"Derek.Moody" wrote in message
...
In article , Andy
wrote:
I hope someone can help with my quest!

I have a young son who is bursting to have a go at fishing. He is

How old is he?


One is 5, the other is 7. I think the 5 year old will have difficulty with
the casting part, but should be fine with the rest. This is another reason
for looking for a place where any fish caught would be small!


particularly keen to eat anything that he might catch, so I thought sea

I am based in the Reading area, so the obvious venues are either Southsea
or

Slightly OT but there is a good deal of excellent freshwater fishing in
your
area - and one exciting (for a youngster) freshwater quarry is the signal
crayfish. Like a mini lobster it will swarm over a bit of rotten meat in
a
dropnet after dark. The Kennet & Avon canal around Reading is swarming
with
them. They were protected (by a quirk of law - the native crayfish is
still
protected but there are none left near you.) until this year, you get a
licence (free I think, but you must carry it) from the Post Office. Drop
crayfish into fast boiling water, cook for 5 minutes, drain and serve with
dill sauce.

This sound great for the kids. I actually live very close to the Kennet &
Avon canal so I would like to give this a try. How do you do this? The fact
the catch can be eaten is perfect - my kids have the idea that any fish
caught are for eating, hence my initial thoughts about sea angling.

Hayling Island. Are either of these suitable for a young lad with a rod,
reel, spinners and a few feathers? As the rod is quite short, casting
miles

Neither would be my first choice for a young angler - a teenager might
manage OK. When he has learned to cast a sliding float and trot down the
tide they would be good venues to try with a ragworm just tripping along
the
bottom (in the harbour channels) for a winter flounder. If starting from
scratch he is not likely to be up to it this year.

Point taken.


If you're going that way then consider continuing onto the Isle of Wight
where there are several more suitable venues.

Hmmm. Mudeford (though not the first couple of trips), Hurst and Poole
would be better too. Anyone here know whether Brighton Marina would be
worthwile for a beginner? I've never fished it but it looked the biz.

You want access to a bit of deepish*, preferably clear water from a safe
shore vantage. A harbourside (with railings for the very young) or a
rocky
shore. Ideally a west-country type venue.

Feathers are not suitable for a beginner when shore fishing. They are
dangerous in the hands of the inexperienced and tend to tangle so freely
that much of the time is spent unravelling them. Small spinners, OK.
Middle sized floating plugs - also OK. For a beginner though the float is
by far the best introduction.

Cheerio,

*deepish water is -not- necessarily the best fishing. It is the easiest
for
a beginner who will not have the skills to avoid scaring large fish in
shallow water.

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