I am not a huge fisherman, but I do occasionally get out and go fishing in nearby lakes and rivers. I have never had the best equipment and I am looking to upgrade my rod, reel and get some new lures. I have no idea where to start in this area so I thought I would ask my fellow Hunters and Outdoors enthusiasts to help me out. I would have no trouble if I was looking for new hunting equipment, but there is so much fishing equipment and it is all different that I don’t know where to start. Eventually I want to get into Fly Fishing, but for now I am just casting. I have found fishing is a fun relaxing activity that my wife enjoys and it allows us to spend some time together out in the woods. There is no way she will ever go hunting with me, but she likes fishing and I am going to take advantage of that!
Hopefully you can help me out, what do you prefer for casting reels and rods?
Wow, this is a loaded question and one that could go on for days.
I personally use a Shimano open face reel. I could never get used to the baitcasters, although I will admit that if you use them correctly they will outcast any open face reel out there.
As far as lures I have a few bass favorites. One is a Rat-L-Trap, another is the topwater Jitterbug, a top water spook, and also who can look past a good ole spinner bait.
Flyfishing is a blast as well. I have a St. Croix rod that was pretty inexpensive and has served me well.
Have fun buying the new gear. Hopefully I helped somewhat.
That definitely helped, I am going to look into the St. Croix rod for flyfishing. I have always had a desire to fly fish, but have never done it. This year will be the year I attempt to learn. I am also going to look into the lures you suggested, there are so many in the stores that I get overwhelmed and can never decide. It is nice to have some suggestions to guide me as I look.
It is always fun buying new gear!
I haven’t done much fly fishing, but I love fishing, absolutely love it! I use Blue Fox spinners for just about anything…from trout and steelhead to bass, crappie, and bluegill. I use a Shakespeare Ugly Stick for everything, as well. I just have too much fun on it to justify a switch to a heavier rod. Except steelies – I don’t catch steelies on my Ugly Stick! Not sure what my steelhead rod is, but it’s a Shakespeare of some kind.
I’m not sure why all these guys have a ton of lures but every time I’ve been fishing with my husband he takes many tackle boxes filled with lures. We only used one tackle box and never used any lures. We use live worms. Thats it and caught a ton of fish.
As for rod and reels – I’ll leave that up to the expert fishermen around here.
Thanks for all of the feedback! I am excited to get my new gear. I think the Hunter’s Wife is right, you can never go wrong with worms!
My husband is a big outdoors man like you all. He recently is obsessed with fishing and even though he has about 5 rods, he just got a new rod and reel (he got a really good deal too) that he is so excited about. I already got him a new tackle box for our anniversary and I feel like he has everything he needs but he says he wants more fishing stuff. He has a lot of the colored bait (sorry, don’t know the correct term
, lures, etc. So in my mind he’s good and I don’t know what else to get him for Fathers Day, I don’t know much about fishing. Any sugggestions from you fishermen?