Recommend a starter rod, reel etc for sea fishing?

[warp9]

Hi. I've just bought a camper van and expect to be doing a number of trips to the coast over the summer. I'd love to do some sea fishing for mackerel with my young son, but don't really know much about it. Can anyone recommend a relatively cheap starter rod, reel and lures to get us going? Any other information, hints or tips that you can pass on?

Cheers

[CypSIdders]

Search for LRF, (light rock fishing), on Youtube.
There's loads of stuff to look at and loads of information out there.
I recently bought a cheap-ish Diawa spinning rod which is up to the job.
A fixed spool reel weight matched to the rod, everything else is personal preference!

[manmaths]

warp9 said:

Hi. I've just bought a camper van and expect to be doing a number of trips to the coast over the summer. I'd love to do some sea fishing for mackerel with my young son, but don't really know much about it. Can anyone recommend a relatively cheap starter rod, reel and lures to get us going? Any other information, hints or tips that you can pass on?

Cheers

Well LRF as mentioned above is good fun but you will need a bigger rod for shore fishing for mackerel.

Take a look at Decathlon's "Caperlan Surf" range. I bought the 420 telescopic rod and I think it's great. You can really get a good casting distance which is important. You can get all of the accessories you need, including the rod for sub £50 which is pretty good value.

The essentials you'll need:

rod
line (I use a fluro coated line rated at 5lbs - nothing fancy)
weights
swivels - used to quickly attach lures / weights to fishing line
lures


Fishing is like road cycling and golf - you can spend mad amounts of money.

At the end of the day all the fish sees is the bait and how it's presented in the water - you could have cast it out with a tree branch.

For mackerel you can buy pre-made rigs which contain up to 5 hooks and usually some sort of shiny feathery lure. They are usually less than £2

mackerel aren't the smartest fish in the sea, so if you cast into a shoal you will certainly get bites.

A good tip is to cast out as far as you can, wait a few seconds for the weight to take the lure down, and then draw the line back in at a fairly consistent speed. If you feel a bite, stop reeling for a few seconds, as other mackerel will want in on the action.

Another tip relates to etiquette. When I got in to sea fishing I always looked at those guys down on the rocks as keen sportsmen - but the majority are complete morons - leaving rubbish behind them - taking far too many fish out of the sea - far more than they need etc They give fishing a bad name.

I actually switched to a lure with only 2 hooks as I don't really want to be catching more than a few fish in a 1/2 hour or an hour of fishing. It feels good pulling 5 out every other cast but what are you going to do with them.

I have 3 boys the oldest of whom is 6, and it was great fun taking him down to the shore (we live walking distance to the beach) and seeing him reel in 3 mackerel.
He wasn't so jovial when I cracked them on the head with an old chair leg.

Enjoy