What is the best tackle for bass?
The best tackle for bass is a 7 foot medium heavy rod coupled with a 3500 series spinning reel. You will want to spool the reel with 10 pound braided line coupled with a 20 pound leader in very clear water. If you like baitcasting reels than find one with at least 10 pounds of drag comparable to the spinning reel and rod combo above.
The largemouth bass is probably the most sought after freshwater game fish in North America. You will need to get a good spinning reel or bait casting reel matched with a medium or medium/heavy rod.
If you want to catch a trophy largemouth bass then you better have the best tackle to catch one.
The great thing about fishing for bass is that they are in just about every freshwater body of water in North America. You can catch them in the ponds, canals, rivers, lakes, drainage ditches, lakes, swamps.... You get the idea.
They are a great fighting fish and are often good for a jump or too before they get tuckered out. They are also very good to eat. Fillet and release into the grease!
I am a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAIN on the Treasure Coast of Florida and I have been catching bass in the ponds and canals around Florida for over 40 years.
In the article below, I will teach you the best tackle for bass fishing and simple tips and techniques to help you catch more bass. Let's get started.
Watch the video below to learn the best tackle for bass fishing.
The best tackle for bass is a 7 foot medium heavy rod coupled with a 3500 series spinning reel. You will want to spool the reel with 10 pound braided line coupled with a 20 pound leader in very clear water. If you like baitcasting reels than find one with at least 10 pounds of drag comparable to the spinning reel and rod combo above.
The largemouth bass is probably the most sought after freshwater game fish in North America. You will need to get a good spinning reel or bait casting reel matched with a medium or medium/heavy rod.
If you want to catch a trophy largemouth bass then you better have the best tackle to catch one.
The great thing about fishing for bass is that they are in just about every freshwater body of water in North America. You can catch them in the ponds, canals, rivers, lakes, drainage ditches, lakes, swamps.... You get the idea.
They are a great fighting fish and are often good for a jump or too before they get tuckered out. They are also very good to eat. Fillet and release into the grease!
I am a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAIN on the Treasure Coast of Florida and I have been catching bass in the ponds and canals around Florida for over 40 years.
In the article below, I will teach you the best tackle for bass fishing and simple tips and techniques to help you catch more bass. Let's get started.
Watch the video below to learn the best tackle for bass fishing.
What is the best tackle for catching bass in heavy cover?
The best tackle for bass fishing in heavy cover is whatever lets you get a big huge swamp donkey out of the weed mats, lily pads or cat tails. BUT SERIOUSLY, you will probably need a 4000 series spinning reel filled with 50 lb. braided line and a medium/heavy 7 to 8 foot rod.
If you use a bait caster rod and reel then all you will need is one with 10 or 11 lbs. of drag and a 7:1 gear ratio. You will want to fill it with 50 lb. braided line and use a 7 foot heavy action rod to get one of those big swamp donkeys out of the thick vegetation.
Floating Weed Mats--If you are fishing the thick floating weed mats with a crawdad and a heavy bullet head weight or a jig of some sort, then you will want to have enough weight to punch through the vegetation because your big bass will be underneath.
When it is cold out, they will often hug the bottom because the dark weeds will heat up quickly in the sun. When it is hot outside they will often be nearer to the bottom.
Often times the bass will hit your lure right as it punches through the bottom of the floating weed vegetation. You will need a reel that can handle pulling a bass through the heavy weeds.
Once you have punched through the bottom of the floating vegetation you will want to let it fall to the bottom and slowly jig it up to the bottom of the weed mat and let it fall back a few times before you give up on an area.
Often the bass will hit this jig right before it reenters the floating weed mass. You will want to bounce it on the bottom of the weed mat a few times before finding another spot to catch a bass.
I wrote another article on this website that covers in great detail how to catch bass in the different seasons of the year. You can read those articles by clicking on the links below.
Winter Bass Fishing
Spring Bass Fishing
Summer Bass Fishing
Fall Bass Fishing
Cattails-- Cattails are another place where you can find big bass. The problem is that they have plenty of roots and stalks to wrap your line around as you try to horse them out of the vegetation. One of the very positive attributes of braided line is its cutting ability.
You can cut right through some of the thickest vegetation with the braided lines. The mono filament lines only tangle around the cattail stalks and roots. You will have to reel in 10 lbs. of weeds with your bass.
I like to use a crawdad or a frog rigged weed less when fishing the cattails. The bass can feel when your lure bumps into the cattails and will come over to investigate. Work your lures slowly with a few pauses during the retrieve for best results.
Lily Pads-- Thick lily pads are another great place to catch big bass. Bass love to eat frogs that are hopping from one lily pad to the next. With this in mind make sure to get a weed less frog lure or rig a plastic frog with a weed less hook and start hopping.
