Getting better, one trip at a time
Skills and tips
Once you've had your first trip, the biggest gains come from skills, habits and a few small bits of kit, not more tackle. Here they are, with a skills ladder for your first year.
Get better faster
Three things that will improve your fishing more than any new rod.
1
A casting lesson
One session with a qualified casting coach often adds 30 to 50 yards on a beachcaster and cures crack-offs and birds' nests. Take your own rod and your usual leads. Nothing else does as much for your beach catches for the money.
2
Join a club
A local sea angling club teaches you more marks, rigs and tide-reading in one season than years on your own. Club matches are friendly, and the regulars are generous with tips. Ask at your nearest tackle shop which clubs fish your coast.
3
Angling Trust membership
It includes third-party liability insurance while you fish, and it funds the people who argue for bass, access and fair rules on your behalf.
A first-year skills ladder
Work up these in order. Tick each one off when you can do it without thinking, in the dark, with cold hands.
- Tie the core knots. Uni or improved clinch, Palomar, dropper loop, shock-leader knot and FG. Practise at home in front of the telly. See Knots.
- Cast safely and straight. An overhead thump that lands where you aim, with the leader turns on the spool and the drop right. Distance comes after accuracy.
- Read the tide. Know when each mark fishes best and when it cuts you off. Check high water before every trip on EasyTide.
- Present a bait well. Neat, tight, bound with bait elastic, and small enough for the fish you're after. Fresh bait beats more bait.
- Spot bites and set the hook. On a grip lead, wind down until you feel weight, then lift. Watch the rod tip and the bow in the line.
- Read a beach. At low water, walk the mark and look for gutters, sandbanks, mussel beds and rough patches. Those are where fish feed on the flood.
- Handle and return fish properly. Wet hands, quick unhooking, measure on the board, lower small fish back with the drop net.
- Fish a lure with confidence. On a lure rod, learn to count a lure down, vary the retrieve and fish it right to your feet.
Small kit that pays off
Cheap items that make every session easier.
Measuring board or tape
The size limits in Rules and safety only help if you can measure. A flat board with a nose stop is quickest and kindest to the fish.
Polarised sunglasses
Cut the glare so you can spot mullet, bass and snags. They also protect your eyes from flying leads and hooks.
Unhooking kit
Long-nose pliers, a disgorger and braid scissors, kept on a lanyard or zinger so they're always to hand.
Rig wallet and bags
Tie rigs at home from Rigs, label each by job, and change rigs in seconds on a cold night.
Bait elastic and a hook sharpener
Elastic keeps soft baits on through a long cast. A few strokes on a hook file makes a blunt hook bite again.
Waterproofs and studded boots
Warm, dry and steady on weed means you stay out longer, which means more fish.
Rinse reels the right way
Tighten the drag first, then use a gentle spray, not a jet: a jet drives salt and sand inside. Turn the handle and move the bail while rinsing, then leave it to dry.
Check for cracked rings
Rub cotton wool round the inside of each ring. If it snags, the ring is cracked and will shred your line.
A braid handle
To pull for a break, wrap the line round a braid handle or a rod rest, never your hand.
Frozen bait in a flask
A food flask put in the freezer the night before keeps frozen bait hard for 8 to 10 hours.
Tackle box tricks
Luminous tape on the box so you can find it in the dark, a bungee to hold the lid open in the wind, and a roll of electrical tape for repairs and first aid.
A telescopic landing net
One with several length settings suits rock ledges and piers at different heights above the water.
Habits that cost nothing
Log every trip
Use the catch log, blanks included. After a season it tells you which tides, baits and conditions work at each mark.
Learn a few marks deeply
Fish the same three or four marks through a full year. You'll learn how each one changes with the seasons, the tide and the weather.
Talk to the tackle shop
Ask what's showing each week and where. Buy your bait there and the advice usually comes free.
Look after your reels
A gentle freshwater rinse after every trip and a service each winter keep reels going for decades.
Fishing smarter
Small habits from anglers who fish a lot more than most of us. Each one was checked against at least one other source.
Get one rod fishing first
Before the shelter, the second rod or the flask, get one bait in the water. It's the only one that can catch.
Pre-bait your next trace
Hang two or three baited traces on the tripod. When you reel in, unclip the old trace, clip on a fresh one and cast. Rebait the old one while the new one fishes.
How long to leave a bait
Start at 15 to 20 minutes. If baits come back stripped, check sooner. If they come back untouched and there are no crabs about, that's a bad sign: move, or try another bait. Big cod and conger baits can sit 30 to 45 minutes.
Read where the waves break
White water means a bar or reef. A calm patch between breakers is a gully, where the food collects. Bass sit just behind the breakers, and the eddy beside a groyne often holds fish when the open beach is dead. Most anglers cast too far: the fish are often well inside 70 yards.
Find new marks at home
On the Navionics web chart, tight contour lines mean rock dropping into deep water. Cross-check with Google Maps satellite view for rock, sand and kelp, then visit at low water in daylight.
Set up above the high-tide line
Look for where the footprints stop, the line of dried weed, or where dark wet shingle meets dry. Base camp goes above that. The tide is about 50 minutes later each day, so the same state of tide comes later each evening.
Move the bait now and then on sand
Every five minutes or so, give the reel a turn or two. The puff of sand attracts fish. A plain lead lets you search; a grip lead holds a bait where you put it.
Wave, weed or bite?
Waves nod every rod at once, in a slow rhythm. Weed sliding down a bowed line gives a slow, building pull. A fish gives a sharp, erratic knock. If the line suddenly falls slack, a big fish has pulled the grip lead out: pick up the rod and wind fast.
Missed a bite?
Leave the bait where it is for another five minutes. The fish has probably only moved it. Dabs feed in packs, so a second fish often follows.
Trim the snood
The last 10 to 15cm of hooklength take the wear from teeth, crabs and rock. Check it every cast on rough ground, and trim and retie after every session.
When the weed comes
Reel in before weed trips the lead and drags across the other line. Strip weed off at the tip ring rather than winding the leader knot through the rings. When it's thick, fish shorter, or move.
Fishing in the dark
Before dark, line each rod up with a light or landmark so you can walk straight to the right line. Paint the top 15cm of each rod tip with white gloss paint so a head torch picks out bites.
Two rods out
Put the lighter-leaded rod on the side the tide runs towards. If its lead breaks out, it swings away from the other line instead of across it.
Learn from every fish
Spread different baits across a three-hook rig to see which one the fish want. Look inside the stomach of the first fish you keep: it tells you what they're eating.
Learning the multiplier
On a multiplier, start with the brakes and magnets near full, and practise short, smooth lobs with a 5oz lead. A quiet pier is a good place for short practice sessions.
On busy beaches
Keep bait covered and stand rods upright with the lead off the ground, so a dog can't grab a baited hook.
Taking a child fishing
Give them a scratching rig with small hooks so they keep catching. Teach them to wait for a proper bite, and keep the session short and warm.
Learning to fish is mostly time on the water. Go often, keep notes, and ask questions. Every blank teaches you something about a mark.