I recently discovered how fun fishing can be. I live on lake tapps so i can fish almost everyday. The problem is i do not know much about fishing in general. I want to learn how to fish for smallmouth and tiger musky. If anyone has any advice as to what to use and how to do it it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

First of all what kind of equipment do you have now? I mean rods and reels, lures, boat? There are books in the library that will give you a ton of general information and start you off in the right direction. If all of us wrote an article on the particular fishing syles and techiques we use it's not going to help you much. You need to start with the basics. When you see another fisherman on the water it is OK to talk to them,[as long as they're not in a tournament] hopefully they are not so busy that they will not help you a little. A lot of us want to share knowledge.
Feel free to talk to me anytime, I'm the dude that looks like Santa in the red Lund boat.
Bill

I hjave a spinning real, a few crankbaits, spinners, jigs, buzzbats, and grubs. I have a seadoo to get accross the lake if i need and a raft with a 5 horse motor. My house is between tapps and snagg, just a few house from the tapps bridge. Im at the house with a floating dock connected to a log with a blue ski boat at the dock. If u ever see me fishing i would love it if youd stop by and ggive me some tips. I am going to go get some books and get a reading. I know there are bass in front of my house because i have seen numerous fishers catch them this year alone. Thanks for the help!

Atyrrell,

Welcome! For some information on bass fishing, you may want to check out this web site:

http://www.bassresource.com/fish/bass_fish.html

I check it out everyday, and it has information for the novice all the way to the professional bass fisherman.

It sounds like you have some decent tackle to get you started. If I were you, I would just start by fishing near docks and rocky shores. Smallmouth love rocks and docks. Start out by using a search bait such as a crankbait or spinnerbait. Once you find the fish, you can start to fish them more thoroughly with either grubs or live bait.

For grubs, I would use either a 1/16, 1/8 or 1/4 ounce jig head. Use the lightest that you can use, depending how windy it is.

For live bait, a great, simple tactic for smallmouth is to use a slip bobber rig. This works great from shore, so this definetly would be an option for you.

Another bait that is fairly easy to use and very productive is Senkos. These look like straight plastic worms but they have something about them that bass love. For smallmouth, I recommend using the 4 inch version with either a 1/O or 2/O hook. I like both the regular and slim versions of the Senkos. There are also many imitations of these baits, and they work pretty good and are cheaper then the name brand Senkos. For more info on how to fish these, check out:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1121527643

I wouldn't recommend trying to fish for Tiger Musky. They are just too rare of a fish and I think you would lose interest quickly if you just went fishing for them. Instead, try fishing for bass, and you just might get susprised by picking up a Tiger musky.

If you do manage to catch a Tiger Musky, please remember to practice catch and release. There are so many better tasting fish out there, and these trophies really do deserve to be released so someone else will get the pleasure of catching them in the future.

If you have any additional questions, just let us know. I am sure one of us could help you out.