Matt Walsh: Bass Fishing 101

My dream has always been, for as long as I've been in the media business, is to do a fishing video.

This is exciting.

This is exciting for me.

I don't know if it'll be exciting for anyone else.

We're going to find out if there's any interest in the audience for this kind of content.

And if there isn't, then there isn't.

But I'm interested in it.

That's what's really important.

If you're just getting into fishing, if you've never done it before, if maybe the only kind of fishing you've ever done is where you go out with a with a worm and a bobber you know then this will be useful to you if you're younger and you want to get into fishing if you're a dad maybe you want to teach your kids how to fish these are the basics this is bass fishing 101 of course the first thing that you need if you're going fishing is a fishing rod and a reel so there are a couple different types of reels this is called a spinning reel which is probably the most common that you'll see a fisherman out there an angler out there using a spinning reel there's also kind of the push button i think those are called spin casters and those if you're over the age of 12 you shouldn't be using those.

If you see like professional anglers, if you're insane like me and you actually watch people fish on TV, you'll see them using something called a bait caster.

That's for if you're if you've been doing it for a little bit it's a little bit more complicated.

Not very complicated but it's a little bit harder to use.

So the spinning reel is what I like to use most of the time.

I have a few bait casters.

This is a kind of a mid small to mid-sized lake.

We're not going to catch any probably 10 pounders on this lake as much as I'd love to.

And so the spinning reel is a great reel for this kind of fishing.

We also have about a six and a half foot rod here and with bass fishing you want to be about six feet to eight feet at the absolute most for the size of the rod.

If you go to bass pro and you see these massive rods that are that's what she said that are nine to ten feet that's like if you're going to catch sharks in saltwater but if you're doing just this kind of fishing really you don't need to go above seven seven and a half I don't think.

And with rods you've got kind of light rods, medium rods, heavy rods.

It's a very light rod and because there's a lot,

it's very bendable, as you can see.

And I like that because there's more sensitivity to it.

You can tell when you have a fish on.

What else do you need?

You're going to need your hooks.

If you go to tackle shop, you're going to see 1-0, 2-0.

That's 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 hooks.

All the hooks that I have in my little compartment here are four,

three, four, five-aught hooks.

This is the kind of hook that I'm going to be using.

This is a four-aught, which for bass fishing is kind of a bigger hook.

I like the big hooks, I cannot lie.

Now, again, if you're going saltwater, then the hooks are a lot bigger, but for bass fishing, this is kind of on the bigger side, I like the bigger hooks.

And I also usually use weight.

Now, one of the things that you want to look at when you come out are the conditions.

So right now, there's a little bit of breeze and there's a little bit of a current.

And so I'm going to use a slightly heavier weight because when I throw the bait out, I want that bait to go vertical.

And if you don't have weight or if it's a smaller weight, then it'll drift horizontally.

We want that vertical motion.

And so for me, in my world, this weight is what I would consider a bigger weight, even though it's only about a quarter ounce.

I usually like to go with a 1 8th ounce or 1 16th ounce.

So these are the two things that we're going to use.

So what we're going to do is we're going to tie the hook on and we're going to put our hook and weight on and then I'll walk you through really the most important thing, which is the baits, the lures that you're going to use.

And I also forgot to mention when you go to the tackle shop or you go to Bass Pro, and you want to look for fishing line, it's a little bit overwhelming because there's going to be, you know, hundreds of different kinds of fishing line this is called a fluorocarbon line which I think works great for bass fishing and they're different pounds

so for bass fishing I think you want to be in the in the world of like six pounds to ten pounds and that tells you how much weight the line can take unless you're very ambitious you don't need to go above 10 pounds this is an eight pound line It's actually kind of an older line.

It's been on this reel for probably about a month and it's getting kind of, you want to change the lines out sort of frequently.

But I didn't change this out because I'm lazy.

We're going to tie this on.

There's all kinds of different fishing knots that you can do.

And again, a little bit overwhelming if you're just getting into it.

