How to Fish for Beginners

Hey! What's up? You are here today with Nick, The Informative Fisherman. And today, we are going to be discussing a brief introduction, to fishing and what it's going to take for you to become a successful --. Okay, let's start off and let's talk a little bit fishing rods and reels, there is a lot of rods on the market, let's just discuss a few. You got spinning rods, bait casting rods, surf rods, deep sea rods, poly rods, fly rods, ultralight rods, but let's not get caught up with all that. Let's just talk about, two basic rods that we can get you started catching fish with. And those two rods are your basic spinning rod and your surf rod. Okay, here we have your basic spinning rod and what I suggest for you is when you are fishing for fish up to 6 or 7 pounds or under, using the basic spinning rod. These rods come in a variety of different lengths, you can get them all sorts of different sizes. But when you get started I suggest to use a 6 footer. Now, how this rod works is you can trap the line right here, with your finger, you open this part up and this is actually called the bail. You make your momentum backwards and as you go forward you release your finger, right there, and the line will go out, down on the water, you can either start to reel and it will automatically, close your bail or you can close it with your hand whatever, your preference is. Now, the line on these, I suggest when you get started using 6-8 pound tests. And what tests means, is just your line strength. How hard you pull it, you know that's where it snaps. So if you have 8 pound, you should put about 8 pounds of pressure on there before, it snaps. These rods are used in freshwater and salt water. The only thing you want to remember, is that if you use this in saltwater, as soon as you get it home, rinse it off in the hose really thoroughly, you don't want the salt getting down into your fine mechanics of the rod. Now, to figure out if you are using the right reel and the right rod, if you look closely on your reel, you can see, I am just trying to show you here, you can see there is a lot of little writing on there and those are the specs, and it will show you what's your reel support, how strong of line or how weak of line. And the same thing with your rod, if you look on the base of your rod, right in here, it will show you, it will show you the exact specs you need. So most 6 foot basic spinning rods you grab will be just fine, they will support 6-8 pound test. Now, here we have a surf rod, now what the surf rod is, is just an upscale version of your basic spinning rod. It's longer, the reel is bigger, it can hold heavier test lines or stronger line. What I suggest for weight for fish. When you are fishing for fish over 6 pounds and up to 100 pounds, you can use a surf rod. A surf rod is a very versatile rod, it casts the same way as your basic spinning rod. It's just for using heavier tackle, heavier weights a larger bait, and for catching larger fish. Now the length of the rod I suggest, for a surf rod for a beginner, you can either buy a 7 footer, anything between 7 foot or 10 foot long. And the reel should support 10-17 pound test line. And like I discussed earlier, that's the line strength and just get monofilament just like your basic, spinning rod. But we are going to use a monofilament for these guys and when you spill it up, I suggest using 14 pound test monofilament line. That finally makes, good line but anyone you want to choose is fine. And when I say spooling it up, that doesn't mean, putting the line onto your spool, that's spooling it up. Okay, now let's discuss drag. What drag is, is how hard the fish has to pull to release the line off, of your reel without breaking your line. This is very important for some fish, out there, they pull extremely hard and no matter the size of the fish, there is still a potential that they can break your line. So you will always to keep a good eye on your drag. Now to make it easier, for the fish to pull off, the line, you turn them out to the left, these little drag systems on spinning rods and spinning reels are usually, right on the very top of the reel. So I turn it to the left, you loosen it, prior to the right you tighten it. So it's very important to get used to using your drag. If you don't you are setting yourself up for failure. So basically, just get it enough to where you have to give it a good pull to release the line. And you'll realize, after time, that how important your drag is. But remember to pay attention to it. Now let's discuss some fishing tackle, some very basic fishing tackle. Here, is your standard hook, it's a very standard hook. Hook start off, in size 32 ranging all the way down to 2. 