How Did You Catch Your First Bass? 2024

rod snapper reply :

I was wondering what bait all you guys managed to snag your first bass on? I caught my fist on a Rebel Wee Crawfish, it was a Smallmouth out of the Grand river. I had worked really hard to catch that fish, and i would love to here how your first efforts paid off.

Mobasser reply :

Beetle spin, from a farm pond. I think 1967.

Glaucus reply :

Spinnerbait

scaleface reply :

cane pole , bobber and night crawler for bait .

Bankbeater reply :

Probably on a cane pole fishing for sunnies.

MickD reply :

Probably a real crawler. Can't remember, about 75 years ago.

MN Fisher reply :

Bit over fifty years ago - was fishing for panfish in Indian Lake, MA with Mepps Comets, hooked a Largemouth on a cast...got hooked myself.

Catt reply :

Tennessee Boy reply :

I think my first bass was on a green sunfish on a trotline while fishing for catfish with my grandfather. My first on a lure was on a cork popping bug about 45 years ago.

jimmyjoe reply :

Black Hula Popper, 1963. Caught on my older brother's Heddon fiberglass rod and green Heddon reel, black nylon braid. Farm pond. jj

Revival reply :

Hula Popper....at around 2pm on a hot sunny day fishing from the bank. My cousin made me use a top water so I wouldn’t get snagged. I was popping for hours and was bored out of my mind. Fish smashed the lure and I some how landed it on a old cheap combo....it was a 3lb+.

Fishin' Fool reply :

That's crazy that many of you can remember where, when and how you caught your 1st bass. Personally I dont remember my own but I can't remember what I had for breakfast.

davecon reply :

Pre-rigged black eel with red fins, 3 hooks, a little spinner on the front using a Shakespeare Wonder Reel on a Shakespeare Wonder rod. Was with my Dad and Grandfather. Can still see the fish, the lake, the wooden row boat, what clothes we were wearing, etc. Fish weighed 6 pounds. That was 62 years ago !

jimmyjoe reply :

They say you never forget the first time. I always figured they were talking about bass. At least I HOPE they were! jj

On 2/26/2019 at 6:34 AM, Fishin' Fool said:

That's crazy that many of you can remember where, when and how you caught your 1st bass. Personally I dont remember my own but I can't remember what I had for breakfast.

Dorado reply :

Spinnerbait

Mike L reply :

You're kidding right!

????

Mike

Harold Scoggins reply :

Mid 60's, Crème worm, Zebco 202 combo.

tholmes reply :

It's been ~ 60 years ago, so I really don't remember. Probably a worm under a bobber with a cane pole.

I do remember the first one I caught on an artificial lure. About 2 lbs., on a black Jitterbug.

Tom

Spankey reply :

Heck it was over fifty years ago up at and old quarry we fished in as kids. We were not even suppose to be in there. I'm sure that's where it was and most likely a night crawler. I had an old Johnson rod and reel set up back then.

You really have me thinking about growing up now and the fun we had.

The Bassman reply :

Cane pole , good ole red and white round bobber, and worm. I was six. I'd caught a few bluegill before that and can still remember yelling when the bass jumped. It probably was only a 12 incher but knowing me it probably took a while to quit talking about it.

Swbass15 reply :

Caught my first one at Apache lake, rapala crankbait, craw pattern, zebco spincast combo. 1993

stratoliner92 reply :

On 2/26/2019 at 5:04 AM, Mobasser said:

Beetle spin, from a farm pond. I think 1967.

Same here in 70's

whitwolf reply :

On 2/26/2019 at 5:14 AM, scaleface said:

cane pole , bobber and night crawler for bait .

Bassguytom reply :

First bass on a lure was a purple worm. It smelled like grape. Forget what brand it was in the mid 70’s so probably Manns. Same day I hooked into a Muskie on the same worm. My older brother grabbed the rod from me a fought the muskie. He sits in the back of my bass boat now. Funny how things work out.

