Reels and rods a few tips

[paul p]

When fishing the shore or rocks your tackle is the second after safety, one of the most important pieces of your set up. Are you fishing in clean ground, clean to rough or rough. For general fishing off the shore a 12-13foot rod will be fine with a fixspool or multiplier loaded with 15-18lb mainline and most important 60-80lb shockleader. For clean/rough i would recommened a reel with a bit more punch in the gears as if you catch a decent fish like it happened to me had a bullhuss a double and when it was about 20yrds out the pressure of the line to fish was that great bar my wrist hurting like mad the handle moved but the spool didnt, so more gear needed there i think, also i landed the fish as i walked backwards i couldnt get a retrieve on my high speed reel as the gears were crap, and if you find your reel blows up all the time you could have to much line ie overfull spool or you can fix it easy enough just add thicker oil to your bearings and keep line 2m below full is a good rule as its fishing not just casting with plain 125g-200g or 4-7oz leads down a field, hooking a decent fish is a huge diff. Off the rocks i would recommened a fixspool or a good multiplier with good gears and a good to fast retrieve would be my first choice and pump the rod as well and get that fish up out of the kelp as fast as you can, i lost fish years ago off the rocks because i didnt take good advice, i do now though . There are some cracking fixspool reels out there and longer rods that will cast baited traces a long way with just a lob say a 15-16 foot rod. Also no point having a century bb if fishing for flatties when a 2-4oz rod is perfect and most long rods come with twin tips. Word to the wise sea fishing has a demon and its called salt water, clean your reels every trip and hose down your rod and dry them off, salt water eats through gears in a reel. Fishing with a fixspool is easier than a multiplier as your not checking for line lay all the time, just lift the rod and reel, that goes for casting in matches as well as pleasure off the bailarm and cast. Wee tip also with a multiplier if casting off the beach and you find thumb slip wipe the spool before you cast and your thumb. Hope this helps there is alot in there and there is nothing in there to offend so please dont ruin it for me and others as it takes my finger alot of time thats my time to write it all down. Its only advice and good advice at that so please there are young children on this forum and my advice is really for them also. Tight lines to you all, paul Ps hope to hit the 200yrd mark on sunday

[baker boy]

good info paul, still using my F/S havnt got the multi sorted yet but will do soon, look foward to more good posts, keep up the good tips.

tight lines

graham

[gullyworm]

Good advice Stud, i sometimes use the cut off thumb of some marigold gloves to give me extra grip on the spool and the yellow ones look nice

[valleyboy]

good basic info for the novice angler

[excarper]

Your right about using good reels paul. I bought two cheap big pit reels out of angling times. They were ten quid each. The Zero 760 Big Pit-Ideal for beachcasting it said! Both broke down in the space of a week with shattered gears. Dont make the same mistake as me. Buy the best reel you can afford and dont think a carp reel will make a good beach casting reel. It might have a big spool but the gearing aint up for the job of sea fishing.