Meal worms have a hard shell. Don't you mean wax worms or butterworms?

All reels usually have a guide printed on them or the packaging telling you how many yards of a specific pound test you can put on the reel. If 10 pound is as high as it goes that reel isn't big enough to handle a 30 pound line or fish either. You can catch some fairly big fish on 8 or 12 pound test if you have the drag set right. The drag is important because it allows a fish to pull some line from the reel while you are trying to reel it in. This keeps the line from getting too much tension and snapping or ripping the hook from the fishes mouth. 11 pound max drag seems like that reel would be good for fish up to 11 pounds in size. You always want to keep your rod tip up when fighting a fish. Most fish that get away are because of dropping the rod down or horsing the fish in to hard. You gotta play them out and let them wear down so you can bring them in without losing them.

I worked in a bait shop here in Iowa. Many lakes and streams here have it posted "No live bait". That is because too many people just dump the leftover minnows in the water before they leave from fishing for the day. This often introduces invasive species like carp into the water body.

crappie minnows. I haven't had much luck with anything else live.

1)If you see birds swooping down for food that is where there will be fish. They will be where the food is.
2)Don't fish at the most convenient or closest spot. Everybody and their brother already fish it out. Go walk 100 yrds or more.
3) Fish around cover, trees, logs, rocks, docks, weedbeds, lilypads.
I hardly ever fish a single spot over 30 minutes if I am not getting bites. Usually about ten minutes I move.

Get an ugly stick and put one of these reels on it about a 3000 or 4000 size. I got a 5000 and it is a little bigger than what I like. These reels have 12 Ballbearings they are inexpensive but really work better or as good as reels that cost over $100
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I use small crawlers and use no weight. cast upstream and let it drift naturally. Also found that a small size silver Kastmaster lure kicks ass.

Calypsacoral That is considered chumming and is illegal in most states.

With any fish you eat a common mistake made is people leave the fillets whole when cleaning the fish. If you catch a big catfish or any fish and its fillet is more than 1/2 an inch thick, you fillet the fillet again and again until you have several 1/2 thick fillets. This gets the muddy and bad tastes out of it better because it is thinner. I soak my fish in salt water in the fridge overnight. Then I either cook it right away or freeze them in a vacuum sealed bag. Thinner fillets cook up faster and better. I learned this from commercial fisherman on the Mississippi. They told me many of the farm raised catfish you buy at the grocer are not small channel cats but really big Flathead that they fillet in this manner. I noticed the catfish you buy always just say farm raised catfish. I have never seen where it tells what kind of catfish. You can also make nuggets and it works as well.

I love salmon but we don't have those here. Also flounder and haddock.

My favorite is Pike, I also eat bluegills, crappies, walleye, perch and bass. rock, yellow, striper, smallmouth and Largemouth.

The Worm weedless lure. natural or grape color. fish it slow with a split shot a couple feet up. I get mine from custom jigs and spins. Don't get the junior size because it doesn't have a hook in the rear and it misses too many fish. buy half a dozen or more because the bass tear hell out of them.
Use unscented soaps, make sure you don't have gas or anything on your hands. I started only using unscented and not filling up before fishing. no colognes and unscented bug sprays if absolutely needed. I bet you catch something the first time out within an hour. just cast out the worm (I use a swivel leader because the line will twist up if you don't.) once cast let it sink all the way. watch your line a lot of fish grab it on decent. once its down slowly bring your roc up 3 or four feet and stop for 10 seconds reel up slack and pull it back again. keep repeating until you see your line running and set the hook. Keeping your rod tip up and use your drag.

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turkey livers stay on the best and catch lots of cat.

I bought a Yumoshi ef5000 and love it. could have went with the 4000 though. This one is a little big but it has 12 bb and it is so smooth. The drag is fantastic. Its the best reel I have and it cost about $12.00 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32907544733.html?spm=2114.search0302.3.114.5ba76c9bidLvPb&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_0_10130_453_454_10618_536_317_537_319_10059_10696_10084_10083_10547_10546_10887_10307_321_10548_322_10065_10068_10103_10884_10545,searchweb201603_0,ppcSwitch_0&algo_pvid=c8d5a99a-833f-44f1-afa1-0c8de4ad8eec&algo_expid=c8d5a99a-833f-44f1-afa1-0c8de4ad8eec-13

You would be shocked if you knew how many top brand reels come from China and just have been rebranded.