What I'm going to do is call a Palomar knot, and you'll hardly be able to see this.

You can look this up on YouTube.

There's YouTube tutorials on how to do a Palomar knot.

I think that's the quickest, easiest knot to do, and it's very reliable.

You know, you're not going to have a lot of fish breaking off with a Palomar knot.

If I can actually do it.

Once you tie it on, you want to cut the tag end.

This is the extra line.

You don't want that on.

You're going to to want to cut that off.

Now you've got your hook and your weight.

Now what are you going to put on the hook?

Then we can talk about the baits.

Now, wherever you buy your fishing supply is very overwhelming, you walk into the bait, the lower section, and there's thousands and thousands and thousands of different types.

A lot of what are called moving baits.

You've got crank baits, you've got spinning baits, you've got different kinds of jigs, you've got topwater frogs, all kinds of different baits.

But this is bass fishing 101.

I think the easiest bait to use, the highest percentage, the kind of bait that really works in any condition, and that's going to be your plastic worm.

Now, you get all different kinds of worms.

This is like called a stick worm, which are very, very popular.

Sanko makes the most popular version of that bait.

You've got these kinds of worms that I really like, that are kind of a ribbon-tail worm.

You got to look at the action on the bait.

So in the water, that ribbon tail is going to have a lot of action, and it's going to attract the fish.

What you also have to think about is color.

So that's the other overwhelming part.

You go, you find there's all kinds of different colors.

The kind of color of bait that you use is going to depend on the conditions, the time of day, and the water clarity.

So we've got a bright, sunny day, it's late morning, and as you'll see when we get down to the water, it's a very clear water.

And I love clear water personally.

This is about six to eight feet of visibility, which is very clear.

And so for that type of fishing, you want what are called natural colors.

And so that's a color that looks like the color of a fish in the water, in other words.

Now, if it's getting dark, or if the water is really murky, that's low visibility conditions.

And then you're going to want a color that's either very dark, very, very dark, and it creates a silhouette that the fish will see in the water, or bright.

And that's when you'll see guys fishing these like chartreuse yellow, bright yellow, pink, that sort of thing, or really dark.

So for me, there's only two kinds of colors that I ever really use because I think they cover any kind of condition.

And that is a black or really dark blue type of color, or green pumpkin.

Probably the most popular color of bait is called green pumpkin.

It's a very dark green.

If it's high visibility conditions, I use the green pumpkin.

If it's low visibility, I use a black or dark blue.

And it always works for me.

So the type of bait that we're going to start with, that I can't recommend enough, so you look at this, this is called a brush hog.

That doesn't look like anything that, if you actually saw this in the lake, then that means that there's been some sort of radioactive spill.

You have mutant creatures in the lake, get the hell out, don't swim in it.

This does not look like anything that a fish would actually eat, but that's fine because fish are very stupid and they're instinctive and they're reacting to color and they're reacting to movement.

They're not thinking to themselves, oh, that doesn't look like something I would eat.

They're reacting to movement and color.

What I like about it is it's got a lot lot of movement.

You know, it's got all the kinds of different parts of it that move.

There's a lot of action in the water.

And so that's going to trigger it.

So for the bass in their head, to the extent that they have a brain at all, when they see this, they see a bait fish.

They see like

a panfish, a bluegill, they might see a crayfish.

They could see it as a frog.

I mean, in their heads, they see anything because it's got the color and it's got the movement.

So I love these things.

I use these all the time.

I'll show you how we put this on.

Again, best fishing 101.

There's a lot of different ways to do this, but the most common and the easiest and most effective i think is called the texas rig you're going to take the bait you're going to put it in on the uh the tip of the hook here you're going to drag it around

like that okay so you see what we got and now you're going to put this part of the bait into the hook and you're going to bury the hook in the bait so you can see that it's a very flat very straight across presentation the hook is not coming out the hook is buried in this bait you see and that's going to make it relatively weedless and that means that you can fish it in the weeds and grass around lily pads and it won't get stuck if you have the hook hanging out that's going to limit where you can fish it because the hook will get stuck on rocks and logs and sticks and everything all the muck underneath two other things you need if you're going to go out bass fishing one is you need something to cut line with and i always have This is a Civivi, I think.

