How to fish

This instructable demonstrates how to fish in fresh water such as ponds, streams, and lakes, using a minimum of inexpensive equipment. It is designed for non-fishing parents that wish to give their kids a fun and educational experience or for those that simply want to give it a try without investing a lot of money. The thrill of catching your first fish is exactly the same whether you spend $20 or $2000, and you can always ramp up to the expensive stuff later.

Step 1 Materials

Everything you need to fish can be purchased at your local Wal-Mart or sporting good store for under $20. You will need:

- A cane pole - I bought a 2 piece pole at Wal-Mart for $3.54
- An assortment of small hooks - about $2.00
- Some bobbers or floats, smaller is better- a pack of small ones is about $2.00
- Monofilament line, cheap is fine. Get 10 or 12 lb test - about $10.00

Some country stores may carry long one-piece cane poles, and these are good for serious cane-pole fishing by adults. For kids, I like the ones that come in two pieces and are about 10 feet long when assembled. You simply insert the top end into the bottom end and you are ready to go. Afterwards, they are easily disassembled to put in the trunk of the car.

Comments

[ilpug]

this is pretty much the best simple fishing ible ever. i like how you even bypassed poles with reels and used the old fashioned "doodle" poles. you can also bypass buying a rod, and save money by getting a bamboo pole from the gardening department.

[craigl]

Thanks - I grew up in the deep south and cane poles were what we used, so that is how I learned myself. I consider them to be better than a rod-and-reel setup when fishing for bluegills and other panfish. Also, cane poles are much easier for kids to learn on - just bait the hook, throw it in, and watch the bobber. Casting takes a lot more skill (and there's a danger from flying hooks). Once a kid has mastered actually catching fish (and taking them off the hook and rebaiting), they can "graduate" to a rod-and-reel fishing if they wish. In any case that's what I did with my kids.

[ilpug]

i learned on rod and reel poles, but i love the simplicity of cane poles. i agree that they are best for bluegill. in my pond i have caught tons of them with just a stick and a hook and line. bluegill will bite at anything. mainly i catch largemouth bass, which pretty much requires a rod and reel.

[slaitch]

Cut.....HAH!
Bite.

[Clayton H.]

sometimes me and my dad go perch fishing out on Lake Erie when their in season, which if anyone has done that, it is pretty much just dropping the hook down and pulling it up half a minute later and you got a fish. Great father-son bonding moment.

[random joe]

I remember my times as a kid, when I was growing up in PA, when my dad would take me fishing and we would put or hooks in and sit, and we would bring in 14 inch channel cats and huge carp

[ikeike40]

I don't use a bobber I just simply walk out on my dock and drop the line. For bait I use hotdog while I wait I contsantly throw out little bits of hotdog out. Doing this I have caught anything from bluegill to bass to gars to bowfin.

[larksid7]

whole kernel corn is a good simple bait that panfish llove and easy to put in hook and small enought to fit in a small or big fish mouth.....

[danny6114]

 Using a longer length of line, tie one end of the line to the butt end of the pole, then spiral wrap to the tip of the pole. That way if the two sections separate you won''t have to fish for your pole tip. It also helps to strengthen the pole somewhat.

[craigl]

 Excellent suggestion and wish I had done exactly that :-)  Growing up in FLA, we always used unsegmented cane poles so never had to rig it like that, but the extra spiral down the pole is good advice for the cheapo WalMart poles I feature in the Instructable.  

[danny6114]

 The spiral wrap helps to strengthen all cane poles by spreading the stress over more of the length of the pole, like a shock absorber.

[dsaavedra]

good instructable except for one thing.

there is a much safer way to hold bluegills. as you can probably tell, they have sharp dorsal spines that can go into your hands very easily.

the best and safest way to hold bluegills is to cup your hand in a "C" shape and wrap your hand around the fish.

you do this by coming in from the front (not the back like you said in the instructable). then, using the outside edge of your thumb, gently push the spines down and at the same time grip the fish with your fingers around the belly.

here is a picture of a nice bluegill i caught. i'm holding it in the way i described above

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f120/davidsaavedra/birthdayfishing_0011.jpg

[craigl]

I passed on the way I was taught - I'm sure your method will work also.  It has been my experience, however, that panfish will continue to flop around unless their gills are compressed on both sides.  My grip accomplishes that, and I have never, ever been stuck with the dorsal fins while using it.

[tictac24]

An important step you forgot to add is, before beginning the process of cleaning the fish, to incapacitate the fish somehow, byknocking it unconscious or somehow instantly killing it. I always did it by giving the fish a solid whack on the head (perhaps with the scaling spoon) and make sure they're knocked out. It not only keeps the fish still for carving, but also saves them needless suffering.

[craigl]

 Good point - I when cleaning catfish (which can live for quite a while in the
open air), I usually put them out of their misery with a hunting knife through the brain and into a wooden cleaning board.

[sodomschild]

You are eating the fish.Knocking it out makes it easier?Grab it by the head and fillet that bad boy!You've already stuck a hook in it's mouth and pulled it out of the water.Why be nice now?"Needless suffering!"

