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By: Ikedi Ani-okoye

Choosing the right bait

Choosing the right bait is a very important part of successful fishing. The first thing to consider when choosing bait is whether to use live or artificial bait.

Live bait live bait is the real food that fish eat, and fish are very willing to bite it. Live bait includes small fish such as roach, minnows, gudgeon, and small trout. Anglers often use maggots, worms, and insects as live bait.

Artificial bait the many types of artificial bait, or lures, are designed to attract a fish's attention or to fool it into thanking a lure is food, or both. Some lures look a lot like live bait. Others are iust brightly coloured, or have flashy moving parts. Some of them make noise as they move through the water.

Deciding which bait to use

A beginning angler might want to choose live bait over artificial because it is easier to catch fish with live bait. But artificial bait is yore convenlellc to use. Vou do not have to worry about keeping It Alive, as you do with live bait. You can keep it in your trickle box. As long as you do not lose it, you can use it over and over again.

In sunny clear water, light-coloured lures are usually better than darker ones. The opposite is true for darks cloudy water. Another way to choose bait is to '*match the hatch". This expression refers to the fact that fish eat prey that is available. When there are a lot of minnows available, they eat minnows. When certain kinds of insects hatch, such as mayflies, fish will be looking for mayflies. If you offer ba*lt or lures that look like the type of prey the fish are eating, you will be more likely to catch fish.

Lures and files

Artificial bait includes Spinners, plugs, jigs, soft plastics. spoons, and flies. Spinners have shiny metal blades that spin around asyou etrieve them. Most plugs are made of plastic. They usually have two or more three-prorigeu hooKs called treble hooks hanging from I them. 1igs are simple lures made up of a hook with a lead weight moulded around it. Soft plastics are rubbery and are designed to ook and feel like live bait. Spoons are curved, blade-shaped lures that Eash in the water. Most spoons are maae of metal that is shiny on one side and brightly painted on the other. Most flies look like various types of insects. They are made by tying Wits of ha.lr, fur, or feathers onto a hook.

Before you can start fishing.

Before you can start fishing, you will need to set up your rig. Each rig has the saree basic parts, but may have a different kind of rod, reel, and bait set-up. Here is how to set up a float rig with a worm as bait.

Assembling the rod and reel

If your rod has two or three sections, you have to put it together. Hold the handle and gently slade the next section into the hole at the end of the handle section. Make sure the guides are lined Up . Do the same with the third section, if there is one. Now attach the reel. A spinning reel qoes on th e bottorn side of the rod handle. Slide the reel's foot into the slot on the handle, called the reel seat. Slide the locking ring over the upper part of the reel foot and screw it on snugly.

Tying on the tackle

Pull some line from the reel and thread it through the circular guides on the rod. Slide the float onto the line, and using pliers, attach the split shot tO hold the float in place. Then tie on the hook - use one of the angler's knots shown on the next page. Add more split shot near the hook to sink the bait. There are several ways to attach a worm to hook. You may hook the worm through the very end so that it moves freely in the water. Or you may slide the hook through the worm to hide the hook completely. You may also hook the worm several times to bunch it up.