GETTING STARTED

Anyone who regularly goes afloat – whether in a motor cruiser, dinghy, yacht or kayak – will have seen evidence of fish jumping or shoaling on the surface and maybe wondered how to catch them. Showing how to do this is exactly what we want to achieve with this book, without too much technical jargon and fancy expensive equipment.

A wide range of sea fish can be caught using basic and inexpensive tackle if you follow the simple instructions. Fish are not difficult to catch provided you use the right methods at the right time for each particular species. What this book will give you is the basic knowledge about the feeding habits of fish, their favourite habitat and how to catch them, calling on the shared experiences of professional anglers.

 

The most basic method – a set of feathers.

 

To start with, the very minimum equipment is a rod, reel, set of feathers and a lead weight. With this very basic setup it is possible to catch at least ten different species: mackerel, scad, garfish, pollack, bass, gurnard, pout, coalfish, codling and whiting. They won’t all be caught on the same day or in the same area, but during a season’s fishing this is the potential.

Tackle shops are full of different rods, but what are they all for? We look at which rods are required for someone starting out and when to use them. It’s the same with reels, the choice is sometimes overwhelming, but in fact there are really only two basic types – the fixed spool reel and the multiplier. One reasonably priced multiplier and a cheap fixed spool reel will suffice for all the methods shown in this book.

TERMINOLOGY

The names of the equipment, tackle and fishing methods can be confusing so here is a simple explanation of some that may crop up when discussing sea angling.

 

Trolling	Pulling a lure behind a moving boat.
Gilling	Working an artificial eel on a long flowing trace.
Downtiding	Fishing from an anchored boat with the line over the stern.
Uptiding	Casting tackle with a grapnel lead uptide from an anchored boat.
Main line	The line on the reel.
Trace	The line that holds the hooks.
Flowing trace	A flowing trace is one fished on the bottom of the seabed below the weight, while a trace is either referred to as ‘up the line’ or a paternoster rig.
Paternoster	A trace with hooks suspended above the weight.
Clutch	The drag setting on the reel that allows the line to be pulled off.
Tubi or running booms	A device that holds the weight and allows the line to run through.