Oddbean

Depends on what you're fishing for, I did a lot of bass fishing in my younger years so I'm biased towards that. Open face reel would be easiest, bobber hook night crawler worms-nothing wrong with keeping it simple. Bait casters are the best long term but have a pretty steep and frustrating learning curve. You're going to have to put some time and practice to learn them. If you do go the bait caster route starting with a thicker nylon ice fishing line to learn helps with untangling the inevitable backlashes. Can't really do bobber fishing on them. My favorite setup for bass is bait caster with monofilament (plastic line) backing to fill the spool then a braid line tied into the mono. Can fill the spool with braid but it's more expensive. Don't go crazy with spending money on fancy line, usually cabelas / bass pro shops have some store brand braid that is good enough. Braided line helps you feel the fish / lure better and is more sensitive because it does not stretch like monofilament. Shamano or abu Garcia have been making good reels forever. The best go-to catch anything bait for bass fishing is a black or dark green plastic worm called a Senko, Gary Yamamoto was the original maker but most brands make them now. Wacky rig with a 3/0 offset hook. Every bass fisherman has them. Top water baits are also very fun and entertaining to catch fish on. Nothing more fun than a top water strike. Usually used a chug bug/popper or jitterbug and occasional frog. If you're more into trout/pan fish I would suggest an open face reel, lighter line and shorter rod. A small in-line spinner bait brand called Mepps was a good go to. Hard to beat a bobber and worm for pan fish. Bigger fish like musky or pike you would usually use heavier line with a steel leader because they have teeth, bait caster, and heavier longer rod. Usually love larger spin baits, buzz baits or spoons. Baits; generally go for something that "match the hatch" meaning it matches the smaller spawn bait fish that the bigger fish are eating. Usually the boring colors get fish and the fancy colors get the humans (to buy them). Greens, blacks, browns, gray, dark blue. If you have really muddy / cloudy / highly turbid water then you can use the neons/hot pinks etc. Finishing this now and just realized you may be looking for ocean fishing tips and I have zero clue about that! Hope this helps and happy fishing!