Bank Fishing 101: Complete Guide for Travel Fishing Success
Whether you're a novice or seasoned angler, chances are you've passed by a body of water and thought, "I'd like to make a cast here." In this guide, we'll walk you through everything from planning your trip, selecting gear, understanding the water and fish, to effective presentations—all to help you fish successfully from the bank.
What to Know Before Making Your First Cast
Before making your first cast, it's important to have a basic understanding of what species live in the water you're about to fish. Most states have a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) or a Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that provides detailed information on local waters, including species presence, maps, and applicable fishing regulations.
How To Fish a Chatterbait for Bass Fishing
If you haven’t thrown a Chatterbait, you’re missing out. These bladed jigs first made waves when Bryan Thrift dominated a Lake Okeechobee tournament in 2006—and anglers have been chasing that magic ever since. The secret lies in the vibrating blade that cuts through grass and perfectly mimics fleeing baitfish or crawfish. In those grassy flats and ambush spots where bass love to hide, a Chatterbait can trigger bites when other jigs get ignored. Let’s take a look at how Chatterbaits all started.
How To Fish Bass in a Shallow Lake
There are a lot of deep water lakes in the states. In fact, most lakes I fish have depths over 20 feet. Look at some of the lakes in the northeast and you will see water ranging up to and over 75 feet. However, there are tons of lakes that are shallow.
Take Lake Okeechobee in Florida. The average depth of this lake is under 10 feet and it is one of the largest on the East Coast. I grew up on Long Island, NY. The deepest lake we had was Lake Ronkonkoma, and it was only 50 plus, but it was the anomaly as virtually every other lake on the island averaged well under 25 feet at its deepest point.
How to Rig a Drop Shot for Bass
Do you know how many different ways there are to catch large mouth and small mouth bass? They are endless, from using lures – crankbaits, spinnerbaits, topwater, worms of all types, jigs and a ton of live bait options in the way of crawfish, shiners, minnows, earth worms, nightcrawlers and insects. And if you want, you can even target them using a fly rod. There is one method however that will catch bass when they are on the finicky side – drop-shot fishing! Drop shot fishing is very simple, but I'll bet there are tons of anglers out there that either don't believe in it, or don't know how to do it. Either way, it is time to start believing, or learn it because I will guarantee that when bass – largemouths and smallies– get finicky, a drop shot rig will get them biting.
Why Use a Leader with Braided Line
It's easy to get confused when we hear anglers talk about several types of fishing lines and when to use them. Many anglers have heard of or used braided lines, while others aren’t too sure where to start with line selection. Keeping that in mind, the next few paragraphs will give you a decent starting point and a few things to consider when selecting and using braided line.
Considerations for Choosing a Fishing Leader
The first consideration is what's your style of fishing? Do you prefer to cast horizontal lures like swimbaits, crankbaits, jerkbaits, topwaters, spinnerbaits, swim jigs, bladed jigs and so forth? Maybe you prefer bottom baits, football jigs, a tube, Carolina Rig, Texas Rigged worm, or Creature style bait?
How to: Cast a Bait Finesse Combo… the "Right" Way
Bait Finesse fishing is a great way to have fun… it's that simple. I have asked a lot of anglers I see that are using bait finesse fishing gear and I ask the same question. "Why are you using bait finesse gear meaning a small baitcaster meant for light lines and lures?" Almost nine times out of 10, the answer is the same. "I really like using baitcasting gear and don’t really like using spinning gear." This is not only a valid answer, but a really good one. Face it, spinning reels have their issues at times, and most of which baitcasters do not. However, there is a huge difference between typical baitcasting gear and bait finesse fishing reels especially. The rods are similar, but the reels are greatly different. Let's cover the factors I feel will have you slinging light lures like a pro.