I carry this everywhere I go all the time, but especially when I'm fishing.

So either you got a pocket knife or you could use little scissors or even sometimes you see guys with nail clippers.

And the second thing that you absolutely need, and it's kind of irresponsible to not have when you're fishing, are pliers pliers because what you're going to find sometimes is that you get a fish on and if they swallow it then that hook is going to be hooked it's gut hooked the hook is hooked deep down in their throat basically in their guts if you don't have pliers to get that hook out then you got to cut the line and throw the fish back with the hook caught in its guts and it'll die and we don't want to do that we don't want to kill the fish for no reason so always have something to cut the line always have pliers so we'll walk down i got this all ready to go i'm going to take a couple other types of worms with us so if this isn't working we can switch it out.

Find something that you're confident in, something you think it will work.

Go out there, start fishing, and then you adjust as you go.

So let's head down to the water.

So now we're down to the water.

I've got my GoPro on.

I'm a real YouTuber now.

Mom, I've finally made it.

One thing you got to keep in mind when you're fishing, okay, this is one of the basic rules of fishing is that 90% of the fish will be in 10% of the lake.

And what that means is that when you look out at the water, most of those spots aren't holding any fish.

Okay, the fish like to relate to certain areas of the lake.

They like to be in certain certain areas.

So you got to go find them.

That's what I like about fishing.

It's hunting.

You got to go find the fish.

Unless you're going to do live bait, a worm or something, you throw it out with a bobber and you just sit and wait.

That can be fun to do with the kids, but I like to go out and do it hunting style.

Let's go find them.

Let's find where the fish are.

Where do fish like to be?

Well, sunny day like today, they like shade.

Okay, fish don't have eyelids, so they can't squint when the sun's in their eyes.

It's hot, they like cooler water, so you want to look for shade.

They like structure in the water.

I'm standing on a dock right now, you know?

So a dock has its structure, it's also shade, because they can be under the dock.

Tree stumps in the water, logs that have fallen in the water, rocks, anything like that, any kind of structure, they like to be around.

If you find isolated structure, what that means is that you look out of the water and all by itself, you see a stick popping up or a stump and there's nothing else around it, there's a very good chance there's going to be fish there because that's the only structure around.

They also like vegetation because vegetation has bugs and that brings smaller fish.

They're going to be looking for the bigger fish or eating the smaller fish.

Vegetation oxygenates the water and there's also shade.

And so I'm looking around, what vegetation do I see?

I see right over there.

There's some grass.

And I also know, because I know this lake, that there's all along here, there's underwater vegetation.

Now, if you really get into it and you start researching before you go to a body of water, you get a topographical map.

You find out what's happening underneath the surface of the water, which maybe you don't feel like putting that kind of energy into it.

I understand.

I'm an insane fisherman, so I like to get the topographical maps.

So I know that there's an underwater creek channel about 20 feet that that way.

The fish like to be in that.

So it's kind of like a divot in the ground and they like to hang out there.

I'm not on a boat right now, so I only can access so much of this lake.

So we'll just start fishing and see what we can find.

I know what spots I'm sort of targeting, but then you just got to go.

How do you operate one of these?

This is, again, a spinning reel.

You want to hold the line with your finger like this, and then you flip.

This is called the bale.

You flip the bale, hold that line with your finger, and then as you're casting it, you let go of the line.

Once the bait hits the water, you flip the bale back.

I'm gonna cast it,

flip the bale.

One thing you can do, let it hit the bottom, and then you're gonna drag it along the bottom like this.

I'm already hung up on something.

You reel up the slack and you drag it on the bottom, and that's a good way to target fish that might be feeding off of the bottom.

I've already caught something.

Look, my first catch.

Little clam here.

You can't say that I didn't catch something.

I did catch something.

So there we go.

