Guide to choosing fishing tackle

When choosing fishing tackle there are a number of variables to consider first.Where will you fish? Will it be in a rural pond, deep inland lake, shallow inland lake, salt water ocean or salty backwater. No matter where you fish you will enjoy it more with tackle meant fit to the location, species and size of fish you will be pursuing.

We will attempt to offer enough tips in this short article to help you decide what you need before you open the catalogue.

Lets start with fishing an inland pond or small lake from shore. You may be fishing for crappie, blue gill, perch, small trout or even carp. They will be easy to handle on a light or ultra light rod and reel. I prefer a spinning reel as casting without the hassle of backlashes makes for a happier fisherman. You might also want to consider a spin-cast reel. This is the type with line covered and a button for releasing the line when casting. These are the best for children just learning to cast. The rod should be 6' to 7' long and light to ultra light.

The line should be clear mono-filament up to 4lb or braided up to 15lb with a 6lb 6' fluorocarbon leader.

Terminal tackle should be sized to fit the fish, making it as small as possible to keep the bait or lure looking natural. I prefer circle hooks as they make it easier and faster to dehook the fish for release or storage. If practicing catch and release a dehooker will help to release faster and makes it un -necessary to touch the fish, which disturbs the slime layer.

The most popular bait for pond and small lake fishing is earth worms. I prefer fishing them on an 1/8oz jig with most of the worm hanging down from the jig to keep a natural look.

These fish are often referred to as "pan fish" and for a good reason. There is nothing tastier than a frying pan full of perch or blue gill lightly battered or breaded and fried up crisp.

Then there are larger lake fish like walleye, salmon, steelhead, pike, and lake trout that require a different selection of fishing gear. (but when out on the big lake keep your small tackle handy in-case you happen upon some lake perch)

The above fish can all be caught using the same rod and reel when drifting or at anchor. Trolling is a little different as you as you control the depth of your lure with the amount of line you let out. For this we use a conventional reel of the 30 size with a line counter. If you're not going to troll, just a conventional reel size 20 to 30 is sufficient. We like to use a 7' medium rod to allow lots of bend in the rod to help control the fish on the way in. Keeping a bend in the rod keeps the line taunt.

When fishing at anchor I prefer live bait, either worms, minnows or crayfish on a jig head anywhere from 1/4oz to 3/4oz depending on the depth and bottom current. The deeper or stronger the current the heavier jig you need. We use 8lb to 12lb mono-filament line with a 6' 20lb fluorocarbon leader and a 50lb barrel swivel to prevent line twist.

If you are going to troll you will need a little heavier line. We use 16lb to 20lb mono-filament or 10lb to 12lb stainless steel line with a 50lb ball bearing swivel. Steel line is heavier and smaller in diameter allowing more depth with less line out. This is were you will need the line counter reels so if you are going to do both still and troll fishing get the line counters and use them for both.

Another great tool to use is the Cannon® Electric Downrigger. Downriggers put your lure at the depth you select from what you see on the fish finder, assuming you have one.

There are literally hundreds of lures to choose from. My favorite for walleye is the Bomber Long A for deep fish or a wiggle wart when they are on top. For salmon I like King Spoons in various colors to match the day and water clarity. Dark colors for cloudy water and bright colors for clear water and sunny days.For steelhead and lake trout anything fast and shiny will work but I like King Spoons best. I have also caught a lot of walleye trolling worms on a worm harness of differing colors.

Another great fresh water fishing is for large mouth bass. This is a subject that deserves more space than we have here, so I will write another article on that in the near future. But in the mean time all you really need is a light spinning rod reel combo, 6lb mono line and 10lb fluorocarbon leader with an 1/8oz jig head and some soft wiggly baits or a rattling lure about 3" long to get started.

Yea, I know, there is still pond fishing for carp, ice fishing and fly fishing, but I just don't know it all. So I will leave you a link or two to some other sites were you can learn more. But don't go now, finish the article and come back up here.

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Now for some salty backwater fishing, my favorite of all. I have fished many of the backwaters from North Carolina all the way around to Texas and could use the same rod and reel everywhere I went. Although each area has their differences, they all hold red fish and red fish are the most sought after fish in the backwaters. Most of the rest can be caught on the same tackle anyhow.

I use a good medium heavy, one piece carbon rod 6' to 6'6" long with a light handle and a saltwater spinning reel of about size 10. Anything heavier and you will wear out your arm before the noon hour. You want to buy a pretty good reel for this type fishing as you will be fighting 15lb fish with a 10 lb rig. I like a reel with at least 5 ball bearings and a front drag.

We use 15lb braided line because it's only the size of 6lb mono and just as light, plus it is almost impossible to get cut off in the weeds or mangrove roots. To that we tie directly, a 6' leader of 20lb fluorocarbon leader, then the hook, jig or lure of your chose. The less terminal tackle the better to keep things natural.

My favorite bait is live shrimp on a 1/0 circle hook below a weighted popping cork, however, a recent test I did proved that Gulp Alive Shrimp are just as effective and they are re-usable as you can re-juice them.

Grouper digging is also a very popular sport in the near shore areas of warm salt water. The tackle used here is much heavier and more expensive but can be used for most any medium heavy saltwater fishing. There are several methods of fishing Grouper and for that matter other salt water fish also.

The most favored way of Grouper fishing is to anchor over hard bottom and drop live or cut bait to the fish with a bottom rig. A bottom rig consist of a leader with an egg sinker and a large hook, about 4/0 depending on how large the fish are you are targeting. I like a short stout rod 5'6" long and heavy. This gives me quick stiff lift to keep the Grouper from getting in his hole. I use a 50 size conventional reel with lever drag wound with 30lb mono and again, a 6' fluorocarbon leader of 80lb. I use 100lb barrel swivels to attach the terminal tackle. This same set up can be used for a slow drift.

The same rod reel and line combination can be used to troll for Grouper, which, by the way is a good way to locate hard bottom structure and bait pods. We use the stout rods to troll Magnum Lures to 40' depth and then add downriggers with the same reels but 7' heavy rods and troll squid on a skirted sport lure just off the bottom. Grouper love squid! If you have room to troll a couple more lines an Old Salty Diver Number 2 with a drone spoon 6' behind it will cover the mid water range. All with the same rod and reel.

With these rods and reels you can fish anything from tuna and wahoo to black drum and grouper. But don't leave your backwater rig at home. You'll need it to catch bait or to cast into a school of mackerel or pompano busting the surface. We also like to keep a couple of 30lb spinning rigs handy for the larger fish like barracuda, cobia, permit and shark that often show up when you are anchored.

The last method we have room to talk about here is surf fishing. What you need to know to buy gear is that you have to be able to reach the trenches were the game lie in wait for your bait. They can be quite a ways out from the beach so you want a medium heavy spinning rod from 10' to 12' long with a size 30 spinning reel wound with 30lb braid and again a 6' leader of 30lb fluorocarbon and your terminal rig needs to include a pyramid shaped sinker to hold your bait against the current. Don't forget to get a spiked rod holder to stick in the sand as those rigs get too heavy to hold all day and a rig left to lay in the sand is bound to leave with any fish that gets a hold of it. I know! A good link to a surf fishing site is at MyTackleSpace.com Surfin Sapo's Page.

Hope this article was helpful in your planning what tackle you need. If it was, let us know, if it wasn't, let us know. But in any case please visit eFishBox.Com for your fishing electronics needs or for more information. We post how to articles on the site also.

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