Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Fishing for the City Boy and Geek

I shocked a lot of my redneck friends when I said “I’ve never been fishing.” And they looked at me with their jaws dropped. When you are born a city boy and are slowly making your way towards being a country boy, these things happen.  What surprised me was the lack of beginner guides to fishing on the internet. The majority of resources out there assume you have done some fishing and try to help improve your ability to fish, so a guide for an existing fisherman is probably not worth the read of a novice. For city folk like me who research the hell out of things before trying them, and who is working to become more country, I will share what I have learned thus far. This guide will help get you ready for everything else out there.

Buying your gear.

We are gonna take the approach of learning how to fish with modern amenities and getting good with that to better understand how to fish without gear. The most essential piece of gear is a fishing rod and reel. You can buy them separate and attach them, or as a combination. I went with a combination deal for my first rood and reel. Along with needing a pole, you will need line and a basic tackle kit. Most rod and reel combos come with line pre attached, so you may not need to buy line yet. Your essential tackle consists of hooks, sinkers and bobbers. A good extra to buy is quick release hook attachments. They make it really easy to change lures and hooks as needed. Your extra tackle need will be lures which you will use to try to catch fish without needing live bait. You may also want to invest in CC Moore fishing equipment.

Buying a Rod

The rod is predominately determined by the weight of the fish. If you are catching heavy catfish, you will need a much longer and ticker rod to handle the weight. You will do better with a longer and thicker rod to start out with because it will give you a range of fishing options. Something in the neighborhood of a 7-8 foot rod can be used pretty much universally no matter what fish you target.

Buying a reel

There are all sorts of reels out there. A great starter design is a closed reel, giving a starting fisherman less to worry about as it works very simple: you tap a trigger to release the line as you cast and tap again to stop the line. It’s pretty much a one direction reel, allowing you cast line out and then reel the line back in. The other reel style is an open face spinner reel which has a lever you flip to cast line out and flip again to stop the line release. You can reel the line in or out, making the process two-directional. This is a more advanced reel and a better general purpose reel. I personally am still using a closed reel at this time.

Buying your tackle

Every fishing pole will need line (if not included), a bobber, sinker and hook. You can get good general fishing kits. The key to stringing your pole and getting ready is all based off the type of fish you are looking to catch. Catfish for instance are bottom feeders, that are easier to catch at night time, so a glow in the dark bobber will be a better choice also you may want more and heavier sinkers on your line.  From personal experience on of the most important aspects of your bobber is making sure you can see it clearly. Also you will want to select a bobber that’s not to big  versus the weight of the fish otherwise the bites from the small fish will be hard to see. Hooks are again based off the size and type of fish you are targeting.

Buying lures

Lures are a great way to avoid buying live bait and great to put in your car with your pole if you want to do impromptu fishing from time to time. You know the kind where you pull over and fish in a stream or pond in the middle of no where. The type of lure depends on the type of fish you are targeting. Live bait is better then most lures as it creates an attractive target for your intended fish. You want bait that wiggles and looks lively to the fish. Also keep in mind that to catch a big fish you need big bait. Think about it would you stop to pick up a penny or a twenty dollar bill? When I went out we used live minnows, when using these guys you will need a minnow bucket and an aerator to try and keep them from dying too quickly. The key to baiting the line with minnows is to pierce the hook below the back bone about mid way down.

Misc Other tools

You will want a pair of needle nose pliers which you can buy at walmart in the tool section for $2 or you can get something like a leatherman wave and use it in your bug out bag as well. This will be used to get hooks out of the fish and to attach sinkers. A stringer is important if you plan to catch and eat the fish. A good super sharp fillet knife will be needed to clean your fish as well. A fishing net can be very useful to help you transition a fish from your line to a stringer but you can do with out one when catching smaller fish.

The Law, being kept in check by the man

Look into your local fishing regulations. On most private land it’s no biggy to fish without a license, however public land and streams that can be a bad idea. In Ohio fishing without a license can result in a $180 fine and confiscation of your fishing gear. Oh if you are fishing out of the back of your truck they will confiscate it too. So a $20 a year license is worth the peace of mind. As well beware of how many you can keep, what type and the size. If a game warden checks you make sure you are compliant. In a bug out survival situation this won’t matter but until then following the law it’s easier and cheaper.

Fish brained habits

Like hunting you want to put yourself into the mind of a fish. Know your fish‘s habits and patterns determine how to take advantage of their instincts to catch your fish. Key things to know about your target fish are the depth they tend to swim at, their weight, and the bait they like. There are many other factors you can look at but these are the most simple and important ones. They dictate your lures, line length type of bobber, time of day etc.

Stringing your pole

When you look at the pole you will notice a lot of circle loops along the pole, those should be downward on the pole when you are holding it outward like you had casted out. You want to pass the line through all the loops. After this your first step is to connect a hook. I like the quick release hook adapters at the end of the string. These act like safety pins in how they open and close and allow you to easy change hooks and lures at will. Next up is your sinker. These are little lead weights to help you cast the line and get the line to the right depth in the water. These crimp on the line. Keep in mind if you change sinks that you can save them to be melted down and used to cast bullets for ammo reloading.

