Get the best gear you can afford; make safety one of your highest priorities (and keep some good sunscreen & lip balm out there with you, along with some snacks & drinks to keep you well-nourished & hydrated). Buy some decent-quality, well-fitting waders & fins, plus some good polarized lenses (I use SolarBats in Moss Green, but there are cheaper alternatives). Get yourself a flippin' stick, a wormin' rod, a crankin' rod, a split-shot/drop-shot rod, a blade (spinnerbait) rod...man, I could go on & on!

Get started with the above, & just GET OUT THERE & DO IT! The rest will come over time. Stay in touch with this board, as well as the westernbass.com forum, to ask all the questions you can come up with; there'll be plenty of guys ready to provide you tips & other assistance, as well as rides to the lake, fishing reports, all that jazz.

Welcome to the board! Let's hope we can get you up to speed quickly & have you catching bigger bass than you ever imagined you would! I remember back to my first *flipped* fish -- a nice, fat 5.8 lb'er out at Stevens Creek Reservoir in Cupertino, right down the street from where I lived at the time. To see that first big flash of a fat, white belly coming up out of that bush just 10 feet away, weighing like I'd hooked an old '57 Chevy -- boy, was I stoked! Total exhileration! And I never would have gotten there so quickly without the generous advice & guidance from a couple of the guys right here on the site.

Time on the water is one of your best bets for steady improvement -- get out there & get it while you can!


Hope to see you out there soon!