hard to pinpoint what may/may not have been working against you but it sounds like you did pretty well in spite of yourself.    Spend time reading and repeating what works.  And it soudns like you've got your tackle box squared away.  At least until you go to the tackle shop..... 8-)

Welcome Home!

to the forum

Welcome, being from Illinois myself I was wondering which lake you were on? Sounds like one of the Cooling Lakes when yu talk about casting into a pod of shad. I always had luck with Shad Raps and Rattle Traps (love the Aruka Shad). Always best to get under the school, that's where the big ones normally are, like the Stripers.

WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Add some quality spinner baits and crank baits to your arsenal and you're ready to go.

Welcome to the best fishing site on the net.

Falcon

P.S. Spinnerbaits and crankbaits would be very good additions.

Welcome aboard!

8-)

Welcome to the forums!  ;D  You're in the right place for learning.  Lots of veteran anglers here who are willing to share their knowledge.  Sounds like you got a pretty good start on stocking your tackle box.  

im also new, i have been on here for about 3 days and i have learned so much. good luck bassin

Welcome aboard great place to be

Welcome dude!

How Y'all Are?

Welcome, being from Illinois myself I was wondering which lake you were on? Sounds like one of the Cooling Lakes when yu talk about casting into a pod of shad. I always had luck with Shad Raps and Rattle Traps (love the Aruka Shad). Always best to get under the school, that's where the big ones normally are, like the Stripers.

We were fishing Newton Lake for 2 days. A very nice lake.

I bought a boat a 2 years ago, but have always used it for catfishing on the the Illinois River. Here lately though I have caught bass fishing fever and can't seem to get enough of it.