After  the sinker your next item to attach is your bobber. Select the bobber by the size of the fish you target. A large bobber meant for catfish probably won’t bob much if you get a bite from a blue gill or crappies. When you go to attach a bobber typically there is a place to press down on the top and bottom it exposes a hook for the line to go on. It’s recommended to wrap the line a few times around these hooks to help it from coming undone. Keep in mind you want to set the length of line after the bobber based off the depth of the water and where your fish are likely to be swimming.

The cast

It’s funny to see a city boy cast a pole. It’s actually very simple but I had one piece of knowledge missing preventing me from a confident and joyfull fishing trip. With the trigger on a closed reel, you simply tap it when your about to flick your wrist out in the cast. I though you would hold the trigger and let go when you were done casting. That resulted in the line splashing down right in front of me along the bank. Damned if that didn’t catch a blue gill off that crappy cast. Beginner’s luck they say. There are a lot of resources out there which talk about a best cast or where to cast, etc. I’ll let them do that for now, until I can dispense good advice. I’ve at least saved you from my 20 minutes of frustrations and short casts.

The First bite

So your bobber just went down in the water a little bit and back up and maybe you felt it in the pole. This means you have a bite. The key is to do a little tug on the pole. This tug sets the hook in the fish. Without it the fish is likely to take your bait and run like a looter in WROL. If done right, as you reel the fish in you will feel resistance. If it’s a big fish the resistance will be stronger. For catfish or Bass you won’t feel resistance, rather a fight! When this happens you want to wear the fish down by a mix of reeling in and loosening up a little bit. Too much direct force and your line might break or the fish will break free.

The stringer

When you catch your fish that you plan to keep the stringer is used to tie and hold them. It’s a long string with a key chain loop on one end and a spear like device on the front. When you catch the fish you will take this stringer and pierce it through the gills/side of the fish’s mouth area and for the first fish loop back through the ring. Then you attach each additional fish as you catch them. Next you want to attach the string to a limb or something on the bank and put the fish back in the water until the end of your adventure. This way they aren’t dead and rotting by the time you leave. They will splash and thrash some for the rest of the trip, but that reminds you they are there.

Killing and cleaning the fish.

Yes the fish will die there really isn’t a great way for them to die, you could use ice to try and put them to sleep or just pull them out of the water and stop breathing. Fact is it sucks either way so I just take them out of the water it’s a shorter time to death then a slow cold death. And no a .22lr to the face probably isn’t a good way to go much to my dismay. When I was done fishing I got home around 11 pm and was too tired to clean the fish so I was trying to figure out what to do with the fish until the morning. I found it was fine to put the fish on ice and clean them the next day. Some people freeze them whole and clean them when they use them. It’s up to you. Putting them on ice was a good choice and allowed me to get some sleep before the fish fry.

The next morning the fun of cleaning the fish began. With some fish like the crappie I caught you would typically have to scale the fish, and for a few of them I did. To de-scale you don’t need a fancy scaling tool though they can help, you cansimply use a large spoon and rake it backward against the grain on the scales and they will fly off everywhere. However I found a great way to fillet the fish and avoid scaling.

The trick I used was to take the fillet knife cut downward right behind the side fins through the ribs down to the back bone. Then turn the knife and go horizontally along the backbone through the rib cage and down at about the tail. Don’t completely cut that flap off leave a hinge around the tail, and flip the fillet outward. Then use the fillet knife to cut out the rib cage you will see on the fillet, then take the fillet knife along the bottom close to the skin area and when all is said and done you have a large chunk of meat. Do this to both side and you will find it a lot easier leaving you with a fish head and guts to throw out. Unless you want to make some fish head stew.

I was actually not sure what to expect to cleaning the fish and how I would react to the fish guts and cleaning process, surprisingly I didn’t mind it because I was focused on the end goal of eating. Keep in mind in a survival fishing situation these guts and fish heads could be used as bait for more fish or in a deadfall trap to catch and animal.

A Fish Fry Finish.

The best part of my first fishing trip was the fish fry afterwards. I picked up simple fish fry breading at Walmart and some vegetable oil. It’s amazing how good fresh fish can be. Since I don’t live on a coast it reminded me of my trip to the Boston area and how good all the seafood was. When eating the fish, keep in mind of any health advisories related mercury or other pollutants in the areas you fish. Ohio division of Natural Resources (ODNR) and the EPA publish information on which bodies of waters and fish to avoid. In many cases a fish fry every once and a while is no big deal no matter the pollution. But if you made it every day it might mean some health issues. Believe me though the best way to end your fishing adventure is to eat what you caught.

While I have a long way to go before I can tell you how to catch a record bass or catfish, or enter into a sponsorship deal with Rapala, hopefully this beginner guide will help those who came from a family like mine whose concept of nature was the nature channel on TV.