Basic Fishing Equipment for Beginners

You can fish without spending a lot of money on equipment, or you can shop to your heart’s content. This is a guide to have the basic equipment for fishing.

The basic fishing equipment for beginners are:

Fishing Rod

Try a bare fishing rod (which opens like a telescope) or a fishing reel. If you’ll be river fishing, you’ll probably need a longer rod. The following are the recommended rods for beginners.

It is basic fishing equipment to start with but it is also perfectly suitable for fishing from the shore at sea. With equipment like this, I have had a lot of fun fishing everywhere, I always recommend carrying a kit like this in the car.

fishing rod kit

Basic Fishing Equipment – Fishing Line

Use a monofilament fishing line. It is rated for strength or toughness. Start with a 10 to 15-pound weight to try.

We recommend our article about how to choose the fishing line.

fishing line diy

Rigging

Casting plugs: help you practice casting in your backyard. Attach these weights to the end of the line. You “cast” to pivot your line so that it lands at a certain point in the water.

Hooks: They come in various sizes. Long hooks such as number 6 hold worms and are good for catching perch or catfish. Number 8 and 10 hooks hold worms or crickets and are good for bluegill and other panfish. Small number of 12 hooks can hold salmon eggs for catching trout.

Floats and sinkers: help you control where your bait stays in the water. Some fish like to feed near the surface of the water, some in the middle, and some, like catfish, on the bottom. You want your bait to be where the fish are feeding. The float floats on the surface of the water and keeps your hook and bait off the bottom of the water. It also jiggles to let you know when a fish takes the bait. Weights are metal weights that keep your line close to the hook. Weights help control the line underwater so that it stays where you want it. The most popular are weights shaped like small gray metal balls that tighten the fishing line.

Pliers: They will help you pull the hook out of the fish’s mouth.

Basic Fishing Equipment – Bait and Lures

Bait is what the fish will bite.

Many people have success with baits from the kitchen, such as:

  • bread
  • cheese
  • pieces of sausage

Below are some favorite live baits:

  • White Perch: Minnows (any).
  • Sun Perch: Worms
  • Black Perch: Worms
  • Catfish: Worms
  • Yellow perch: Crickets
  • Trout: Salmon eggs

Lures: attract the attention of the fish. There are many types of colorful or bright lures to use instead of live bait to catch a fish.

We recommend our article about the best baits for fishing.