The gear.

Walking into any sporting goods store, or more specifically, an outdoor recreation store like Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shops will have you massively overwhelmed when it comes to all that you can buy. If you’re not careful you can easily walk out of there spending well over what you intended–and it adds up fast! Knowing this all too well, I will share with you what I would recommend to someone looking to get started fishing. First thing–a fishing pole. There are so many great rods out there ranging from $20 all the way up to hundreds upon hundreds of dollars. Bamboo rods even crazier. For someone just getting started, I’d recommend spending no more than $50 on a spinning rod combination. That will suit anyone just fine. Now of course to go with the rod and reel, you’re gonna need some line. Anywhere from 6 -12 pound monofilament line should be all you need in the beginning. The next step is to get a small-sized tackle box or bag (I prefer the bags) to begin storing all of the lures you’ll collect over the years. The bags are also great because they can hold much more than just tackle. Speaking of which, there are two pieces of tackle that are simply must haves. For bass, walleye, pike, musky…All you truly need is a Mepp’s #3 spinner and you’ll be successful. I also enjoy flukes, which are soft-plastic lures. If the bigger game fish don’t suit you so much, for panfish I recommend bobber fishing with live bait called ‘spikes’. They are a small maggots that bluegill, crappie, pumpkinseed, and perch all enjoy. All you gotta do is find the spot! So remember, for your first visit to Cabela’s, you oughta pick a nice combo rod, a small bag or tackle box, a spool of line, some bobbers and just two variants of lure: the mepps and the fluke. For the panfish just buy a few small hooks and live spikes. That’s all folks.