My father-in-law is about to retire and wants to take up bass fishing since he is about to have a lot more free time. He currently works out of the country, so he wants to start watching videos or reading articles that will teach him the basics of bass fishing so that when he gets back he has a basic knowledge of some things before he and I start fishing together.

Does anyone know of anything like a Youtube channel or any other website that maybe has a series of videos or articles or whatever that he can start watching that starts with the absolute basics (I've never seen the man fish, not sure he has ever done any fishing other than the basic hook, bobber, and worm type stuff) and works its way up to more advanced topics such as lure selection, bass behavior, etc.?

I think Bass fishing can be tough to get into, Be interesting to hear if he sticks with it after 2 years. Plenty of stuff on You tube just search it up.

BassResourcedotCom has a lot of great instructional articles to read.

I sent you a link to some articles.

Best advice I can give--start simple with the odds in his favor. If he were to start bass fishing in the middle of winter, he could get discouraged. It doesn't take much to get hooked on bass fishing, so if he were to read the articles I sent, and learn a good knot or two, he'd be ready to start around the spawn (Conroe area--March/April). If he were to catch a big bass or two, you won't have to worry about him learning how to fish.

Start simple
Learn to tie a good knot. Tie it the same way every time.
I'd recommend the doubled pitzen (Jimmy Houston/Shaw Grigsby knot) works great on all lines, easy to tie, and self corrects as you cinch it down


Pair of polarized sunglasses

Get a medium heavy casting rod and Pro Qualifier reel during the Bass Pro Spring Classic Sale (usually starts second week of February)
Get a medium heavy spinning rod and spinning reel also (some techniques are easier to cast and learn on a spinning rod/reel)

Line--I'd start with 30lb hi visibility braid. You get lots of visual feed back with hi vis braid. There are bites that you don't feel, but it's easy to see the hi vis braid move or jump.

Start simple--get some stick baits (Yum Dingers or GY Senkos) in black and blue and also a green color
Learn to fish the stick baits with all the techniques you can fish them one at a time ( weightless, Texas Rigged, light split shot, wacky rigged, neko rigged, drop shot)

If he fishes a stick bait relatively shallow throughout the spawn, he'll be bound to catch some decent bass, and he will be on autopilot after that.

I learned a lot from Flukemaster on YouTube. I still occasionally watch his videos on my lunch break.

Thanks everyone. going to send him a few of yalls suggestions.

I can also throw in my two cents. Sometimes getting together with someone like James Biggs for an instructional trip to the lake could do wonders. Instead of reading or watching a video he can do an on the lake trip so that you can experience what to look for and what baits to use and get the feel of exactly what and where to do different techniques. I have learned so much from guides through the years just watching them fish a technique I wanted to get better at. Having someone like James teach you on the lake would make it a lot easier for going out later after experiencing what to do on the lake.

Youtube has some great info for free. Wired2Fish and TacticalBassin are two that put out great info. TacticalBassin also provides links to all of the gear and equipment they mention to help you get a better look at what they're talking about.

https://video.bassmaster.com/detail/videos/bass-fishing-for-beginners

Basic instructional videos. nothing ground breaking but something to help get started!

I would start with YouTube and BassResource.com

I watch:

Tactical Bassin
Wired2Fish
Fluke master
And then random searches for a particular topic.