The Perfect Starter Fish

Fishing is a sport that you can learn and enjoy regardless of when you decide to start. If you are just starting to take up fishing, I recommend that you decide first what species of fish you are going to learn to catch. This will determine the gear you buy, the bait or lures you use and the type of access to the water you need.

If you are lucky enough to be in proximity to well known game fish, then by all means go for it. For example, if you live within a few blocks of a good surf fishing shore, then I can think of no better form of fishing to learn. If you have a home on a great bass lake, and you want to turn your pleasure boat into a fisherman's craft a few hours each week, fantastic. If you can drive 10 minutes to a top producing trout stream, then be most grateful.

However, if you are like most of us, when you decide to start fishing you are landlocked without a boat and without a clue as to where to start practicing the craft to really learn it - and upon what fish to start with.

For a beginner in this typical situation, I suggest the following criteria be used to choose the type of fish you are going after while you're learning:

1. The "starter" fish should give you the same fight as the more popular game fishes but on lighter, less expensive gear. Otherwise, it's not fun and you don't learn how to land a fish that fights.

2. The "starter" fish should bite well on all fishing methods that use live bait and artificial lures. This way, you can learn the variations of these methods with basic techniques that can be applied to other game fish later on.

3. The older lunkers among the "starter" fish should be just as wary and hard to catch as the ones from the more popular game fishes.

4. You should be able to practice fishing with a good chance of success from the bank, shore, boat or dock. It does no good to start out learning to fish if the species you are learning on requires a boat you don't have to get to them.

5. Last but certainly not least, the "starter" fish should be good to eat and enjoyable to the taste. While catch and release philosophies certainly have their place, the old-time "cleaning-and-cooking-what-you-catch" ethos is both a good and enjoyable aspect of the sport. (Ask anybody who has cooked and eaten freshly caught fish and all the fixings while camping on a lake or river).

The fish that meets all of the above criteria and is my recommendation for the perfect "starter" fish is the bluegill, or bream as they are called in the South.

1. Pound for pound, the bluegill is a good fighter that can be caught on lightweight, inexpensive rod and reel combinations and fly-rods. You can pick up a workable rod and reel combination for less than 20 dollars at most superstores. The tackle is light and inexpensive too.

2. Bluegills love crickets, worms and even white bread pellets. They'll hit artificial baits like jigs, spinners and popping bugs.

3. While a lot of people find it easy to catch small bluegills, most people have never seen the size of a real "slab". These fish got old for a reason, they are wary and take skill beyond just wetting a hook from the bank. While the specifics may differ, learning how to find and catch the big bluegills provides you with the basics of starting to think like the big ones.

4. The bluegill is your best bet in most places to catch a stringer full of keepers from the dock or bank. If you have access to a boat, your possibilities are endless to find the really big ones (provided you learn how to outsmart them).

5. Dredge a fresh, cleaned mess of bluegills in a mixture of flour, corn meal, salt, and pepper. Deep fry them until golden brown. Serve them up hot with french fries, cold slaw and beer (or iced tea if you prefer). You get the picture. There are few wild caught fish that are as good deep fried than the bluegill - a clean white meat that tastes great by itself or with your favorite condiment (ketchup for me please) for dipping.

Want to start fishing? Start with the bluegill. Get good at all the ways of catching it, especially the really big ones, and you'll be ready to "graduate" to trout, bass, and redfish before you know it. Or, you may discover that you found your favorite game fish "right from the start".