Gearing up for a First Outing

Earlier this morning I stopped by Sports Chalet to take a look at some freshwater rod/reel combos to get me started fishing again out here.  At first, I was thinking I might get a ugly stik combo, since all I had fished with back in NY were ugly stiks, once I got to the store that all changed.  They had a ton of different combos available, but for some reason I was draw to this little Daiwa rod, that I would have easily missed if I just had glanced over the selections.  Without anymore consideration I decided that's the one I would go with!  It's an light (borderline ultralight) 5'6" rod with cork grip and 5 ball bearing spinning reel.  It didn't come pre-spooled opted to go with the Maxima Green 6 lb test line.  Time to put it to the test!

At Shadow Cliffs most of the spaces on the fishing docks were taken up, so I decided to just stand by the bank and cast out a kastmaster.  My first few cast were doozies, I would either release the line way too early or way too late.  After a few unsightly casts I was able to get my kastmaster out a decent distance and even had a little bass hit it.  Even though it was a small bass it put up a decent fight, I had forgotten how exciting it was to set that hook and play the fish in.  The rod/reel performed flawlessly, the bend in the rod seemed so perfect as I was playing the fish, the drag was very smooth, and the cork grip seemed to meld into my hand (granted it was also a small fish).  I was "hooked" on fishing again right at that moment (pun intended). The remainder of the time there I had a few other little bass hit my Kastmaster, everything was under ~5 inches.  I was able to bring most of them in, but a few times I definitely messed up my hookset, mainly because I had been fiddling with the drag and left it too loose.  It was definitely a great experience for my first time out fishing again!

Top Left:  Setting the rod and attaching a snap swivel to my line
Bottom Right:  One of the small large-mouth bass that were hitting my Kastmaster