Starting out

Re-ordered

"Matt Nottingham" m
wrote in message
newsan.2006.04.01.14.09.50.370422@nospam4mepleas e.zen.co.uk.nospam...

So where and when is a good time to go pier or (not very far!)
beachcasting? I was thinking either norfolk or cornwall. How many peirs

Never - or (this -is- fishing) almost never ;-)

It is almost always a mistake to cast off a pier if it has any depth beneath
it. The fish will usually be straight down next to the structure and the
weed and the accumulations of detritus that wash against the pier itself.
So fish straight down or even back underneath a little if possible.

are left these days? What sort of rod/reel/bait combination has worked
for you? Which months have you had best results in?

Everywhere has it's own timetable which you will have to learn - or somehow
elicit from locals.

In article , david
wrote:
Matt, if all you want to do is catch anything you'll be okay. Harbours are
very good, accessible, usually shops around to help you etc. Just watch
what the other anglers / fishermen are doing. If it works, copy but if it
doesn.t then don't!

Read that twice. It's correct. If you go with a mate then take it to the
logical extreme and unless there is some very obvious reason not to, start
out fishing different methods. That way you will find the best method twice
as quickly then you both use the successful one and cash in.

You can gain tonnes of experienced instruction by going out on a boat too -
I've done a few trips and apart from the fact that (a) it is fun, (b) I
cought loads of fish i also (c) learnt a stack!!

I live in the middle, so its not that bad! I actually meant I can't cast
very far, so places you don't need to cast 100+ yds.

Long casting is a specialised technique that is necessary on very few trips.
For no very food reason it has become fashionable and distance cast has
become a macho boast. In general, if there are any fish there at all you
will catch at least some of them within thirty yards. It can be useful to
be able to cast double that but on most of the occasions that I spot fish
feeding over 100 yards away I can walk along the shore to them and fish at
twenty yards...

As I have said here before, I am not an "angler" but I do "go fishing"

Ptooie. You'll do.

sometimes and IMHE the fish are often where you might not expect. That
is to say, I have caught bass within 30 yards of the shore (bournemouth)
and others by plonking a line off the wall (Weymouth) and have seen many
types caught of a short wall (mudeford). I think the major thing is

I've lost count of the times when I've -seen- fish feeding close in or at
the surface and yet there are a row of anglers with heavy tackle nailed to
the bottom as far out as they can cast catching nowt. Use your eyes, copy
other anglers only if thay are catching and be prepared to experiment.

Around most of the UK coast you'll do far better spinning or floatfishing
than you will with a beachcaster and ledger.

WHEN, not where. And the answer to WHEN is "when theres something to
eat". If there's been a storm and then the sea calms, there's all sorts
of munchibles washed into the coastal sea and the fish come in for it.
Likewise, many narrow harbours will be full of food when the tide starts
to go out.

This is what you'll find hardest to learn. You may have to spend a lot of
time at a venue to find its best time (usually state of tide but it might be
when the harbour cafe chucks its scraps over the side or the mussel dredger
sweeps the rubbish out of the scuppers.)

I don't know much, as I have said, but I am most succesfuil when I try
to think like a hungry fish.

When you do get one open it and see what it's been eating. Were you right?
Is there something else there you could try for bait? If it's full of
prawns for eg then a live prawn would be a good bet, if small fry then a
small fly, tiny spinner, small whole fish or thin sliver from a larger fish,
get the idea? If you see smallish fish feeding wait a while and watch,
there might be larger fish below or beyond them taking their own harvest
from them - and if you're really ambitious watch beyond even those, you never
know... I've even seen thresher shark within thirty yards of the beach.

As to when. The far southwest is just waking up now. Garfish and pollock
should be spreading along the south and west coasts any day now. Bass will
be inshore as soon as the water warms a little, they are not too far off
even now. Don't bother nailing a bait to the bottom for any of these
species.

Cheerio,

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