How many times have you mentioned to someone that you enjoy fishing, only to have them tell you how boring it is? I run across this all the time, and I usually ask that person what their idea of fishing is. I ask “If I invited you to go fishing with me tomorrow, what do you think we’d do?” The typical response is that we’d sit in lawn chairs, cast out a worm, and wait for something to bite. I then tell them that I haven’t fished that way in years. Not that there is anything wrong with that style of fishing if that’s what you enjoy, but many people don’t realize how amazing the sport of fishing can be! I took one of those people bass fishing at a local pond throwing hollow body frogs over grass mats. We had a good time catching a few bass, and at the end of the day my guest said “I had no idea!”

That is why I decided to write a new series of blogs on the subject of how to get started fishing. As I continue through the series you will see a transition towards bass fishing specifically, but the basics of bass fishing and fishing for other species are pretty much the same. In this blog we will cover the topics of rules and regs and finding a place to fish.

The very first thing you need to consider before even picking up a pole is your local rules and regulations. Colorado’s rules and regs can be found online here. This document includes necessary information such as license costs, fishing laws, special regulations on specific bodies of water, and other general information. Make sure you read carefully to determine what your costs are going to be as licenses are priced according to age and residency. There is also the additional cost of an annual habitat stamp to consider. To purchase your fishing license, you can do so online here or visit your local Walmart or sporting goods store.

After you check your rules and regulations and purchase a license, you need to figure out where you’re going to fish. That’s where Fishexplorer kicks in. Browse the lake and river maps to determine what public bodies of water are near you, what fees there are to get into the location (if any), and what species they hold. You can also view fishing reports and talk with other anglers on the forum to get more information on current conditions and how good the bite is. Another good resource for finding places to fish is the Colorado fishing atlas. It contains much of the same information you will find on Fishexplorer’s lake map and can be found here. Finally, a relatively new resource on the scene is Fishbrain. This is an app similar to Instagram but is dedicated to fishing. The thing about Fishbrain, though, is that many people specifically post information on where they caught their fish and what they caught their fish on! Giving out this information is considered “hot-spotting” by many and can increase fishing pressure on any given lake or pond so be careful about what information you choose to share with others. You can’t always take this information at face value, however, as many people also post false information as to where they caught their fish and what they caught it on. For example, I often see posts from people who are purposely mis-identifying species, posting locations that literally hold no fish, and saying they caught the fish on some crazy bait that fish would never eat. Putting all of these resources together will indeed help you dial in a spot that you can have some confidence in for your first time.

So at this point you should have determined where you’re going to fish. But wait! You don’t have any gear yet! If you have already some fishing gear around the house and just want to get out fishing then go ahead and use it. However, I have a few recommendations on what gear I’d select for my first time to make your fishing experiences good ones. That information will be upcoming in my second blog in the series as it is too much to get into at the moment.

I hope if you’re a beginner this proved to be some valuable information to help get you started. If you have any questions go ahead and leave them in the comments section, or create a post on the forum and the Fishexplorer community will be more than willing to help you out!