Gflo-
Always good to see a person getting into fishing!
For largemouth bass, the most common lures I use are beetle spins and rubber worms.
Beetle SpinBeetle Spins are pretty straightforward, you just cast them out and reel them in. I like the larger ones in green or white for bass, panfish will hit the smaller ones in any colors. You can replace the rubber grub with a curly-tailed grub to give it some more action, or a berkely gulp grub for scent. You can buy the spinner arms individually at a lot of bait shops, and put them on jigheads with any kind of rubber grub you like to make your own beetle spin type lures pretty easily.
Rubber worm and
jighead Thread the rubber worm on the jighead like
this. Cast out and retrieve. This usually only catches largemouth bass, but has been very effective for me. I like dark purple worms with curly tails and light jigheads.
For bluegill, I usually use extremely
small single hook spinners, OR a leaf worm/cricket/power grub under a bobber. I like to use
snelled hooks because they can be used with snap swivels. #8 is a good size for bluegill.
I like to smash the barbs on my hooks using a pair of pliers. I might lose a couple of fish because of it, but it makes it a lot easier to get them off the hook and raises the fish's chance of survival significantly when released. If you ever deep-hook a fish with a hook and don't want to keep it, you can just cut the line and let it go, they'll often expel the hook on their own.
Consider where and when you are fishing. Fish usually bite the most around sundown and sunup, and the middle of the day is usually the worst fishing. Different fish like different areas. Largemouth bass tend to relate to weedlines and timber in the water. Bluegill like weedbeds and especially lily pads.
While I have never really fished for trout in lakes, I hear great things about
kastmaster spoons from people who do. They are easy to cast long distances, so they are ideal for a shore angler. Kastmaster makes them in a lot of colors with dressed and undressed hooks.