CharlieTN reply :

1st smallmouth was over 30 years ago with a Wee-r-spot my grandfather found snagged on a cable holding a boat dock.

1st largemouth was a couple of weeks ago with a Berkley Havoc Pit Boss in green pumpkin/purple flake on a 4/0 EWG fished on a diy jig rig.

I hope it’s not 30 years before I catch my next one. LOL

Jrob78 reply :

I haven't the slightest idea, I was way too young to remember.

LonnieP reply :

Night crawler and a bobber with a Zebco 202 over 40 years ago

haggard reply :

Fish #1 7/30/17, went to camp, slept in the trailer, set the alarm for 4:30 am to be on the water by 5am.

At that point youtube had taught me everything I knew about fishing, which wasn't much. Had not much idea what I was doing or where to fish, but luck worked that morning and 17 minutes later just after sunrise landed the smallie. Hands were shaking I was so excited.

4 inch green pumpkin worm, TX rigged with 1/4 oz bullet, 3/0 hook, PC66MF2 with a Caenan 151 baitcaster, 10 lb test Trilene XL mono. I know it's silly but I deliberately keep that setup exactly the same and plan to never change it, sell it, trade it or forget it. I suppose it'll wear out some day but hopefully long after I do

Logan S reply :

Mepps Comet. No joke, on my very first cast for bass.

Had fished for and caught plenty of bluegills and other sunfish along the banks of a pond with bait...After several trips my dad told me there were bigger fish in the pond but I needed to fish for them differently. He took me to a tackle shop on the way home one day and picked out a few things, including the Mepps Comet. Next time at the pond I rainbow-lobbed (first cast, I was really awkward ) that Comet way out in the middle and about 3 cranks into that first cast a bass smashed it. It was the coolest thing in the world to me and hooked me on bass fishing right then and there. I was probably 7 years old? Don't really remember but I was in 2nd or 3rd grade I think...

Pretty sure its the only bass I've ever caught on a Comet too...And I only ever caught a handful of other bass from that pond in many other trips before moving away. That first cast bass was just meant to be or something .

jbsoonerfan reply :

No idea, too young to remember. My first was on live bait. The first artificial I can remember was on a 6" purple worm with a pink curl tail on a straight retrieve.

scaleface reply :

I dont remember the first lure but it was probably a crappie jig .

WRB reply :

My grandmother made up flag shape strips of chamois dyed with red iodine we used on cane poles to catch bluegill and crappie off her dock and my first bass was caught using it.

Tom

OCdockskipper reply :

A Mister Twister red curly tail worm (not the phenom, the longer tail version). Rigged weightless with an open hook, we thought trolling through the weedbeds in our little yellow dingy was the way to catch them. We mostly caught weeds, but did catch a couple of keeper bass.

MIbassyaker reply :

I was about 15, fishing a little distance below a spillway on the local river where I grew up. We fished mostly live bait -- nightcrawlers under a bobber, or on the bottom for walleye and catfish, or frogs for pike. i would occasionally catch a walleye, rock bass or pike on an in-line spinner or curly tail grub, but live bait was usualy the ticket. On the afternoon in question, I was fishing nightcrawlers. I had a decent channel cat on the stringer already, and was casting the crawler under a bobber ahead of fallen trees, letting it float past as close as I dared...

I remember it vividly: my bobber went down, and I thought it was snagged on a tree at first....but then I saw it was moving against the current. Excitedly I begain hauling the fish in, and found it pulled harder than I expected....and then it jumped! Like 3 times! WHen I got it to shore, I saw it wasn't quite as big as it felt -- about 14 inches and brownish...I recognized it as a smallmouth bass, which I had seen on TV and in magazines, but never in person. We didn't even know there were any bass in the river.