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If you're fishing for a while and you're not getting any bites, either it means you're throwing the wrong kind of bait, they're not interested in the bait that you're throwing.

Maybe it's the wrong color, maybe it's the wrong shape, maybe it has the wrong kind of action for them.

It either means that or it means you're just in the wrong spot.

And if you're confident in the bait, and I'm pretty confident in this bait, and I'm very confident in the color for these conditions, so I know I'm not going to change the color up.

So if I'm not getting any bites after a while, it just means I'm in the wrong spot.

There's no fish around here.

Or if they're here, they're not hungry.

If we catch something, I'll be able to show you this.

But we've covered everything to get us to this point.

Then what happens if you get a fish on?

How do you know that you have a fish on your hook, especially if there's no bobber?

You're doing traditional bobber fishing, you see the bobber goes down, you know, you know you have a fish.

How do you know if you don't have the bobber?

Well, there's two ways to know.

One is you'll be able to feel it.

You're going to feel not just a tug, but you're going to feel something taking the line line and moving it.

And you're going to watch the line.

You want to see the line.

Can you see the line move?

Now, the moment you feel the first tug, you want to wait.

You want to have some patience because you want to the fish to get the bait into its mouth and move with it.

And as soon as that happens, you're going to do what's called set the hook.

Setting the hook is really important.

And people that fish and are just getting into it or kind of amateurs, you'll see them, they get a fish on and they just start reeling right away.

You don't want to do that because you're going to rip the hook out of the fish's mouth.

So when I know I have a fish on, I'm going to reel down.

What was that one?

Might have been one.

I'm going to reel down the slack if I have a fish on.

Actually, there is a fish right there.

You're going to reel down the slack so you have a tight line.

Always keep the line tight.

And then you're going to come up like this.

You're basically going to bring, and you're going to do it a lot more violently than that.

Very hard.

You're going to bring the rod up to about 12 o'clock position.

That's the fun part.

Okay, now you have the fish hooked, right?

Now you got to reel it in.

But the thing is, you're actually not reeling the fish in.

You're pulling the fish in, okay?

Again, if you're kind of an amateur, when you're bringing the fish in, all you're doing is you're just doing it all with the reel and you're just reeling it like this.

And what's going to happen is you're going to lose a lot of fish that way because as you're reeling, it's making the hook kind of jolt around in the fish's mouth and it might come out.

So, what you're actually going to do to reel it in

is once you have that fish on, you're going to be kind of reeling down the slack and pulling like this.

Reel down the slack, pull until you have that fish over here.

And that's going to keep that hook still in the fish's mouth.

Okay, so I've hit this part of the area pretty thoroughly, so I'm pretty confident there are no hungry bass in this little area here.

Oh, that's another bite.

Yeah, there's one there.

Now fish will bite for different reasons.

This is, you get what's called a reaction bite, and that's the instinctive gest, they see it move and they grab it.

You'll get a defensive bite.

Defensive bites, particularly if it's during the spawn and the fish are on beds and they're spawning, and you drag that bait across a bed, then they're going to attack the bait, like defending, they're defending their eggs, defending the bed.

And then the best bite that you could possibly get is they're actually hungry and

they're out hunting themselves for something.

But the kind of bite I'm getting right now, I'd say it's probably more of a reaction bite or just pure curiosity.

You know, fish don't have hands, so they're exploring the world, they're trying to figure out what something is, and they're just sort of nibbling on it.

You throw it back, catch and release, or do you cook it?

I'm catch and release.

And so, yeah, there are a lot of people who say, well, that's the point.

You're just out here fishing all day.

You catch fish, you throw them back.

And I think the point is the act itself.

That's what I like about it.

What's the point of anything?

Not everything you do has to bring about some immediate tangible benefit.

Now, you're also learning a valuable skill.

So this is a real skill.

This is one of the reasons why we have human civilization is fishing.

That human beings thousands of years ago figured out how to do some version of this,

and we wouldn't have human civilization without it.