[jburchet]

I think filleting a fish alive is much more cruel than catching a fish with a hook.  It is good to respect  the fish that is about to nourish you

[juntti]

We use a small weight just above (2-5 cm.) the hook to make it to sink faster & stay better in place. 

Also (I skimmed through some of the text so you may actually mention this) but it is important to learn to adjust the bobber and thus adjust the depth of the bait. Different fish swim on different depths at different times, water temperatures etc.

Also, as kids when we did not expect to have anything big, we just carried the line readied with the bobber & weight and made the poles on the spot from tree branches etc. We seldom used dough or bread,  we user worms most of the time as dough & bread lure a bit poorer type of fish around here.

[craigl]

 I've also used small split shot weights at times, but was going for simplicity in the instructable.  Also am not convinced that the weight actually is a benefit - without the weight, the bait and hook sink slower and appear a bit more natural to the fish - at least that's my theory :-)

I mainly use weight when I want the bait to sit on the bottom - for example, when fishing for catfish at night with a rod and reel and no bobber, etc. I use a 1/4 or 1/2 oz. slip sinker for that, along with either doughball/cheeseball/stinkbait for flatheads and bullheads or cut up bluegills for channel cats.

[juntti]

Ah, you did mention about moving the bobber. Sorry about that.

[xjetfixer]

 Good looking channel cat. Get out the frying pan.flour,salt, pepper,and Crisco.
Cook some fries and you are in for some good eating.

[craigl]

 it *was* good eating :-)  Since we made this instructable, the channel cats have about doubled in size from what is pictured here.

[The Man From Nantucket]

Tell me the 11 secret herbs and spices to your original recipe! I must have it now!

[Kryptonite]

• Salt,
• Pepper,
• Chicken salt,
• Chicken pepper,
• More salt,
• More pepper,
• Chicken,
• Time,
• Thyme,
• Even more salt,
• Even more pepper.

In that exact order.

[Tracy]

Great instructable! I have been fishing for 40 years, and I still love cane pole fishing for bream and catfish.
Another way to control a fish is to stick your thumb in its mouth and pinch its lower jaw. This subdues the fish without harming it, forces its mouth to stay open and makes it easier to remove the hook. It also gives a good grip and keeps you from getting "finned".

[geodez]

a 3.54$ bamboo rod, where did you get that?

[craigl]

 Got everything in the picture from the local WalMart.  The bamboo pole is fine for kids fishing for bluegills or other small fish, but as the final couple of pictures in my instructable show, it doesn't hold up very well for a large catfish that weighs > 3 pounds :-)

[geodez]

oh, the walmart by my house does not have a very large fishing department, and i also see you bought the old version of trilene XT, i have the new version in 8 LB.

[waqs84]

Well I must say this was big help help. thnks very much, U guys have made it so easy for me to fish nw. Hopefully!!!!!

[i can go supersonic]

use my way it works every time. take a nightcrawler and throw it in the water far away and cast out your pole right over there and wait for the fish to come or...................................... take a nightcrawler and put is on the hook and cast out far................realy.....realy far and attract the fish 4 times (yank the fishing pole 4 times) and then real in 5 times. it works almost every time.WARNING do not use fake bait. use these thiings............... worms,nightcrawlers,hot dogs,bread,minos and anything else fish love.

[The Man From Nantucket]

Great instructable! It's sad that it seems like the younger the generations, the less and less people fish and just enjoy the outdoors now days.

[jona991]

here in the Netherlands you don't may eat the fish. sorry for bad English I'm 13

[blaahhaa]

Great instructable. Lots of advice that has helped alot.

[GCLumpkin]

What a great Instructable. Good detail, good pictures and good descriptions. This is the only kind of fishing we did when I was a kid. My fondest memories are of my family fishing local ponds in North Carolina with my grandparents. Papa and Granny would have three rods each in the water! LOL I grew up eating fried panfish and yes, the tiny bones were a pain, but the fish was worth it. Now I have two little ones of my own and I plan to use this Instructable to teach them how to fish. Again, great job and thanks for stirring up some fond, fond memories. Greg

[iamismail]

camara flash a bit to strong

[iamismail]

i am a vegitrian but i still go fishing i eather do cacth or release or i give it to my dad and he cuts it cooks it and eats i just go fishing for fun. nice prensation.

[canida]

Excellent! There's little better than fishing the edges of a well-stocked lake, and bluegill are quite possibly the tastiest fish ever. I like to do the final dredge in Jiffy cornbread mix - it goes nicely with the naturally sweet flavor of bluegill or catfish, and adds a bit more texture.

[craigl]

My daughter and I caught three catfish and 10 keeper bluegills on one slice of bread when making this instructable, after which we cleaned and fried them up in cornmeal. I also like to use Jiffy. Good for hush puppies, which we also made.

[harley_rly]

Me and my dad were fishing off my cousins dock a couple of winters ago and together we caught 20 large crappie on green and yellow jigs with red heads, and minnows(I used some powerbait, and that actually worked I caught 4 more fish and we were both fishing in the same spot. we also caught some massive perch they were about 8 inches but we threw them back, don't really like cleanin' 'em.

[jongscx]

Are you going to follow up with "How to Fry a fish?"