After that point, I tried to target smallies specifically, but wasn't successful. I ended up catching my first largemouth at a lake the next year (I think?). But I never caught another smallmouth after that first one, and a few years later I left for college. I was able to fish for largemouth off and on in the various places I lived after that point. But I didn't catch my second smallmouth until I moved to Michigan about 10 years ago.

Today, that spillway on the river back where I grew up has been removed, and there is no longer any public access to that area long the bank. But I hear smallies have, in the 2 decades or so since, colonized those stretches of the river pretty well and are now much more common than they once were. One of these days I'm going to get back there and catch a few more. Maybe do a float. It feels like unfinished business.

Bluebasser86 reply :

No idea, started fishing when I was still in diapers. I remember some of my favorite lures being a rigged Creme Scoundrel, rootbeer colored roadrunner, and an Original Rapala. I was probably 5 or 6 in this picture and a seasoned vet at by then, catch and release wasn't a thing at this point in my life either.

kenmitch reply :

Lake Elsinore, west end of the lake, fishing submerged brush, in the 70's is all I can remember. Rewinding my memory bank I can only see bits and pieces of that day. I can visualize the area of the lake, the bass I caught, and remember my dads long lost brother telling me it was a LMB. My memory bank has been scrambled more than once in the last 40+ years!

TimberTodd reply :

Whole nightcrawler hooked through the head with a single splitshot 18" above the hook.

Bass_Fishing_Socal reply :

I used to be bait and wait most of my life until I moved here in US. Even at beginning of my fishing here still bait and wait type and mostly saltwater at jetti or charters boat.

My first bass came from Saltwater rig “spider hitch dropper rig” with 6” worm (kind of drop shot). Up until now I still use this rig when drifting for catfish.

Smalls reply :

My dad started taking me fishing before I could walk. He’s a perch/panfish fisherman. We’d go and throw perch harnesses and sit til something bit.

One day a bass came and ate my worm, almost ripping my spider man rod out of my hands. He called it a “junk fish” and threw it back. That was it, though. I couldn’t care less about bluegilll or perch, anymore.

scaleface reply :

My first bass is in my avatar photo .

the reel ess reply :

I really have no idea because I've been fishing longer than my memory. So probably on a minnow or worm on a cane pole. That was my first rod. We mostly crappie fished when I was coming up.

Later I got a Zebco 33 and an assortment of Mepp's Comets, Rooster Tails and "Shysters". I caught a good many bass on those that I remember as well as crappie and white bass.

Columbia Craw reply :

Mepps spinner about 55 years ago. Four casts , four bass.

bowhunter63 reply :

Crawdad crankbait 1973,Was 10 years old.

J.Vincent reply :

With a Nightcrawler dangled below a Red and White Bobber

thinkingredneck reply :

Hard to remember. Probably on a crappie jig.

basseditor reply :

Suick Muskie lure while Muskie fishing. Even though it was a big bass, I was disappointed at the time. Because I don’t live in Muskie territory now, I’m 100% B.A.S.S.

JFlynn97 reply :

1st bass ever followed my crank bait up to the bank but never committed to a strike, once I reeled the crank in he veered off and plopped himself under an algae mat next to a big branch that was in the water no more than 2 feet from the bank. Kept my eye on him while I took off the crank and tied on a senko to make sure he wouldn't swim off again, and plopped the senko right in front of his face and he absolutely annihilated it. All that was followed by a hectic 30 seconds where all logic went out the window and I did all I could to get him up the bank all while yelling about hooking into my first bass.

Definitely a moment I'll never forget!

riverat reply :

On 2/26/2019 at 5:36 AM, Catt said:

Exactly the same with me. Black and Yellow H&H. I was 10 years old in 1962 and remember it like it was yesterday. I've been obsessed with bass fishing ever since.

HoosierFisher reply :

The first one that I can remember was on a Rooster Tail. That wasn't on purpose. My first one while targeting Bass was a Texas rigged Senko believe. I remember being excited that I actually caught something on a plastic worm.

