Good morning:

I am new to the forum and hope I am posting this in the right place. I live in the metro area and recently inherited (in a way) a fishing boat. My problem is the last time I put a hook into freshwater Gerald Ford was the President and I have forgotten most if not all of what I knew about fishing.

To prepare for my re-entry to the sport I went to Cabela's and spent a few hundred dollars on tackle (I already had a few rods and reels from a class action settlement with Brunswick) so I am reasonably well equipped. Therin lies the problem, I am if not totally, at least majorly ignorant as to how to use this stuff or where to use it.

What I am looking for is some sort of clinic (or guru) to help me out. I am willing to provide the boat (and my company, not that it is worth much) preferably in the north metro (I live just north of 394 and 100) and gas if some kind soul would be willing to hit the lake with a total rookie and help me re-learn how to use all this neat stuff.

Thanks for reading this.

Welcome to the site! You'll find lots of great information here, and many who will go out of their way to help you out. Good luck!

That is fortunate, as I need all the help I can get adn not just with fishing.

There's an "Open Seats" forum at the top of the topic list. Check it out, and maybe see if someone will head out with you there. There's lots of helpful and knowledgeable people here who are always willing to help. Maybe hire a fishing guide for a day and ask them to teach you some tricks?

Welcome to the site and welcome back to fishing.

Welcome to the forums! Nice to see you getting back into the sport

I plan on doing the guide thing next spring.

I will check out the open seats discussion.

Thanks

Welcome to the site jac714!

jac714 what do you prefer to catch ,something for your your belly or something to make your drag squeal.I do not fish the metro anymore as of recent but there are some great lakes very close to you that are over looked.

There are many great areas to fish in the metro area. Knowing what kind of fish you would like to target would be very helpful. I can catch bass, panfish, pike and skies, but walleyes are not my forte. That being said, if schedules would work out I would be willing to hit the water with ya. Always been fun to go out with someone new to the sport and show them a thing or two. I think the biggest thing about getting out on the water with someone new is teaching them how to read the water. Lake maps and a general understanding of structure and how fish relate to it is the starting point to me. Once you have that down you can apply it to different species and fine tune your skills.

Welcome to FM. Glad you are a part of the family here!

Welcome to the adiction that is FM!!! I would be more than happy to ride in your boat or have ya jump in mine. What type of fish do you wanna try for? I'm most familiar with the Croix, but hit lakes as well.

A guide is great to get you up on that learning curve. Also, try to hit get-togethers that you will find posted on this site. You will get a lot of information from them as well as these threads. If you're interested, check out the get-together in the Mille Lacs forum. They have clinics up there and lots of fishing.

Hope you get out and fish a lot. Like I said, I always have an open offer.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome, I just joined a few weeks ago have learned quite a bit already from people here, they are all so friendly .

Thanks for the replies and offers, lets see if I can answer the questions.

I am thinking of fishing mainly for the fun of it, if I really need fish to eat there is always Byerlys.

That is not to say of I catch a nice Walleye it won't find it's way to the grill.

I can read a lake map and visualize the structure from the contour lines, what that data means is the issue, also trying to locate the structure with the electronics I have available.

I am thinking about heading out tomorrow in the mid morning (9 ish) for one of the west/north metro lakes, any suggestions?