Could use some Bass gear advice

I joined a fishing league this year to force myself to get out and learn more lakes other than the one that’s 1/4 mile from my doorstep. What I learned after the first week is that if I want to compete, I’m going to need to learn how to catch bass. I’ve primarily targeted Walleye, Perch, Crappie, and GL Salmon and trout in the past. I’ve done VERY little bass fishing. So…..I need some gear and tackle. What would your recommendations be on a rod and reel to get started as well as some baits to try? I’d prefer not to break the bank right away here so if it’s possible to get into a decent rod and reel for $200, that would be my preference.

My advice is put the money into the reel, not the rod. I think you can get a really good rod for not much dough, but it seems like you have to spend a good amount to get a decent reel.

My all around favorite would be a 7′ MH St. Croix Avid. Now if you bought this rod, you wouldn’t have much left to spend on a reel. I bought an Abu Garcia Vedetta 7′ MH rod the other day and was very impressed. At $80 it had a very good weight to strength ratio that rivaled or beat many of the $100+ rods I tried at Bass Pro. I also believe that the Berkely Lightning rods are a great rod for the price. Those rods used to be awful but they are pretty nice now, and at $36, it’s a great deal.

Now pair that with a Revo-S, a Daiwa Exceler or Daiwa TD-Pro (Bass Pro Exclusive) or a Pflueger that a lot of guys here recommend and you’ll have a great all around combo. I really like having the 7:1 GR reels these days.

a 7’0″ MH Abu Garcia Vendetta coupled with a Shimano Citica spooled with some sort of 15lb test would make for a nice set up for 200 bucks. You could cover a lot of bases with that combo.

for basic starters working from shallow to deep, you need:

black senkos
black and blue swim jig
white swim jig
light and dark 5″ single tail grub trailers
a couple buzzbaits
rattletraps
an assortment of 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0 gamakatsu offset wide gap hooks
3/16-3/4 oz worm weights.
black/blue and green pumpkin craw tubes for flipping and pitching
1/2 black and blue flipping and football head jigs
chunk trailers

this is just a basic selection that should allow you to catch some fish just about anywhere you go.

6’6 medium fast stcroix premiere with quantum accurist. Should put you right at $200 without compromising on either end. Spool up with 20lb power pro braid and you have a great setup you can use for any bass presentation.

i have a revo S and love it.. plus for only $130, its a great reel that fits ur price range.

cabelas is having a sale on graphite rods currently.. but when you can, i’d jump into something the same calibur as the st croix avids..

good luck on the tourneys and keep us posted how you’re doing!

i got back into bass fishing last year before that was manly walleyes i found last year using senko style worms with the worm set up with rubber o ring in the middle of the worm to use to put the hook threw the o ring instead of the worm. work great last year believe its called wacky worm riging.

You didn’t mention whether you are accustomed to a baitcasting reel or not… If you aren’t, your walleye spin reels will work fine with some appropriate line and med-med heavy spinning rods.
Shaw Grigsby won most of his Eight Tournament Championships with spin gear…

For awhile Joe’s had a deal where you could buy a Revo SX for $169 and you got a free Vendetta Rod, it was a good deal, it was last years Revo’s SX model.

If it were me…i would go with a st croix mojo (MH spinnerbait) and the new quantum accurist. I owed two of the older accurists before i sold them and they got beat up pretty bad, used them with heavy braid, and they still ran flawlessly. This should put you at $200. If you are willing to spend an extra $40 dollars, give a powell rod a try, for $140 i would call it a steal

Being a Bass Club guy, I would suggest first asking guys in your club what they are using and discuss your budget.

I would suggest 3-basic Rod/Reel combo’s to start:
1) Flipping Stick ($200+): Med/Heavy to Heavy 7′ to 7′-6″ Bait Casting with a decent Reel, filled with 50# Spider Wire. Use for flipping Jig-n-Pig in the Slop or for pulling Horny toads or Scum Frogs across the slop and pads.

2) A Dock Rod ($100+): 4′-6″ to 5′ Spinning Rod Med/Heavy with fast action combo filled w/10-14# Fireline for pitching plastics (Worms, Wacky rigged seinkos, lizards, etc) or light jig-n-pigs under docks.

3) Casting Rod ($80+): 6’+ Casting Rod Med to Med/Heavy w/Fast Action filled with appropriate line for tpye of fishing lure/conditions (3-4 of these). Start with 1-filled with 20#+/- Flourocarbon, can be used for Crankbaits, Deep Jig-n-Pig, Frogs/Toads etc in light Pads or edges.

You didn’t mention what you already have, but assuming a couple good Spinning Walleye Rods/Reel Combo’s 6′ to 7′, line the extra spool for Bass. Every good Bass Guy I know keeps a 6-7′ Spinning Rod with 10# Fireline and a #4 or #5 wide gap hook with a Floating/Trick Worm or Tube for that 2nd repeat cast when you miss a Bass and see they are looking for the bait they missed.

With Wife along for a ride I had a nice Bass miss my Jig-n-Pig a few years ago, grabbed my trick worm rod and fired it a few feet past the Bass, 2-twitches and Blast, set Hook. Nice 16 incher. Wife witnessed this and said OH!, thats why you have those 5-Roads up there. Once you have it down, don’t be afraid to show her why you need so many rods. I now have 14 and building.

Hehehhehe Yup I replied, thinking good thing she was not paying attention. I had 8-rods all rigged and ready to go.