J._Bricker reply :

On a cane pole soaking a worm under a red/white bobber on a pond near Cherry Point, North Carolina.....

Jigfishn10 reply :

In 1997 on Memorial Day weekend, I fished a Zell Rowland signature Pop R

Image result for Zell Rowland Signature pop r

(Internet Image, not the actual Lure)

MickD reply :

On 2/26/2019 at 6:19 AM, jimmyjoe said:

Black Hula Popper, 1963. Caught on my older brother's Heddon fiberglass rod and green Heddon reel, black nylon braid. Farm pond. jj

Cool. I remember all that stuff so well. I loved the red/white Hula Dancer. So did the smallies.

CrankFate reply :

On an extremely long cast with a half a worm to the other side of the pond, worked back parallel to the bank where it would be impossible for people to walk.

Todd2 reply :

I remember when I was a kid in the 80's, I'd just dig up some worms and bobber fish and catch em.. I don't remember the first one but my first memory was one day when I ran out of worms from catching Shellcrackers and all I had was a shiny bare hook. I casted it over in a corner of a farm pond and watched the hook fall a few feet below the bobber. A keeper size bass came up and just nosed the hook. I waited a few seconds and twitched the bobber (and hook) and he nailed it. It was hooked, so was I.

BurrStone reply :

Jitterbug on a Zebco setup, 1974, Hopkins Stream, Mt. Vernon, Maine. The strike scared the hell out of me. Had it for dinner.

LCG reply :

Caught my first bass on a jig head with a curly tail worm. Took me four months to catch my first fish... Looking back it's amazing how little I understood about bass and how to present a bait. Thanks to the people on this site and probably thousands of hours of YouTube videos, my fishing has become far more productive

crankbait2009 reply :

Mine was on a Bomber, Square bill crankbait. 1/4oz, in a brown crawfish/chartreuse color (been discontinued).

I was using a BPS Extreme baitcast combo (MH/F). This was when the combos were an emerald green color (2009)

Joshua van Wyk reply :

On a live grasshopper, I think l was 4 or 5?

bh91 reply :

I think mines was a strike king squarebill

SJex reply :

June 2007 5" Green Pumpkin Senko.

kenmitch reply :

Largemouth was too long ago to remember the lure I was using.

Spotted was a shakey head worm rig.

soflabasser reply :

I caught my first bass well over 2 decades ago. In that time I have caught double digit bass, lost count of the 8 pound or better bass, and hundreds of bass over 5 pounds. At this point in my life I am more interested in fishing for big bass and catching new species of bass. I also hope to continue improving my ability to catch big bass in new bodies of water.

Dwight Hottle reply :

On 2/26/2019 at 5:14 AM, scaleface said:

cane pole , bobber and night crawler for bait .

Cane pole, bobber and a red worm for bait. Hula popper for first bass on an artificial.

NittyGrittyBoy reply :

Zebco 33 combo, beetlespin.

My dad had put the tail of a culprit worm on a hook and used a beetlespin spinner. Just a phosphate pit in the middle of a central Fla cowfield.

I remember being scared of the cows watching us fish, 1993ish. Great memories. Enjoyed reading this thread

BTW, my dad mounted the bass and I still have it on the wall. Maybe a 1lb dink. Best dink ever!

N Florida Mike reply :

First bass I remember catching on a lure was with a red and white spoon when I was 14 or so. I think I caught 1 more on it ever.

I may have caught a bass on a live worm before that but I dont remember for sure.

First good sized bass I caught was a 4 pounder that ate a dough ball while I was fishing for catfish.????

Jleebesaw reply :

I dont remember. But I'm sure it was with a nightcrawler. May have been under a bobber or over a sinker. My dad took us fishing a lot. But all he cares to fish for are bullheads, crappie, and walleye. Hes an old school fishing for meat kind of guy.

6168

How Did You Catch Your First Bass? 2024

related Fishing Tackle topic

previous topic

next topic

most viewed Fishing Tackle topic