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BEGINNERS
| A step by step guide to catching your first fish. |
This course has been designed to take the absolute beginner, through to a level that he/she would feel competent to go fishing by themseves. After completing this course, the individual should be able to set up their fishing tackle, hook and land fish, handle fish once they have caught them and return them safely back to the water. It is also hoped that during the course we will teach you about water safety, rules and regulations surrounding fishing and also a little about watercraft, IE were fish live, what baits to use, how to balance our fishing tackle to give you the best chance of catching fish.
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| What fishing tackle do we need |
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Unless you live in the West Midlands and enroll on a course with us or have a friend that fishes, then you will need to get some fishing tackle. Listed below gives you a basic guide to what fishing tackle you will need to start fishing.
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| A basic starter kit should include the following items. |
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A basic starter kit should include the following items.
Fishing rod or pole. (at the angling school we start everybody on poles). In this section we will refer to pole fishing but this is only the basics and except for pole elastics then the rest also applies to fishing with a fishing rod and reel.
A seat, this is most important as you will spend a lot of time sitting on it whilst fishing.
A landing net this is for lifting the fish out of the water.
Floats these are used as your bite indicator.
Fishing lines the string that we use to attach all of our bits to and expect it to hold our fish once hooked.
Shots These are the weights that we put onto our lines so that our bait sinks and also set the amount of float that sits above the water so we can see it move when a fish takes our bait.
Hooks these are very important as this is what we put our bait on and also what we bring our fish back on.
A disgorger this is what we use to get the hook out of the fishes mouth when it has swallowed the hook.
Plummet this is what we use to find out how deep the water is were we are going to fish.
A reel if using a fishing rod then you will also need a reel.
Bait cans if we are using any type of live bait (maggots) then it will have to be kept in a bait can.
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| One of the most important things for a successful days fishing is! |
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HOMEWORK! The more you know about were you are going fishing then the better your chance of settting up your fishing tackle to match the type of fish that you trying to catch.
Always try and find out the species of fish you are likely to be catching and the expected size of them. I hear so often that the fish in a particular lake grow as big as 25lbs. So what fishing line am I going to use a why? There may only be one fish in the lake that is 25lbs, so there is very little point in setting my fishing tackle up to catch that one fish. Try and find out as much information about were you are going to fish and the average size of the fish you are hoping to catch.
This particular lake holds a lot of Roach and Perch which grow to about 1lb, so I would advise you to use 4lb mainline and a 2lb hook length. I will be using maggots to catch these fish so i will need a small hook maybe a size 18 hook. This might sound like a small hook but you must remember that we need to hide the hook in the bait and a larger hook will be easily seen by the fish.
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| Now we have our fishing tackle its time to talk about setting it up. |
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At the fishing school we use poles. There are two types of pole.
A) We call a telescopic Pole. This means that all of the sections are pulled out from the end into one long pole.
B) A take apart pole, this means that the pole has to be taken apart section by section and then put together by placing one section into the next until fully extended. A pole comes in lengths from 3 to 16 Metres.
To start of with we recommend that you buy a take part pole between 5 and 10 metres in length.
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| Setting up your first fishing rig. |
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Now you have a little information about were you are going to fish, we will try and match it up with your first set up. Ready made fishing rigs can be bought from any Fishing Tackle shop. But unless you are going to buy lots of these, then it is best to learn how to make your own.
Now we are going to set up to fish a lake that is between 1m -3m deep and holds fish to 20lbs, but our main aim is going to be small fish up to about 2lbs and we are going to fish with maggots as our bait. (This is as much information as you will need before starting to set up your rigs).
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| Tying a over hand loop knot |
The over hand loop knot is probably the most used knot in fishing.
This is formed by doubling up about 10cm of line.
pull tight so that the lines are togeather then push the two ends togeather and they should form a circle. Then pass the end of the lines through the circle of line 2 times and pull tight. Cut of the loose line and you should have a loop on the end of your line. This loop can now be attached to the connector at the end of your pole and then the sleeve pulled down to stop the loop coming off the connector.
The diagram will show you these stages.
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| Next we have to attach our float (bite indicator) |
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Floats come in lots of shapes and sizes. As a guide most floats will have a the amount of weight that is recommended to set the float tip sitting just out of the water. IE.4x12 or 0.5 these will be printed on the side of the float and are a guide to how much shot we have to put on our line to set it correctly.
As a general rule we use 0.1 of a gramme per 30cm of depth of water that we are expecting to fish in. For the lake we are expecting to fish which is between 100cm - 300cm i would probably set up a 0.5 gramme float.
