New Angler, Need Advice

Hey there TFF,

I've been through the forums up and down, managed to set up my first tackle box on a budget, along with snagging two rod and reel combos for a bargain (One for catfishing, and one for panfishing). I've been out and about on the waters all over the DFW area, from Lake Grapevine to Lake Ray Hubbard. All I've managed to catch is a small 6 in. channel cat at lake grapevine. My question is, where should I be looking when I wanna catch channel cats? What about sunfish? Also, how do you keep your lines from snaggin? Closest lake to me is Lake Arlington, but I don't mind the drive up to lakes as far as Lewisville. I also can't afford to take a boat out into the deeper waters, so I'm restricted to bank fishin, creeks, and rivers.

Any advice, even unrelated is appreciated. Thanks yall.

For panfish, fish close to cover or structure. By that I mean anything that is different in the water. Moss/plants, concrete walls/dams, big rocks, trees/roots, docks, undercut banks, etc. In fact, you should be looking to fish these for any species. My favorite rigs for panfish are either a size 12 hook with a single piece of Gulp! waxworm/maggot freelined (without weight) or a 1/64 to 1/16oz jig head with a small soft plastic threaded onto it. Anything from the Crappie section at Bass Pro/Cabela's should work!

For catfish I'd fish with the wind blowing into your face and I'd try to bait an area for a day or three beforehand with range cubes or boiled deer corn. This works really well for eater sized catfish. When you're ready to fish just fish on top of your baited area with some freshly caught shad on a snelled 1/0 to 4/0 circle hook and you shouldn't have any issues catching them. Alternatively you can learn to fish for Carp and I guarantee you'll catch loads of catfish, I certainly do!

I like fishing for cats in the rivers. I love to catch them on throw lines but will also fish for them on a rod and reel. I like tight lining on the bottom when fishing from the bank.

My advice is to start going to local ponds. It's much easier to catch fish there than a large lake. You'd be surprised how big they can get in such small waters.

Buy decent quality line. Pay at least $7 per spool. Learn to tie good knots and rig the baits correctly. That will reduce snags. I Texas rigged everything, even live worms.

If I just want to catch fish, I will always go to the old reliable earthworm. You can pick them up at bait stores or even Walmart stocks them. A piece of worm will catch sunfish but a whole worm will catch catfish, drum, bass, sunfish, and the occasional carp or buffalo. Baiting an area with range cubes will really increase your success. I fish on the bottom with a very simple rig. Just take a 3/4 ounce weight and slide it up the line. Hold it about a foot above the hook with a split shot. Tie on a small hook with a palomar knot (start with a #1 and work your way down if you are losing bait) and you are ready to go. If you catch a non-game fish you can cut it up for bait. Fillet the fish like you are going to eat it then cut it up in 1" squares. Use the cut bait that day then freeze the remaining chunks for other trips. Instead of traveling a long distance, try and find a local lake where you can chum regularly and learn to fish it. Once you get better you can more out to other lakes and target specific species. Let us know how you do.

To the Texas Fishing Forum!



Side Note: Some very good advice on all of the above.

Thank you all so much! This advice is extremely helpful. I'll try fishing for panfish in local ponds and creeks until I get a feel for it, and then transition to channel cats shortly after.

One last question though; my grandpa's wrist has been doing pretty poorly as of late, so he let me have some of his old tackle. He was never a huge fan of artificial bait/lures, but I found a small Rapala Floating Minnow Lure, roughly 2 1/2 cm, and some small shad swimbaits. I'm wondering, how do I use these, and what kind of fish would I catch with these? I asked him, and he laughed before saying that he didn't know how to answer, he just kept them in his tackle because they were his backup plan.

Any idea what he meant?

By back up plan, he probably meant if he ran out of live bait he had an artificial lure to use. 2.5 cm is almost 1 inch. That is a tiny little bait which will be very hard to cast. The lighter the bait or lure the smaller the line and more flexible the rod you need to be able to get any distance. It could get the attention of bass, blue gill, maybe ever a catfish from the bank. Throw it out there and reel it back with a little variety in the speed, twitch it a little to make it look like it is wounded. Shad swim baits, throw em out and reel em back, never know what it may attract. Good luck. When you catch your first big fish, tell us how much it weighs in lbs , not kgms and length in inches, or few here will have a clue. lol

Check out Bassresource.com for bass fishing advice. Lots of articles and videos for beginners.

Thanks all for replying and all the helpful advice! My first successful fishing adventure in a while!

Started off this morning, headed down to walmart to buy a pack of worms for bait. After that, I headed down to the lake, and decided to try walking down to a particular spot that interested me. It was a little jut of land sticking out, and I figured that it was a pretty good place to start. I threw my first worm into the water, and in less than 5 minutes, I reeled in a pretty decent sized freshwater drum! I was extremely surprised because I didn't know they lived in Lake Arlington. Unfortunately, poor thing swallowed the hook deep, so I didn't have time to take a picture. Would rather save the poor fella over doing a photo shoot. But that got me excited! I threw some more worms out, but unfortunately I think my hook size was too large. Didn't catch much, save for a handful of sunfish, most of which I let go. I saved two and cut them up to use as bait for catfish tomorrow morning. Luckily, managed to take a picture of one to show yall!

I didn't reel in a boatload of fish, but even just the ones I did catch provided enough fun. I'll set off and try some new rigs, new bait, and new waters when I get the chance. Thanks a lot for making this experience a good one TFF!

Glad to hear you caught a few.
Keep at it and never be afraid to ask questions.
Good luck tomorrow.

Congrats man! Glad you had fun. Good luck tomorrow!

Enjoying it is all that matters. You probably enjoyed your time more than some that spent the day on a boat and caught several bigger fish but failed to meet their expectations and therefore let that kill their joy.

That's a good sunfish! A dozen of those and you'll have plenty for a couple of sandwiches!

Lake Arlington has a little of almost everything common to Texas freshwater. I used to fish that lake growing up. Mostly for cats. Lots of development now on the places I used to go.

Thanks a lot for the advice y'all I'm gonna try and trickle in some more tackle whenever I have the money to do so, but that leads me to my next question.

Where do you buy your fishing gear? I was thinking of driving to Bass Pro to buy some stuff, but was wondering if I could save money (and gas) just by ordering online. Any of you order your fishing gear online? If so, where from?

I get the bulk of my gear from Big Carp Tackle online, but that said I almost exclusively target Carp and other stores just don't carry any European Carp gear

I'd recommend waiting on some sort of deal, oftentimes you can pick up gear from Walmart, Academy, or Bass Pro at very good discounts when they're clearing out inventory or when the typical fishing season starts/ends. Alternatively you (or your son/nephew) can get a job at Bass Pro and take advantage of the near 50% discount they give on their own branded products!

Perch jerking is the most fun and relaxing thing around.