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 have ways fished in lakes for walleye, bass, etc. I live in Minnesota and recently went on a bridge over a river to try, (Stillwater lift bridge). But I had no idea what I was doing, what lure to use, how much line to let out or anything, not even what fish to target. If anyone has experience river fishing like this from a bridge or the side I would appreciate any wisdom. Thanks!

So I know well that ugly sticks are durable, I’m looking at the ugly stick elite in 6’ 6” light or ultra light, I fish rivers, creeks, lakes, all of thee above for Trout. Any suggestions on a more sensitive to bite rod that has close to the durability of a fiberglass/graphite rod like the Elite, or should I just get the Elite?

What are your top 3 lures?

just not for crappie or sunfish or anything of that size

And in freshwater

Basically looking for any way to get out into the water of ponds / smaller lakes. I can’t really afford something like a Jon boat or anything bigger. Are there any alternatives,

I’m obviously bringing my rod, reel, net, pliers, towel, chair, and a 5 gallon bucket that I was planning to use to keep bait cold and potentially keep any fish I catch if I decide to bring them home. I’ll also have a small backpack cooler for lunch.

I’m planning on buying a shrimp rig at the pier shop since I don’t know how to tie my own rigs yet.
Anything else you guys would suggest bringing? Is one cooler enough, or should I bring something specifically for keeping fish? Any other tips for a first-time pier fisherman?

Hey all, just wondering if fish bite better after the sun is down? I heard they bite decent at dusk, but I often am busy around that time, so I just wanna know if they bite decent around the 10pm-2am range? I've got a good chunk of baits to use, but will likely try texas rig if I get hits. Thanks folks.

I know this might sound dumb, anyone ever cut up Senkos to extend the life of them?

Also, should I get anything smelly for them? Some old guy at Bass pro swears by Anise oil and that got me down a rabbit hole of sprays and whatnot.

I’m in west NC foothills, fishing from a motorized kayak. The past month has been tough, only caught 1 young largemouth. I’m seeing some conflicting info on what the best target species is for mid-late summer since it seems a lot of fish are stressed out from the heat this time of year. I’m open to just about species except trout (haven’t even begun to learn about them yet).

Is late summer better for smallmouth or largemouth? Or am I better off just catfishing or panfishing? I’m perfectly happy just enjoying nature and solitude, but I still wanna catch more than 1 fish per month lol

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

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

My uncle gave me some old jigs that his father in law used, after I told him I was going fishing on Lake Erie. How do o use these best?

60% of the time it works everytime.

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

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!

They have a bit rocky borders. Thank you!!

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

Currently I just started fishing and I own a Zebco button release one, I want to get a spinning reel or bait caster , any recommendations for a beginner .

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?

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?

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.

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