Then again, I have a good friend that only fishes Open/Deeper water, every rod is rigged with 10# Trilene, always searches and finds hard bottom areas, Win’s quite a few Tourney’s.

Good Luck.

PS: A couple TIP’s: I learned, Always, Yes, Always SET the Hook TWICE. Increased my catch rate 200%. Don’t be afraid to try something uncommon when things get tough going. I have used a 3″ Black PowerBait Leech many times on heavy fish waters and got my limit.

Boy; lots of good advice here. I seemed to have missed some critical info, so I’ll share that now….. Being mainly a walleye guy in the past, I’ve got 5 ML to M fast to extra fast spinning rods with Shimano Symetry, Saros, and Stradic reels and many linecounter reels and trolling rods in every size and action available for trolling up everything from Perch to King Salmon. I’ve also got some older gear that’s like new, because I never use it… I’ve got a med heavy South Bend rod with a Shimano Corsair something or other, and a St Croix in heavy with a larger Shimano Corsair for pike / musky. Last but not least, I’ve got an old Abu C3 5500 and a 6500, but these don’t seem to work just right. I’d say the smaller nearly new Corsair should work, but I can’t cast anything but heavy baits with it worth a darn. Of course it could also be that I just stink at casting these things as I’ve got very little practice other than throwing 3/4 ounce spoons at pike in Canada. I seem to be able to do that real well:)….

As far as other success in the league, it’s seems that most fish plastic’s. The guy that kicked my rear end the first week and from what I gather wins the whole league every year said he uses a tube bait 90% of the time and a worm the other 10%. I’ve never thrown a plastic tube, plastic worm, spinner bait, buzz bait, or frog in my entire life, so I’ve got a lot to learn guys! Maybe with your help I can turn the tables on this league:)….

I know that gander doesn’t have the top of the line gear in thier already set up combos, but you could pick up a few of thier baitcasting combos to get you started and go from there, I would get a 7’MH and a 7’MH/H with reels for around 100 or 130, give or take a few bucks. you can use the 7’mh for worms and a few other things, the H could be used for frogs, other top waters, and jigs.

now as far as baits, you can go to gander and get a 50 count of ganders worms for about $12.00 and you can get some 3/0 or 5/0 wide gaped hooks and bullet weights for texas rigged worms, you can also get by with a few shallow cranks, some $1.99 gander spinnerbaits in all colors, and some cheap frogs, floaters and swim frogs. I would also look at getting a few jigs, some bigger ones, 1/2 oz, with matching trailers. might want to also look and study some other techniques, like carolina rigging, texas rigging, drop shotting, but for starters, pick up some plastics, and some texas rigged hooks and also some wacky style hooks, ( would work well with one of your eye rods.) and give it a whirl.

some things to remember, clear water, able to see down 6′ or more, stay with the green pumpkin or watermelon red flake colors, more natural colors. once you get into more of the stained or colored water, go to black/blue or even black with neon colors. that way your lure stands out. if you have any other questions, feel free to contact me.

thanks,

shane

My advice is very simple. Buy a few packs of 3/32oz Gopher Tackle mushroom heads. A few packs of 1/8 or 1/4 oz bullet weights. A few packs of 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG hooks. And a bag of black or blue fleck 7in Power Worms.

Use an existing rods, probably with 10lb line. 8lb at the lightest.

If you want to get crazy…get a few black/blue and brown Bitsy Bug jigs, and trailers for them.

Seriously, if you can’t catch bass with this…you won’t catch them at all. Day in and day out, this list is what catches bass.

Most guys get way too buried in tackle..i’m one of them!! But in all reality, I catch most of my fish on a jig or jigworm presentation. In MN, it’s really all you need. 2 rods!!

For starting out I think Bullet21XD advice is pretty good. Although I tend not use them much myself, jigworms are real easy to learn and they are fish catchers. Senko’s are another must have. You can fish them on a jigworm mushroom head jig, texas rig them with an EWGap hook weighted or weightless, and wacky rig em. Personally I don’t throw Senko’s much either, but they are a great bait for beginners.

Well; we had our second fishing league tonight, and while I never did get out to buy any new rods and reels, I did purchase a bag of tube jigs, a bag of worms, and a couple spinner baits. I managed 12 bass tonight, so I’m pretty happy with that; but the size just wasn’t there all fish were 10-13 inchers and they need to be over 14 to score much in the league. Oh well; it’s a start right? I probably caught half of my fish on a tube jig, and the other half on gold or white and black spinner bait. I also tried jig worming, but the lake I fished was loaded with moss on the bottom, so I couldn’t keep it clean. My favorite setup by far was the tube jig with my 7 foot medium St. Croix with a Shimano Stradic reel. This felt like a good setup. Everything else was a little sketchy such as throwing spinner baits with a ML St Croix, so I do still need to get some new equipment. I’ve got a long ways to go yet; but I felt like I learned some things tonight, so that’s progress.

on something like that, with the jig worm not staying clean, should have gone to a texas rigged worm or even a bitsy grub. them will work slowly working across the bottom.

thanks,

shan

Well; I’ve got to thank everyone for all the great advice you’ve given. I’ve made it out about 5 times now for bass, and have increased my catch rate every time out. Each outing I choose a different tactic and try to learn to use. Last night was a weightless Senko worm. Holy Cow! I learned to love this method real quick. I caught by far the biggest average size with this bait to date including a LM that went just a touch under 22 inches. So; I’m having a blast and learning as I go. Again; thanks for the great advice. It really helps cut the learning curve down a bunch.