First post! (About me)

I thought I'd start out the blog with a little background on my personal life and fishing experience to give some perspective as to where I'm coming from in future posts.
I currently live in the Peoria, IL, area and have access to a bunch of different ponds/lakes within a 30 minute/hour drive from home. I'm new to the area so I still have a few places to check out and see if they're worth frequenting. I'll put some thoughts on each place with a report after a trip.
Fishing runs in my family. My first fish was a rainbow trout caught on a Snoopy pole when I was two. My dad took me fishing throughout my childhood, mostly focusing on panfish and catfish. I think my dad was under the impression that you need a boat to be a successful bass fisherman. Whatever the reason was, we never really targeted bass when I was kid, so while I have a basic understanding of most things fishing, bass fishing is something fairly new to me.
For whatever reason, I got it in my head in my teenage years that fishing wasn't worth my time so I went through a few years basically without any fishing. After spending too many weekends watching TV and playing Xbox, I rediscovered Roland Martin and Bill Dance on Versus a couple months back so I grabbed a license and my old pole, headed to a local lake and have been bordering on obsession ever since.
As I've said a couple times already, I'm new to bass fishing, especially when using artificials, so I have alot to learn. I'll be posting some reviews as I see them for different lures and setups from the view of someone who hasn't seen and done it all already. Hopefully these will be helpful to anyone else just starting out and maybe bring back some memories for anyone who's been there before. I'm also starting a marriage and (down the line) a family so these reviews may be more budget oriented than some blogs I've seen, as I'm a poor college student and can't afford a $600 rod/reel combo or $10 crankbaits. :)
Please, if you have any questions for me, don't hesitate to ask. Also, any advice is very welcome, just leave a comment.

-Mark