32 being the smallest, and 2 being the largest, in the first category. Once you get down to number 1, it becomes 1/O and that's a very large hook, then 2/O it's a much larger hook, then 4/O, then 6/O and that goes all the way up to 16. Here, we have a treble hook, this is just a little different design, this is 3 hooks in one. It's a lot easier, to hook a fish with these guys even, though you do not get as deep as a hook say, if you were just to use a regular standard hook. Here, we have a slider, and what a slider is for is that your line runs through, the body of it right here and you hook a weight right on to the side, so when a fish pulls on your hook, there's no tension. The fish doesn't feel any friction at all, the line slides through there, so you feel the bite, he doesn't feel the weight. And that keeps your line right down, there on the bottom. Here we have your basic round weight, these guys are commonly used in lakes depending on how deep or if the water is moving a little bit, you will use a little heavier weight or if it's shallower and the water is not moving, you can use a much lighter weight. Here we have a pyramid weight, now what these guys are primarily used for is when there's muddy bottoms and you are fishing in a river and the water is moving quite a bit, this point, when the weight hits the water and lands in, it sticks itself down into the mud so it keeps it hooked down there on the bottom which is perfect when the water -- This is a snap swivel, and what a snap swivel is for, this ties on to your line right here, the head of this pops open and you can get a pre-snailed hook. Pre-snailed hooks are hooks, that come in a package and they already, have a line attached to them with a little loop at the end, and you toss a little loop over this guy and you'll clip it shut, and that's a snap swivel. This is your traditional round border, you push the top down, you put your line under this guy. You push the bottom out, and that little piece comes out there and you stick the line through there and it hands on to your line. And it keeps your bait afloat so you can fish -- Okay, now let's discuss the basic tools, that every fisherman needs to bring with him. One of the most important things that every fisherman needs, is a good pair of needle nose pliers. What happens lots, of the time, the fish will take the hook too, deep in his mouth, you can't reach in there or pop it loose. Needle nose, can really save the day. Cats run there, you will always want a net. Sometimes I get lazy and forget to bring the net myself and I have lost a few really nice fish, because I was lazy and didn't want to bring the net. Get a good net. What I like to do on my net, sometimes I will mark like the size of the type of fish that I am fishing for with the net, be it 18 inches when I am fishing for Striped bass. Make sure the net, is big enough to handle the type of fish you are going for. Next from there, you will want to have a good little knife, with you to cut bait, to cut lines, a knife always comes in really handy. So don't forget your knife. From there you are going to want to take measures. The type of fish you are fishing for could have a regulation, on the size. You definitely want to know, if you got to keep her or not. So make sure, you have a tape measure with you. You don't want to let yourself down and not get to bring the fish home, because you didn't know the size or you grab one under size and the sheriff comes after you, and you have a pay a hefty fine. So don't do that. Next from there, always have a good little pair of clippers just like fingernail clippers, Rapala makes this one, really nice, convenient with a little straight edge on them and they have another, little spot for popping clams open, always have your tweezers. They come in extremely handy. Every time I go fish, I always need a pair of tweezers. These ones have nice little neck thing around them, so that's really convenient. And one other thing, you will always going to want to have a bucket or a stringer to keep your fish on, or a big bag if you are just going to keep them, you toss them in a big bag. You don't want them laying out on the ground, where seagulls can get them or another animals, run up and grab them, trust me it happens. It happens more than, you will want to know. One more thing from there, you will always want to have a good rag with you, because your hand is going to get funky, you will always going to want to clean that bait off your hand. So have a nice big, big rag with you. Okay, now you are ready to get started. Now all you have to do is find out the spot that you want to fish. You have to find the type of fish that you want to catch. So you can see what type of fish are there. It's important to find out what the fish feeds on, what they like to eat, so you can select a proper bait for that fish. The hook size, is very important, once you know the type of fish you can look up the hook size that most people catch them on quite easily. You will want to know, if there are bottom feeder or a top feeder. If you would like to find out, if that type of fish is a bottom feeder or a top feeder, you just research the fish. You can type it in on the internet, type the type of fish, if I don't already have a video made. If the fish is a bottom feeder you find out, you can look at my video beginner cat fishing, and a cat fishes a bottom fish and I will show you on that video the proper rig, how to set it up, the right hook size, and everything you will need. If you find out the fish is a mid depth feeder or if they feed off the top you can look at my beginner video, beginner bluegill fishing and that will teach you how to use a barber rig, which floats at mid depth or you can bring it up real high at the top of the water, to catch those type of fish. I am your host, Nick, The Informative Fishermen. And we'll see you next time. Best of fishing.