You know, if the crap ever hits the fan and human society falls apart, well, put me on a body of water, give me some fishing tackle, I could probably bring in a fish.

So I know that's a skill that I have.

And the benefits of fishing are, you know, enjoyment.

As I said, you learn patience.

You're out in nature.

See all the life.

That's the other thing too is that when you're fishing, you want want to look for signs of life, especially if you're having a hard time and not catching anything.

So you're looking for signs of life, and that's really anything.

Obviously, if you see fish in the water, that's a good sign.

You want to fish around there.

Do you see birds?

You see like waterfowl?

Do you see frogs, turtles, anything?

The more active the lake is, the more that you can see going on on the surface and around it, then the more likely it is to hold the kind of fish that you're after.

It's just important to have hobbies too as a man, and I think in particular as a father, something you can do with your children and pass on to them.

I got into it probably when I was about 30,

maybe a little younger, maybe about 28, 27, 28.

So I've been fishing for 10, 12, 13 years because I wanted to have some kind of actual hobby aside from, because if you don't have a hobby then what do you end up doing these days?

You end up just all your free time.

You're sitting around staring at a screen and I don't want that kind of life.

I mean, I'm glad you're staring at a screen right now, but that's not, that's, you should have more, there should be more going on in your life than that.

Now all my kids not a fish.

In fact, just before we started filming this, my 12-year-old daughter, because I told her we were filming some fishing thing, she wanted me to make sure I tell the audience that she is a very good fisher, and she's the best in the family, aside from me.

Okay, so we tried off the dock a little bit, and you're limited.

You can only hit so many spots from the dock.

Haven't been able to get any fish to commit.

So now I gotta get on the move.

You gotta go look for them.

So I'm gonna get into the water and just walk.

Now I know there's a little cove and we can't go all the way to the cove, but over there there's some vegetation and as you enter into the cove that's a spot where fish might hang out.

So I'm gonna get into the water.

I'm just gonna walk over there.

See if we can find one.

Prime time for fishing.

Really early in the morning, especially in the summer.

For sun up

until about two hours from then.

Sun up is 530 then from about 5.30 to 7.30,

which I really enjoy.

Now you got to drag yourself out of bed, but for me, one of the happiest places to be on earth is a lake like this at about 6 a.m.

On a day where it's going to be really hot, but it's not hot yet.

And you got a cup of coffee and you're just out on the lake fishing.

And then to about, in my experience, about an hour, 90 minutes to an hour before sundown.

So if sundown is 8.30, then prime time starts again at about 7.

That's why I've caught my biggest fish actually this summer is about 7 to 7:30.

Because things are cooling down.

You've got the sun's going down, you've got more shade.

In the summer, the fish are just going to be more active

when it's cooler.

When they've got enough light that they can see, but it's still cooler.

But right now,

I am just striking out.

Now,

one important tool you have to have with you, aside from your knife and your pliers, is your excuses.

When you're not catching anything, like I'm not right now,

what's your excuse?

You gotta have a good excuse.

What are you gonna blame for that fact?

Because it can't just be that you suck at fishing.

So, for me, right now, the excuse that I'm landing on

is time of day.

I'm going with a time of day excuse,

and also location.

They still fish there.

Cannot get him to commit though.

What's going to happen, I'll tell you right now what's going to happen, is we're going to finish up filming

and then I'm going to keep fishing and

then I'm going to catch one.

That's what's going to happen.

Well, as the prophecy foretold, as soon as we stopped filming and the gear went away, I decided to go back out of the water because i can't end a fishing day without catching anything took about five minutes and i finally caught one so this not it's not a big one this is a this is a largemouth uh bass difference between a small mouth and a largemouth is that the large has a larger mouth and also it has a horizontal line which you can sort of see going across its body there's a you know maybe a pound and a half two pounds not a huge one but um we did catch one on the brush hog in the kayak so it still sort of counts and uh there it is and we'll put them back.

Does that mean we don't have to do another fishing video?

No, because now we have to do another one so that we can catch a bigger fish and actually reel it in on camera.

So stay tuned.