A slow retrieve that lets you hop up on a lily pad or two is a great technique to get a big bass to hit. They will often follow the frog from underneath and slam it as it hops off of the lily pad into the water. You will need to mimic this same scenario with your frog lure.
Watch the video below and catch more bass in ponds and canals.
What is the best tackle for catching bass in ponds and canals?
You can usually down size your tackle for bass fishing in ponds and canals because there is usually less structure for the bass to tangle you up in. Ponds and canals usually are more open areas to bass fish and therefore require lighter tackle to handle the fish there.
I like to use my 2500 series spinning reel rigged with 8 to 10 pound braided line when fishing the ponds and canals near me. The rod that I like to use is a medium action 7 to 8 footer. This is a good set up for bass around 5 pounds or less.
I like to fish a Carolina Rigged worm or a Texas Rigged worm when I fish the ponds and canals. I will also use salamanders and crawdads too. I like the good old fashioned purple ones or the pumpkin ones the most. I am sure that other colors work just fine too but those are the colors that I have been fishing with since I was a kid. Obviously, change frightens me.
My favorite cast is one that is parallel to the shoreline. I find that often bass are waiting just a few feet from the shoreline waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting bluegill, minnow, frog or just about anything else that it can fit in its huge bucket mouth.
You have to be careful when you first approach the pond or canal because the bass can see well. They can see very clearly and know what is out of the water as well as what is in the water. You should stay back about twenty feet and cast to the spot where you plan on standing just in case there is a bass already there. You don't want to spook the bass and give it lock jaw, do you?
I wrote another article that covers in more detail how to catch a largemouth bass. You can read that article by clicking right here.
Once you can get to your casting spot send your worm, spinner bait, frog or whatever as far down the bank as you can; maybe 3 feet from the shoreline and work it back very slowly.
The bass will often follow it and examine it very closely for a while before attacking. The attack will often happen right after a pause in the retrieve so pause every 10 feet or so to let the bass get enticed to strike on the next lure movement.
What is the best tackle for catching bass in lakes?
Lakes usually give you a lot more structure options than a pond or a canal will. You might have to fish in 20 feet of water; you might have floating weed mats; you might have a rocky shoreline; you might have lily pads; you might have feeder streams and rivers...…..and the list goes on and on. The point is that you will need to use different tackle and different lures for some of those different environments.
My tackle choices depend upon the structure that you will have to fish in or around to find big bass. If I am fishing thick weed mats, cattails, or lily pads, then I will use my 4000 series spinning reel loaded with 50 lb. braided line. I would most likely have this rigged with a crawdad and a heavy bullet head if I were fishing the weed mats.
If I was fishing the lily pads and the cattails, then I would use that same reel but have a frog for a lure. Hopping it from pad to pad and swimming around the cattails waiting for my lunker to crush it.
If I were fishing more open water, then I would probably be using my 2500 series reel filled with 8 or 10 lb. braided line. I like to use a spinner bait when I want to cover a lot of water. Open water areas like the mouth of the streams or rivers or in the deeper spots of big lakes are great spots to use spinner baits and crank baits to find out where the fish are hiding.
A spinner bait or a crank bait works very well along a shoreline too. It doesn't matter if the shoreline is rocky or sandy. A spinner bait or a crank bait will work very well along a shoreline of just about any kind. The time to use them is when there is a lot of water to cover.
This does not mean that you can't use them to great effect in a small pond or a canal. Spinner baits and crank baits are excellent lures BUT I especially like to use them to find fish in large bodies of water.
Lakes usually give you a lot more structure options than a pond or a canal will. You might have to fish in 20 feet of water; you might have floating weed mats; you might have a rocky shoreline; you might have lily pads; you might have feeder streams and rivers...…..and the list goes on and on. The point is that you will need to use different tackle and different lures for some of those different environments.
My tackle choices depend upon the structure that you will have to fish in or around to find big bass. If I am fishing thick weed mats, cattails, or lily pads, then I will use my 4000 series spinning reel loaded with 50 lb. braided line. I would most likely have this rigged with a crawdad and a heavy bullet head if I were fishing the weed mats.
If I was fishing the lily pads and the cattails, then I would use that same reel but have a frog for a lure. Hopping it from pad to pad and swimming around the cattails waiting for my lunker to crush it.
If I were fishing more open water, then I would probably be using my 2500 series reel filled with 8 or 10 lb. braided line. I like to use a spinner bait when I want to cover a lot of water. Open water areas like the mouth of the streams or rivers or in the deeper spots of big lakes are great spots to use spinner baits and crank baits to find out where the fish are hiding.
A spinner bait or a crank bait works very well along a shoreline too. It doesn't matter if the shoreline is rocky or sandy. A spinner bait or a crank bait will work very well along a shoreline of just about any kind. The time to use them is when there is a lot of water to cover.
