Fishing licenses may be purchased at the wildlife and gaming office and at the Main Exchange in the firearms department. Both Virginia and Marine Corps Base licenses are required on base.

After the purchase of fishing licenses, fisherman can head to the rod and reel section of a local department store to pick up the tools of the trade.

As a general rule, in order to make really long casts, you’ll want a rod that is seven feet or longer. For more accurate casts, you’ll want a six-foot or six-and-a-half-foot rod with a good, flexible tip.

For line considerations, always use stronger fishing line. Because of the abundance of underwater structure and cover (primarily wood and rock), you have to have a type of line that will not fray and will allow you to get the fish up out of the cover and stronger line is the only kind of line that will not break off every other fish.

When power fishing deep, use a low-gear ratio reel like a five-to-one to help you slow the bait down and keep it down, deep.

When fishing on top of the water, you’ll want a faster reel like a seven-to-one to help keep the bait moving fast and from sinking under the surface.

When it comes to baits, I have three types I always carry year-round. First is spinner bait because of the multiple presentations you can make with this bait. It can be used in numerous situations. The best time and place for this bait is on windy days along any shoreline with grass or lay downs.

Second is a ‘‘jig n’ pig,” because when high-pressure systems come through with clear skies, the fish go deep. When this happens, it’s better to make long casts into various depths.

The number one focus is cover. It can be logs, rocks, and brush piles, anything that will provide some shade. If the cover is shallow, fisherman should look for shaded banks.

Third is a crank bait. Whenever searching for the fish, always have a crank bait on. If a fisherman starts to catch numerous fish at a particular depth, then he could throw a crank bait that runs at that specific depth, trying to duplicate those types of areas. It is very important to throw this bait around stuff to bang it off of. If you cast it out and you are dragging it across the bottom, you need to put on a lure that runs deeper.

As far as color goes, keep it simple and stick to the general rule of thumb. For clear water, I stick with natural colors, such as browns and greens for plastics and jigs, and blues and whites for moving baits. In dirty or stained water, use blacks, bright yellows and reds for plastics and jigs. For moving baits, go with very bright greens and yellows.

For more information on areas to fish at Quantico, call (703) 784-5383.