u/DawnLakeAngler

So I want to admit something kind of dumb.

When I got into fishing about a month ago I did the thing where I convinced myself I could buy my way to being good. Watched a bunch of videos, everybody had nice rods and boxes full of lures, and I figured that was the barrier. So I dropped more than I want to say on a combo way fancier than any beginner needs, and loaded a tackle box with lures that looked incredible in the package. The crazy paint jobs, a couple of those multi-jointed swimbait things, some hard baits that were like $8 each.

You can probably guess where this is going. I caught nothing for two weeks. Not a bump.

What actually turned it around was borderline embarrassing. I gave up on the expensive stuff out of frustration, tied on a plain hook with a split shot and a worm, and caught a little sunfish in about ten minutes. Then another. And it slowly clicked that the gear was never the problem, it was me. I didn't know how to work any of those fancy lures and I didn't know where the fish were, so all that expensive stuff was just expensive stuff moving through empty water.

Honestly I think a cheap setup in a decent spot beats a nice setup in a dead spot. The rod doesn't find the fish for you, that part's on you, and I was bad at it. A lot of that pricey stuff also has a whole technique behind it that I just didn't have yet. I was basically chucking a $15 lure like it was a worm.

I'm not saying buy junk. The one place cheap actually bit me was line. The bargain mono I started on was all coiled up with memory and cost me a couple fish. But the rod and reel, the cheap combo was totally fine, casts fine, holds a fish fine, and when I inevitably hung it in a tree and broke off I wasn't sick about losing an $8 lure. The stuff that actually started getting me bites didn't cost anything, it was mostly just being in a halfway decent spot and going more often.

Anyway, I know I'm not special here. So what was your version of this? What's the thing you bought early, all excited, that's just sitting in your tackle box now doing absolutely nothing? Kind of want to hear I'm not the only one who fell for it.

When I started out I reeled everything in like I was in a hurry to get my lure back. Cast, crank it in fast, cast again. Figured more casts meant more chances. Caught almost nothing and couldn't work out why the guys around me were hooking up.

Turns out most of the time I was just yanking the lure past fish before they ever got a look at it. The day someone told me to slow down, like painfully slow, half the speed I thought was slow, everything changed. Let it sink, twitch it, pause, let it sit. The pauses are usually when they hit.

Now if I'm not getting bit my first move is to slow everything down before I change lures or spots. That alone has saved more slow days than switching lures ever has.

What finally taught you to slow down, or are you still fighting the urge to burn it back in like I was? Feel like every beginner goes through this one.

When I started I'd walk up to a lake and just cast as far out into the middle as I could. Felt right, big open water, figured the fish had to be out there somewhere. Did that most of a summer and barely caught a thing.

Turns out the middle of a lake is mostly a desert, especially in the afternoon. The fish are tucked into the edges and cover. Weed lines, fallen trees, under docks, drop-offs, anywhere a creek or stream runs in. The day I stopped bombing casts into the open water and started working the edges was the day this actually started clicking for me.

So if you’re new and not catching, that’s the first thing I’d look at. Find the nearest edge or bit of cover and put your bait there before you fire one out to the middle.

What was the thing that finally clicked for you? Feel like I learn something new just about every trip.