Arkansas Sportsman

Keep fishing easy for beginners

Sometimes we get so enthralled with the latest and most advanced fish catching techniques, we disservice novice and beginning anglers.

Fishing at its core is simple and easy. You can catch fish with an entry level rod and reel combo and a small, inexpensive selection of lures. Beginners don't really need lures. You can catch fish with live bait, or you can improvise.

As a pre-teen, I used one of my dad's discarded rods that had a broken tip. I wrapped a wad of heavy test line around the tip. I had a hook, a split shot for weight and sometimes a plastic bobber, but not always. I often tightlined bait off the bottom with great effect.

When I found a fishy looking pool, I swung the bait out with a motion very similar to flippin'. If I needed to "cast" farther, I unwrapped extra line from the tip. I caught mostly bream and catfish, but I'll never forget catching a mess of crappie from a deep hole in Woodruff Creek in Sherwood not far from Club Road. That was in 1973, when Club Road was largely undeveloped.

Around that time, my dad gave me a Berkley spinning combo. It changed my life.

I battled two fish of a lifetime with that rod. One was in Wyoming, the first time I used it. We stopped to fish the Snake River from a bridge access. It was cold and spitting sleet, so my dad went back to the car to smoke and drink coffee.

I had one lure, a Mepps Comet. It's an inline spinner with a soft plastic minnow molded around the shaft. I cast as far as I could and let the current take the lure downstream. When I saw the spool, I started retrieving.

I did that without effect for about an hour, but finally a big fish hit. It made a couple of high jumps and threw the lure, but it hooked me for life.

Even more momentous was my first bass, caught with that same rod and reel and the same Mepps Comet. I was walking the bank while dragging the lure at a golf course pond. My first largemouth bass crushed that lure and hooked me clear to my soul.

Good fishing gear is a lot more accessible now than it was then. If you take care of it, a $40 rod and reel combo can give you years of service.

Eventually you'll want to try artificial lures, but its better for children to start with live bait. Worms, grasshoppers and crickets make great bait, as do a lot of other creepy, crawly things. Kids can collect it themselves, and it catches fish consistently.

My favorite bait as a child was a small piece of raw bacon. You can thread it onto a hook as you would a night crawler. It emits scent that panfish and catfish can't resist.

Bacon is tough, too. Most fish can't yank it off a hook. It merely slides up the shank. Re-rig it and keep fishing. One piece will last all day.

When you're ready to try lures, the selection can be intimidating. There are scores of jig styles and weights, and don't get me started on colors. That's before you get to trailers and such.

The best place to start is a panfish or crappie combo. It comes with an assortment of hooks, jigs, tubes, twister tail and fork tail trailers. They catch fish, and it's a good way to learn to use these types of lures.

Finding a place to fish has always been an obstacle. Neighborhood creeks can be excellent because they often support diverse fisheries that get little to no fishing pressure. Ask your neighbors if you can fish the sections that run through their property.

Neighborhood ponds are often very good, too, but make sure the property owners association allows fishing.

Fortunate are those who live near popular lakes, rivers and streams. Rivers especially have generous public access, and you can catch a lot of trout from the bank at places such as Barnett Access on the Little Red River or any of the White River accesses.

The same goes for our major lakes, where you can catch panfish, crappie, bass, walleyes, striped bass, catfish and more from the bank.

It's funny that bank fishermen try to cast as far into the lake as they can, while anglers in boats try to cast as close to the bank as they can.

Just cast and enjoy.

Sports on 05/05/2016

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