Gflo, I'm also very new to fishing and currently suck at it too. But I'd like to think I'm getting better. We catch fish now anyway. With that in mind, certainly take others' advice over mine, but I will tell you what I've done this past year to get myself, my boy and his friends onto some fish.
First of all, check fishing reports if you're fishing public waters. You'll have a better idea of what fish to target at those 2 lakes you mentioned and, possibly, where to set up on the bank too. We've had a great time the past couple weeks at a few different lakes targeting catfish, bluegill, and bass using very simple set ups. For your cats and BG, I used nightcrawlers. For the cats, I let it sit on the bottom and kept a finger on the string. When I felt it I set the hook. For the BG I used a small jighead and half a nightcrawler and a very small bobber. They seemed to eat the worm more often than not and this is likely my inexperience in putting the worm on a hook properly. LMB we targeted and I've had success using a variety of things, especially this time of year when they fattening themselves up for winter (Nebraska). I don't own a boat so I walk a lot of bank and find points and jetties to fish off of and go for a variety of angles. The most success I've had this year is with spinnerbaits. They're really easy to use so I've gravitated towards them to get the kids some bass and it doesn't seem to matter the size. We were all using large spinnerbaits and kept landing smallish, 10-13", bass the other day, but the kids didn't care because we caught a ton of them and they just liked catching fish. I didn't care either since I'm still learning. But those are my experiences, from one beginner to another. Good luck and I'll be following this thread to get some tips as well.
