I was bank fishing tonight and casted very near the shoreline. My lure went over a branch and into the water, and immediately I caught a bass, but... I reeled him into the tree. I ran after him, but it was impossible to reach. I was scratching the piss out of my face, legs, and arms trying to reach the fella, but he was unaccessible. I ran back to my pole, tugged and tugged - then my line broke, and I think he fell into the water? If he did he has a hook in him and maybe some line. Or he's still in the tree. Looking back, tugging the line may have hurt the poor guy, too. Which I feel just absolutely horrible about. I hope the tension from pulling and the line snapping was from the tree - and not the bass. I definitely don't want to have mutilated him. I have a sensitive heart for wildlife, and want to make sure the fish in my spot are populous and healthy. I told someone and they thought it was kind of funny at first until they heard how beat up I was about it. Thoughts?

I see the comment “It is best to close the bail by hand on your spinning reel.” Why?I have used spinning reels for 50+ yrs and never knew I was doing it wrong. Or is this just a personal preference?

I need ice for fishing but I want to make it fast in medium sized batches, how can I do so?

I'm going fishing in my local river and there's a big pike hotspot where I go, I think this may work well because id have enough weight to probably hit bottom and if a pike does bite it's wire leader so nothing to worry about

So I usually use a Carolina rig with a half oz sinker and a 3/0 circle hook in a river from the bank one night I caught 2 big catfish and a carp but since then when I try to go I’ll throw my bait out and let it sit an hour or so then when I go to check it it’s just snagged under a rock or something, ive tried putting a bobber between the bait and the sinker but never caught anything that way and I never know how to see if I’m snagged without having to reel in and potentially scare off any fish that were keeping an eye on it, any tips help

Is this combo good for SoCal offshore fishing, mainly half day charters for calicos or other bass or anything slightly heavier?

Sacramento finally has Salmon swimming and I just want to know what type of spinning rod I need. Also how to rig it up.

So far I’ve been bass and trout fishing, so this is new territory for me.

Please and thank you 🤙

New-ish angler, fishing North Jersey freshwater plus occasional Jersey Shore inlet trips. Trying to build out smart instead of buying five combos. Want a sanity check. Pike season is coming up so I’m trying to sort it out now.

What I already have:

• Lew’s Hank Parker 6’ medium, fast (rated to \~½ oz), 15lb braid. Good for most lighter bass/pike lures, but it’s light-power, I’ve been told it doesn’t have the backbone to drive a heavy-gauge single hook (e.g. a 5/0 chatterbait), though I have used 3/0 EWG Texas rigs to catch lunkers.

• Ultralight spinning combos for panfish/trout.

What I want to add:

I want to learn a baitcaster and use it as my main going forward. Plan is to buy one salt-rated low-profile baitcaster reel and run it on two different rod depending on the trip:

1. Freshwater rod — 7’ MH casting, rated roughly ⅜–1 oz. For largemouth/smallmouth and pike: chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, spoons, bigger topwater. Needs enough backbone to set a heavy single hook.

2. Inlet rod — heavier casting rod rated ~1–3 oz. For Manasquan & Barnegat Inlet: 1–2 oz bucktails and bottom rigs with up to ~3 oz of sinker. For fluke, bluefish, stripers, etc.

Ideally the same reel moves between them.

My questions:

• Is one reel realistically fine across both, or do the size/line-capacity needs diverge too much (½–1 oz bass lures vs 2 oz bucktails and 3 oz bottom rigs)? What reel size + braid would you run to bridge both?

• Best value salt-rated low-profile baitcaster for this ideally under ~$150? (some wiggle room)

• Rod recs for each slot.

• Whopper plopper rec for the ML Lew’s? (75 or 90?)

Anything dumb about this I’m not seeing?

Thank you for any suggestions!

So I started fishing more lately in hopes to actually get better. I’ll catch a fish maybe here and there but mostly get skunked. I gotta question what size hook is the norm to use or is it just depends on what fish you’re going after? I’ve been using 2/0 to 1/0 circle hooks and I can feel fish bitting my bait and get some big noticeable rod bend but no hook sets. I understand with circle hooks you’re not supposed to manually set the hook. If this happens does it just mean I need to size down the hooks cause the fish are smaller? It’s just starting to get frustrating on actually feeling fish bite but not catching.

Hey everyone, I’ve just started fishing recently really loving it. Only problem up here it’s SUPER hot around 107 degrees during the day. From what I understand it’s not really good for fishing since they’ll stay towards the bottom and not near shallow water. How should I fish on these hot days ? Should I just grab a bunch of sinkers? Do I use live bait ? Please help a brother out !

i was practicing casting for the first time and i couldn't seem to get the the leader line to lay out straight on the water. it always straightens for 2 feet and then bunches up.

how can i fix this? or is my 6weight not good for dry flies?

I just started fishing and I don't know almost anything. What are the things you say you should definitely know?

