timbr00

hope im posting this in the right place but im pretty new to this. im in the swanage area a lot recently and wondering if anyone has had successes on swanage beach with mackerel fishing. i would apreciate any advice on this subject as i have not even tried to beach casting before. what times are best to fish? what are good locations? and any real simple rigs as my knot tying skills are not very good!

many thanks thats some great guidelines to follow. what about missile and scud floats floats which have a large weight at the bottom and another at the top?

i recently fished a new lake at west stour, somerset called coking farm and found it highly successful. i am looking for more new locations which are good for the pleasure fisherman without overdoing it on rules or becoming what i would term a "plastic fishery"

i would appreciate some advise on which float to use for which ocassions. there seem to be many types and different weights available. please could someone supply an idiots guide to the use of float types and which weight floats to use for these applications.

thanx for all your advice it makes sense to me. i have heard another method is to sink rod then strike up quick. is this correct? also how about float choice for a lake on a pretty still day just ocasional surface drift. i want to cast 6-7 metres but many of mine will only go 2-3. do heavier floats become less sensitive to bites?

i went fishing at coking farm west stour today and found that fish were biting on the drop i was float fishing with luncheon meat and found that i was missing bites due to this. it became rather frustrating that my hookbait was gone after each cast. that said i still caught 30+ tench and many carp. what is the best method of detecting these bites? also thee tends to be a cross wind and the line is blown sideways moving my float how can this be avoided? because of the wind i found it impossible to cast most of my floats so used a drennan scud float maybe this wasn't sensitive enough as when it went under i struck and missed quite frequently. is there a better float for casting distance like this which is more sensitive? finally there was a lot of times that the float seemed to twitch from side to side im asuming this was small fish tapping my line or float? sorry for all the questions but im quite a beginner at this hope you can all help

Edit: For the sake of clarity, this is the reel that I'm talking about. thats not the reel i have i have a much older model of the epix. i think as their reputation for value has grown their quality may have decreased

does anyone know of or own an okuma electra reel. found it for £35 i currently use an epix which is a quality piece of kit but i do suffer the ocasional snag due to the bale arm as i have posted before. just looking for any opinions on this reel many thanks

well i just found a copy and won a bid on ebay for 99p and 1.25 postage. from what i remember there was some good advise in it weather its still relevant i will soon see and report back

thats it fishing with terry and son. bit out dated now but still good advise for beginners from what i remember. thank you so much!!!

about 10-15 years ago i was given a book on course fishing that as a child was full of usefull tips for a beginner. unfortunatly this book dissapeared a long time ago and i desperatly wish to optain another copy. problem is i dont know what it was called but it was set out in a comic strip form with text below and followed a child being taught to fish by his father. the book was a paperback with glossy cover and was wider than it was tall. i believe it was produced by a newspaper such as the daily mail but it could have been the angling times it was so long ago i have forgotten. if anyone has any ideas please let me know

hi im new to this so forgive me if this topic is already being discussed but i could not find anything. i have an okuma epix er30 which has been a gr8 reel other than the fact that the line ocasionally gets snagged on the bail assy. I believe this is because of a sharp bend at the edge where the pro i see has a sweep and some reels do not have an angle at all. anyway i am looking for another reel to use for float and method feeding possibly with a baitrunner feature for a reasonable price ie below £60. if anyone has any ideas or has experienced similar problems please let me know.