Bass Fishing Gear
There really are only a couple pieces of equipment that are absolutely necessary to fish. Most of the other items fisherman own simply make the experience more rewarding or enhance the ability to catch fish.
Obviously, the two most important pieces of equipment are the rod and reel. You must choose wisely in selecting which rod and reel to use.
For the beginning fisherman, you need to select equipment that is versatile and can be used in the most common situations.
For starters, I would select a six-foot medium action rod. If you have an ultralight rod or pitching stick you will be equipped poorly unless you are fishing those specific situations. A simple six-foot graphite spinning rod of medium action will suffice for 95% of the situations a fisherman will encounter.
The reel is, of course, your other major piece of equipment. In my opinion your most important choice. If you are a beginning fisherman I recommend using an open-faced spinning reel. Closed face spinning reels are basically toys and not sufficient for catching very large bass on a regular basis.
Baitcasting reels are the best reels available but are prone to backlash and very tough to use for a beginning fisherman. The object of fishing is to have fun; using equipment that is within your capabilities will allow this to happen. Select an open-faced spinning reel that has a good drag system and holds at least 150 yards of ten-pound mono-filament fishing line. Shimano makes a wide variety of these reels that are not very expensive yet do the job required of them.
Fishing line would be your next piece of required equipment. The line comes from a wide variety of styles and strengths. For the beginning fisherman, I recommend using low visibility green mono-filament line. Ten-pound test line should be sufficient for most of the situations you will encounter. I have found Trilene line to be the best on the market.
If you are going to fish with live bait there are pieces of terminal tackle you will need. You will, of course, need hooks of several different sizes to match the different types of bait you will use. No matter what type of fishing you will do a hook sharpener should always be in your tackle box. This is perhaps the piece of equipment that too many fishermen do without. More fish are lost due to improperly sharpened hooks than any other factor. A live bait fisherman will also need an assortment of weights, swivels, and bobbers.
- Jill Henry