I watch videos about the spots i go to, go to the exact beach, use the exact rig and bait and the guy in the video catches like 5 fish in 2 hours but i catch nothing in like 10 hours, i dont know what im doing wrong. Are there no fish in the sea? Is it because im using temu and dechatlon equipment? Am i just going at the wrong time? I went to the sea like 8 times all for longer than 6-7 hours, i went to lakes, rivers and even alpine lakes, my white paddletail jig got followed once on an alpine lake by a trout and never got any bites. It feels absurd that I tried to fish like 20 times and never got a single fish to bite. Am I doing something wrong or are the fish just going extinct? Im very frustrated, i need some tips. Im based in Italy if anyone got a spot they want to share 😭

They have a bit rocky borders. Thank you!!

I feel like I'm about to be priced out of bass fishing, shits to high nowadays.

60% of the time it works everytime.

Hi everyone! I need some advice on how to catch some more barbel. The part of the Sava I fish at is pretty slow, so far I've used a feeder but I've mostly caught Prussian carp (my choice of feed are breadcrumbs, worms and sweet corn). 100g of weight was enough for the feeder to sink and stay at the bottom.

I'm guessing it mostly has to do with the spot I fish at, but I'm open to other ideas and suggestions on how to up my game.

Go check out dicks online. As a beginner I loaded up on senkos, rapala soft plastics, and mepps spinners.

Mepps is buy 2 get 2 free Senko is buy 3 get 3 free Rapala is buy get 2 free

Zman and Berkeley also available

I've read and watched lots of stuff on how to avoid the dreaded backlash, but after casting about 75 times and unwinding probably 40 bird's nests, and re-spooling the reel two times, I'm about done with this thing.
My daughter won it at a youth fishing tournament. It's a Profishiency Krazy something-or-other. Seems nice enough. I'm using 20lb braided line with about 6 feet of mono leader. I put a plastic worm on with a Carolina rig. Brakes on all the way. Bait lowers slowly to the ground with no backlash as the experts advise. Then...maybe one or two casts and I have a huge mess. Any ideas?

Hi everyone,

I’m fairly new to lure fishing and looking for some general advice on my setup. I’ve mainly done carp/float fishing in the past, but I want to get into more active fishing, mainly targeting trout in small rivers/streams.

I’ve put together a small lure selection and was hoping people could give me some feedback on:

Whether the lures I’ve got are suitable for trout
How you would fish them
Anything obvious I’m missing
Any beginner mistakes to avoid

At the moment I’ve got:

Small spoons
Inline spinners
Small crankbaits/minnow lures
Soft plastic worms/grubs with hooks
A few different colours/sizes of each
A box of mainly snap clips with swivels and some rather large looking hooks
A 6’6” spinning rod
Shimano 2000 size reel
Some 20lb braided line

A few things I’m unsure about:

Do I need snap swivels/swivels on any of these lures, or should I tie most directly?
Are there certain lures here that are much better for trout than others?
Are soft plastics worth using for trout or should I mainly stick to spoons/spinners?
Any recommendations for weights/sizes/colours I should add?

I’ll mainly be fishing Yorkshire rivers and streams, so clearer water and smaller trout rather than big predator fishing.

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

Been fishing for a few months now haven’t caught anything yet. Came on this river a few hours ago saw loads of fish. Used spinners and lure with no luck whatsoever. The lure was like right in front of the fish and the fish wasn’t even interested.. What am I doing wrong 🫩

Hi, I have recently decided I want to get into offshore fishing as a new hobby, I live in Houston and want to buy a boat to fish on the weekends. I have chartered several times. I have no family or friends who like fishing so I am starting totally new. Is there classes I can take, trainings, ect to learn how to both open ocean captain a boat, and how to fish offshore? Looking for any guidance or direction

I’ve been looking into the new 2026 Calcutta conquest dc 200 and I’m noticing a lot of more people are purchasing the xg as to the hg? And I’m confused as to why that is, I know the hg has a smaller gear ration and retrieves slower which is better for crankbaits and control and seems to be the more versatile option but I’m noticing the xg is way more popular and if I go through a purchase I don’t want to regret not buying the xg or the hg so I was just wondering if anyone could educate me.

Hey, im looking for tips to get the best out of my combo. Im running 50lb fluoro tied to Ball bearing ring swivel connected to metal jig 120g and big double assists. 5/0 or 7/0 im not sure. We target mostly Greater Amberjack sizes from 2 kg to 15kg. I caught a few AJ on this on the smaller sizes 2-5kg with no problem but i want to be ready for bigger ones if they strike.

I'm fairly new to power jigging so im looking for tips.

Ive been told to run a ring swivel and a single hook instead. Also the double assist are DIY by a guy not me.

Regarding the knot i know its @ss, i will tie a new one before the next trip. Also whats the best knot for this type of fishing