New guy needs help with general questions!

Hi all! I am new to posting but a long time “lurker”. I have found this sight to be a wealth of information and generaly a friendly place to visit. I grew up fishing the ‘ol Miss and am still doing so almost 40 years later! Growing up, dad and I fished mostly for channel cats by using a three way with a night crawler on the bottom. Of coarse, being the mississippi, we caught just about everything you can imagine. This method, while very productive, has always left me wanting more. I have since done mostly artificial bait fishing. Now comes the embarrassing part of my post : while I know how to read the river (current, wingdams, and such)I really have no clue what I am doing! Rigging is a real cunundrum to me when it comes to certain styles. For example: how do I rig a plastic worm so it looks right and swims properly and catches fish? What is a “Texas rig”..a “carolina rig”? How do I rig and fish a tube bait? What about a “lizard”? And probably more importantly, how/ where do I use the above baits? While I have been able to figure out how to fish the Rappala’s and spinner type baits, I get confused with some of the terminology I here on the fishing shows and see here. Can someone give me an example of :swim baits, stick baits, crank baits? I realize this is a rather lengthly post with alot of questions. If there is a web sight out there that would help me out with this I am all ears! every one I have been to assumes I know all of the above “basics” ! Any help from you all will make all the difference in the world in my fishing enjoyment. It is a major credit to this sight and all of you that a person like me feels comfortable posting “dumb”questions like these to a knowledge base with no equal, with out the fear of being ridiculed or just blown off.

PS: I fish and know pool 8 the best but also fish upper 9 and lower 7.

Thanks, John

Hi Labman- Just thought I would throw out the suggestion of using the search button on the toolbar on the top of the forum here. I have used it many times when I know I had browsed some tecnique on here and needed a little refresher later. I just throw in a few key words in the phrase search and 9 out of 10 times I can find what I am looking for. Most of the things you talk about have had many posts and even arcticles written on them. I Don’t have time right now or I could give you a few links to some of them. Good fishing to ya!

labman,

Welcome from the inside!!
Dman has an excellent suggestion with the search tool we have here at the top of the page. Use this to locate certain subjects or questions and answers that you may have. Because so many posts may start out as one question and end up talking about something completely different or lead into something different, thats where this tool becomes powerful enough to look within all the post and everywhere your particular subject is mentioned. Here you will read on and find something related to what you have been wanting to know and even questions to answers that you never knew existed! There is a wealth of information here on the site and we have an incredible audience here that someone always has the answer for and not shy to give it out.
No “dumb questions here”.

Get good mags, like BASS Masters or Bassin they will have the basics in almost every mag.

Hey John
No dumb questions here.
The search button James has in place will answer alot of your questions.
Rigging is a big term in the fishing world.
When you say it I thought of 3-way rigging. I have used up to 8 oz sinkers in this presentation.
Texas rigged is a sinker right next to your bait.
Carolina rigged is like a lindy set up where the sinker is held away from the bait.
Well keep coming back and the more you experiment the more fun you will have.
Good luck and may your net be active

Hey Labman

I’ll focus on the walleye related stuff and let a bass guy jump in with the bass tackle questions.

The term “crankbait” is a very loose term that is used for any body that has a lip on the front of the lure. These lures are cast or trolled and the design and size of the lip determines diving depth and action. A real short synopsis would be a big lip makes a crankbait dive deep and have a very pronounced action and a little lip results in a shallow running plug with less action.

Some guys will get more specific and refer to “deep divers” or “stickbaits.” Deep diving cranks have larger bills and are designed to target deeper water. The original shad rap is an example you’re likely familiar with. Stickbaits are long and thin, hence the name. They have very small lips and do not run very deep or have very erratic actions. An example would be the Rapala Floating Rap from Normark. These baits are used in shallow water or when the fish are inactive.

Just a head’s up here… you will hear people refer to “lipless cranks.” What they’re talking about is the rattle trap style baits. They have no lip and do not “dive” like other crankbaits. They are usually cast and the depth that they “dive” is controlled by how fast they are retrieved. Fast = shallow. Slow = deeper.

Hope this helps some.

Thanks guy’s, as I suspected you have been a real help. The search feature has been helpful with the when, where, and how and even with some rigging questions. James after reading your post I found that my assumptions were pretty much right as to what name went with what lure style. It also occures to me that we fisherman, as a group almost speak a language of our own! If you think about it, alot of the names of the style also refer to a retrieval style (crank, jerk, jig), which can be confusing to the novice like myself. You can after all jig a spoon, swim a jerk and crank all of the above! OK, thats enough, it’s getting fuzzy again . At any rate, thanks to you all again. I expected nothing less

John

Labman

I like you don’t know a whole lot about fishing. We also have something else in common and that is we have some how stumbled on to this site. I feel this is the best place to learn a multitude of fishing ideas and facts.

Someone suggested reading magazines. I’ve read a lot of them, but the best I’ve seen lately for info is Bassmaster. I think they give someone like me more info than In-fisherman does.

As far as learning some of the other things a guided trip if you can afford it is a way to learn a body of water and different techniques. I can tell you more about that after my first guided trip with Mr. Holst in June. If you check by the names of numerous people on this site they are guides on area waters. By reading the post these guides have made in an attempt to help fellow fisherman free of charge I would love to be able to hire a different one every week all summer.

Another way of learning more about this great sport is go with as many different people as you can and share ideas. Hope to see you on the water catching fish…..Jim

A good way to learn about the bass side of things is to check out the bass fishing forum as there are alot of diehard bass fisherman over there who can share alot of good info and check out the different threads, and there are alot of pages of them, where they are sharing stuff.

Thanks, Bill

ps. Here is a link to In-Depthangling Field Staff Lawrence Ecklors site. He is a walleye and bass fisherman and guides for both species and has some good info for you to read.

Lawrence Ecklor

Labman…You’ll see a lot of your questions answered the more spring shows up and the more we get out fishing . Once we have 100% open water, we’ll all soon be talking techniques/jigs/spoons/tubes/methods etc ….Feel free to PM me anytime. Thanks for the info on Panama City!