Beginner in need of serious help!

[Gaffers11]

Hi to all, well I have been doing a bit of coarse fishing for the last couple of years now and for my holidays on an island off the west coast of France this summer and I am staying 50 meters from the beach so I would love to do some sea fishing, the only problem is I don’t know the first thing about it.

Firstly, I have a 12ft rod that I brought off of eBay; here is the link to the same one on a newer auction:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-3-6m-12-St...QQcmdZViewItem

Would I have to buy a proper sea fishing rod, I’m not sure what make my reel is but it’s quite decent.

Anyway to put it simply I don’t know the first thing and I would appreciate any help that you can give me. All I want to be able to do is go out to the beach and come back 3 hours later with some dinner!

By what I have read so far on the internet there seems to be hundreds of different techniques and equipment needed; lures, floats, leads, weights, mono line, shock leader, I’m so confused!

Any help that you can give me would be gratefully appreciated and hopefully this information will be helpful for other beginners wishing to take up sea fishing.

Thanks.

[im snagged]

If you are fishing only off the beach in the surf, you may aswell get a beachcaster first as last because these rods fish all conditions,rough surf, wind,or flat calm. you can get good fixed spools reels now for the surf, i prefere a multiplyer. The casting weight for these rods are 4-8oz, any thing under 4oz gets tossed about in a good surf, so u will need a range of different weight sizes. SHOCKLEADER stops snap offs when casting far with heavy weights, if your fishing beach you will need this. A good rod stand makes life easier. happy sea fishing

[Gaffers11]

Hi, thanks for your help, can you explain a bit more about the fixed spools reels? Also once i have my rod and reel, what do i do next, this is where i mainly get confused with different techniques, lures and floats and leads etc. I want to use the simplest method that catches the most fish?

[im snagged]

gaff if you go to sea fishing tips forum, old smoothound has wrote a piece on multiplyers and fixed spool you might find it useful

[breathe the o2]

Well first of all you will need to put line on your new reel!I suggest you use at least 15 lb breaking strain if your beachcasting.Basically if you dont no much about the beach you should probably use bottom feeding methods(see rigs forum)and then begin to experiment if thats not working.For a weight you would want to use 4 or 5oz at least if you want to get out to the big fish.Are you able to cast long distances?

[Gaffers11]

Hi, thanks for all the help so far, theres just a few more things that i need to know about:

Shockleaders, i have gather so far that its somthing to do with when your casting, how do i attatch these, where do i attach them and what one do i get?

Floats (its obviously more complicated than normal coarse float fishing, so any help here will be appreciated)

Lures - i have never used them before, whats the deal with these?

Baits - will i be able to use any old ones that i find in the ground, my french isnt too good and i doubt there will be any fishing shop on the island.

And any thing else that hasnt been convered in here.

Thanks

[geffski]

floats! no more complicated than course infact simpler!
just a drifting pike float set up! be leathal off the docks and#
any marinas

[Greenheart]

Try this link for your Knots mate.http://www.btinternet.com/~kevin.l.j.knight/knots.htm

[im snagged]

Shockleader(40lbs- 60lbs) is only to take the pressure of the cast, the rest of your spool is filled with normal mono(15LBs 20LBS). But you only need it if you are beachcasting or long range.
Bubble floats are cheap and do the job, or a pike float as geffski said.

[Gaffers11]

Hi, thanks again for all your help. I have a good idea now of what i will do.

Just a couple more things, when attatching the shockleader, how far do i leave from the end of it to the beginning of the rig? Also how exactly do i set up a 'drifting pike float'. I have heard talk of a stopknot, do i need this and what is it?

And lastly, what about lures, i take it there a completelty different technique, are they effective?