This does not mean that you can't use them to great effect in a small pond or a canal. Spinner baits and crank baits are excellent lures BUT I especially like to use them to find fish in large bodies of water.
Watch the video below and catch more bass with worms.
What is the best tackle to catch a bass in rivers?
Rivers can be harder to fish than lakes, ponds and canals because they often have a current. Currents make it harder to present your lures properly to the bass in the various parts of the water column.
You will usually have to either cast up current and work your lures back to you at the speed of the current or if you are fishing with live bait let it drift down current to the spot you want to fish.
If I saw a big log or some other structure underwater and was fishing with a shiner or live blue gill under a bobber, then I would try to present it from up current if possible. In other words, I would anchor above the structure and let the bait float back with its delicious offering to my target layer of the water column.
You are much more likely to spook the fish if you cast a live bait to the spot because the splash will likely spook the bass that is hiding around the structure. The stealthier your presentation, the better your odds of catching a bass will be.
When you cast a lure up current it usually has less of a splash and therefore less potential to spook and fish that might be there. Bass are especially spooky when the water is shallow. It is not as big of a factor when the water is deep.
The best tackle for fishing the rivers depends upon how much structure is in your river. If it is open with not too many snags and structure hang up potential, then you can get away with a 2500 series reel with 8 to 10 pound braided line and a medium action 7 to 8 ft. rod.
If the river is full of sunken trees, big rocks and other underwater snags then I will step up to a 4000 series reel with 50 lb. braided line and my 7 to 8 ft. medium/heavy rod.
Clear rivers require you to do a better job at presenting the lure to the bass. They can see it better. Wacky worm presentations work very well in clear rivers. The wacky worm is symmetrical on both ends and you will put the hook in the middle of the worm.
All that you do with a worm rigged wacky is cast it to the spot and let it sink. The undulations of the worm as it falls through the water column attracts the bass to the lure. You don't have to work your worm at all. Just cast; let it sink to the bottom; then retrieve it and repeat. I will usually give a good looking spot a few casts to each likely bass hiding place before I move on to the next fishy spot.
When the rivers are murky you will not have to worry as much about your presentation. The bass will be attacking your bait or lure using smell and its lateral line more than its eyes.
A lure that pumps out a lot of low frequency vibrations like a spinner bait or a crank bait will work well in dark and murky rivers. You can use just about any lure though. I grew up fishing some crystal clear river systems in Florida and presentation is much more important because bass have excellent eye sight.
Watch this video and catch more bass.
What is the best tackle to catch a bass with live baits?
I like to use heavier tackle when I am fishing with live baits for bass. I like to fish with live bait under a bobber usually. It is hard to set the hook properly when there is a bobber above the bait so I like to have a rod with more back bone.
Let's say that I am using a blue gill or a live shiner under a bobber for bass. In that scenario, I will have my 4000 series reel loaded with 50 lb. braided line and a medium/heavy rod. If you are using circle hooks, then it is not as much of an issue because you just start to reel when the bobber goes under.
J hooks are a different story. You have to set the hook or you won't have a fish on the end of your line. I like to give it about 3 seconds before I set the hook. The bobber being under for 3 seconds is what I am talking about.
Crawdads and even shrimp are great baits under a bobber for bass. Just make sure that you don't hook the crawdads or shrimp in the head where their brains are. If you do that then you will no longer be fishing with live bait. And the purpose of getting live bait is to keep it alive until it catches a bass.
Many freshwater rivers empty into large saltwater bodies of water like the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Many of the bass in these places routinely eat shrimp that come up the rivers with the tide.
Shrimp make great live bait for bass. Just remember to miss the dark spot in their head. That is their brains. Don't kill them. Let them kick around and attract the bass to them first.
Best bass lakes in Florida:
There are a lot of good bass lakes all over Florida. The reason why bass are such a popular game fish is because they live in just about every lake, canal, pond, river, ditch or any place else where there is freshwater and something for them to eat.
The list below is for those bass fishermen that want to catch a trophy bass in lakes that consistently produce trophy catches. Many bass fishermen might not agree with my lake choices but I have either fished the lakes mentioned below; or talked to people who have fished them; or researched them to come up with this list. The list starts in the southern part of the state with lake Okeechobee and ends near Tallahassee with Lake Talquin.
- Lake Okeechobee
- Lake Kissimmee
- Lake Monroe
- Lake Harris
- Stick Marsh
- Lake Istokpoga
- Lake Toho
- Lake Tarpon
- Lake George
- Crescent Lake
- Rodman Reservior
- Lake Talquin
About the author: The author of this article insists that everyone refer to him as The Bass Master Extraordinaire. BUT everyone just ignores him and we call him Mike, the co-owner of FYAO Saltwater Media Group, Inc.