Also with floats we have different shapes, but this is not important to us at the moment.
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| Float body shapes. |
Their are 4 main bodies that we use, which we call pears/teardrops (as this is the basic shape of the body used)
A)This float is used mainly for fishing rivers, you can see the way that the pear shape faces upwards. This is to give you more control and hold the float back in the current.
B)This float is used mainly on still waters and canals with the pear facing downwards, this gives more sensitivity and stability in windy conditions.
C)This Float is also used on still waters, being so thin it is much more sensitive and will show bites more positively.
D)These floats are very good when fishing large baits in shallow waters for big fish.
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| Now we have choosen our float we need to attach it on to our line. |
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This is done by pushing your line through the eye which is attached to the body of your float. Then pushing 3 float rubbers on to your line and then putting them on to the stem of your float at equal intervals this will hold your float in place whilst you are fishing. Now you will need to tie another overhand loop at the end of your line, when pulling this loop tight hold the knot and pull until your loop is about 25mm long. This is so that you can attach your hook length to the loop.
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| Once the float is attached we need to add shots. |
Shots are small weights that come in a range of sizes from SSG which are the largest down to number 16 which are very small, The beginner need only go down as low as number 8s.
How and Were do i put these shots on my line?
This depends on how deep we are fishing and how fast we want our bait to get their. To start off with i would put all of the shots needed about half way between your float and hook and then just 1 or 2 number 8 shot about 15cm from your hook. This is called bulk shotting. This gets your bait closer to the bottom of the lake quicker
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| Hooks and hook lengths. |
Hooks come in many shapes and sizes. We will talk about two different types of hook.
A)spade end hook. These hooks have a flatterned end which we call the spade. Their is only one way that we can attach these hooks to the line and that is by using the spade end whipping knot. This knot looks difficult to tie but if you follow the diagram its quite easy.
B) Eyed hooks these are popular hooks to use for beginners as the line can be passed through the eye and tied with a few granny knots. These knots you can get away with but they are not tidy and do not have very good strength as they will flatten your line and weaken it. The best knot to use with these hooks is called a blood knot or i prefer to use the spade end whipping knot as above.
All hooks should be attached to a line weaker than the mainline used, this is not only for your benefit as if you hook a big fish and it breaks your line, you should only loose your hook. but this also means that the fish that has broke your line will only be towing a short piece of line around and not a complete rig that it may get teathered on.
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| Hook lengths |
Hook lengths vary in length but as a guide i would make them about 30cm long, the strength of the line should always balance with you main line. To attach the hook length we use a loop to loop knot.
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| what hook size do i use. |
As we said before hooks come in a range of sizes and shapes, The main thing to think about is what you are going to use as bait on the hook? This will determine your hook size. If you are going to use big baits like bread then you will need to use a large hook maybe a size 8 or 10, but if you are going to use a small bait like maggots then you will need to use a size 18 or 20. the thing to think about here is if the fish can see the hook through your bait then it is less likely to want to eat it.
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| what it should look like when ready to fish |
This picture shows you what your rig should look like when finished. Look at the shotting pattern this is a bulk of 3 large shots then 2 small shots, we call these dropper shots because it is their job to make your bait drop through the water as natural looking as possible. Also notice the two different lines used a slightly thicker main line should always be used incase of line breakage. If your line breaks with a big fish then the lighter hooklength line should break first, so you are only loosing your hook, which can quickly be replaced so you can get back to fishing as soon as possible.
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| Plumbing the depth |
This is how we find out how deep the water is. It is always better to start fishing with your hook just touching the bottom. To do this we have to attach a weight big enough to sink your float but also big enough so that as you lift your line out of the water you should be able to feel the difference as you pull your plummet off the bottom.
This diagramme shows
1) your float is set to deep and so needs to be pulled down your line towards the hook.
2) Your float is set to shallow and needs to be pulled up away from your hook.
3) This shows your float set just right to start fishing.
Each time you make adjustments to your float then you must replumb the depth.
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| loose feeding |
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Loose feeding: This is when we throw lose offerings of bait into the same area that we are fishing, to tempt hungry fish into the area. If we feed a few offerings in to our fishing area, fish will have a few more offerings to find and hopefully stay in the area longer. This will give them more time to find your bait.
The basic feeding pattern that you need to use is called little and often. This means between 4 and 10 maggots thrown around your float at about 1 minute intervals. More than this and you will be over feeding the fish less than this and we will not be feeding enough to attract the fish. This is a good starter but as your fishing ability improves you get a feel as to how much feed and how often you need to feed to match the conditions.
try to feed in a small area as this will concentrate the fish and give you more chance of catching them.
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