Any Coarse fisherman in ?

[Turn7]

Used to fish a lot as a youth, and bloke at work is a Carp man....

Getting into the idea of a day of peace sat by the water watching the antural world pass by.

Is it viable to get into cheaply and where the hell do I start ?

Used to buy my hook to nylons from Woollies in the day.....

Edited by Turn7 on Monday 8th July 21:56

[Mr Gearchange]

It’s as cheap or as expensive (and man it can get expensive!) as you want it to be.

What kind of fishing do you want to do? What sort of waters do you have around you?

[Turn7]

Like most, its all bottom feeder lakes - Carp, Tench, some Roach and Perch....

Not interested in Carp trophies but just want some me time in a peacefull and pleasant environmnet.

Used to float fish a club lake as youth, and a bit of canal stuff - not intrested in canals now tho.

Have Tring reservoirs very close which are Carp and Tench stocked......

[Jasper3.0]

Like you I used to fish with my father as a child. Flushed with enthusiasm following watching Mortimer and whitehouse (and then reading the book) I have been bashing eBay (vita varying success) and go outdoors to by kit as (relatively) cheaply as possible.

Steer clear of eBay ‘job lots’ as the one I bought was very,much a waster of time (other than the rod).

1st trip this weekend when we are away in the MH. Never fished for carp before.... grew up fishing for barbel, bleak and roach.....

[Mr Gearchange]

Go and have a look on Angling Direct - they have decent rod and reel combinations for around £80-£100 which will be decent enough - a lot of the ‘starter kits’ are utter crap as I found out when buying them for my lad.

Then you just need to get a few bits of terminal tackle (line, leads, floats etc) a landing net, something to carry them in and something to sit on. Easy.

Bait you can largely raid the kitchen cupboard - bread, swercorn, luncheon meat etc - it can all be done pretty cheaply (vitalin dog food makes great groundbait, is dirt cheap and a sack lasts for ages)

On the other hand you can spend thousands on tackle and hundreds per year on bait and memberships - but it’s not necessary.

I’ve been utterly addicted for the last 37 years - nothing gives me more joy than to spend a couple of nights - or better yet - a week at the side of the lake, immersed in nature, watching the sun come up and have that constant state of giddy anticipation I first felt as a 5 year old

[otolith]

I bought the kids some cheap gear for them to have a go - couple of elasticated whips, which came with a usable rig for about £16 each. They caught loads, mostly rudd and roach to half a pound or so but the boy had a bream of about 3lb. So that’s about the entry level.

Beyond that, sky’s the limit.

[otolith]

You can get a decent 13’ match rod for £50. Decent reel for £20. You’ll need a landing net, if you’re not fishing rivers a rod rest, a few floats, mixed shot, line, hooks. Could do it for about £100. Could do it cheaper with a cheaper rod and reel, but probably worth spending slightly more.

For Tring, I think you’d be better with a couple of Avons or light carp rods, baitrunners, alarms, bobbins, feeders. Cost you a bit more.

[paintman]

No reason why you can't use a 'carp' rod for pretty much everything.

I use a Fox 'Warrior' 12' 3lb test curve for coarse fishing incl dead bait for pike, spinning & plugging for reservoir pike (Rutland & Pitsford), general float fishing for anything that takes, light beachcasting & spinning & plugging for bass, mackerel & pollack. Oh, and carp of course!
Works very well.
I did consider a while ago buying a lighter float rod but the local tackle dealer simply said 'Why?'.

Angling Direct is a good suggestion.

[otolith]

A very stiff rod can make it hard to cast light float tackle or to hook fish on very light lines and tiny hooks without bumping or snapping them off, and a physically heavy rod isn't much fun for trotting where you're holding the rod all day, but you can get away with suboptimal for most things. If I could only have one rod, think something more like an Avon with a test curve in the 1.5-2lb range would be my choice over a heavy carp rod, though.

I'm not saying how many rods I actually own

[paintman]

otolith said:

I'm not saying how many rods I actually own

Me neither!

I do sea, coarse & game & visiting angling shows is always a risk - I went to 'The Big One' at the NAEC Stoneleigh earlier this year & it would have been so easy to spend a fortune.......

If the OP has one of the tackle warehouse type places nearby it would be worth a visit so he can actually see & handle stuff.
I have a very good one nearby - Leicester - that is all coarse gear & has a rack of poles to 16 meters. Good prices on their stuff too.
https://www.x-sport58.com/fishing.php Click on the pics to enlarge.

Edited by paintman on Tuesday 9th July 10:51

[SeeFive]

Saw this article at the weekend. Mum clipped it out of her newspaper for my brother who is a keen fisherman and retired, so gets plenty of time to fish and wins a few pots too.

I appreciate that you said that you are not into carp trophies, so as a little advice, do not go to Thailand fishing then.

https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/thailand-br...

[paintman]

Angling Times worth a read & there's no end of stuff online - one of my favourites being Graeme Pullen's 'Totally Awesome Fishing' on youtube. Very entertaining & informative. He's the one that had the big porbeagle off Devon a few years ago.

Edited by paintman on Tuesday 9th July 10:59

[otolith]

paintman said:

otolith said:

I'm not saying how many rods I actually own

Me neither!

I do sea, coarse & game & visiting angling shows is always a risk - I went to 'The Big One' at the NAEC Stoneleigh earlier this year & it would have been so easy to spend a fortune.......

Same here

As a boy, I had one fibreglass match rod. As a teenager, I started adding to it. A pole. A quivertip rod. A better (carbon) match rod. A canal rod. Over the years, I bought more specialised kit. An Avon/quiver twin tip. Rods for fishing carp style at distance for tench. A really nice ultralight float rod for grayling fishing. A power float rod for tench and chub. I took up fly fishing - a little brook rod and a reservoir rod. A beach rod. I got into lure fishing - a standard spinning rod. A dropshot rod. An ultralight jig rod. I started doing the odd trip for reservoir zander and bought a vertical jigging rod. I moved to the coast and bought a second beach rod. Add in various upgrades and never actually getting rid of the old rods and I have no idea of the total inventory!

[PurpleTurtle]

I used to fish loads as a lad in the 80's, used to enjoy hanging out with my mates down the park, we were lucky to have a lot of lakes and canals and rivers relatively near to us where I grew up in the Midlands.

Amusingly my Dad used to take us all over the place to and pass on his pearls of fishing wisdom, but always used to blank. First time I went without him I bagged a load of roach and perch! Consequently this Fast Show clip always makes me laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8USITOUBqk

My school was ultra competitive in any sport, so we even had a fishing team - we came second in the National Schools Angling Championship when I was 15! It was great - on summer days the school caretaker Greasy Ken (a 50's Brylcreamed throwback who chainsmoked Woodbines, RIP!) would take a load of us off for a day's fishing on the river Avon near Stratford, he'd urn a blind eye when we all sneak a few tins of Carling Black Label (ignorance is bliss to a 15yo) into our tackle boxes and sup them in the sun whilst our mates got stuck into double maths!

Then once I became 16 I got into the VW scene big time, bought a Beetle to restore, met a girl, into the Madchester era - going down the lake to bag a few tench sort of lost its appeal, it wasn't 'cool'. It was also in the days when everyone was buying an 8 metre carbon fibre pole to fish with, just became a bit boring/formulaic for me. I much prefer float fishing, casting, reeling in, trotting a river etc, more of an art to it.

I'm in my 40's with a 4yo boy now, if he wants me to take him I'll be in like Flynn! I'm now walking distance from the River Thames, so I hope it's something we'll be able to do.

My mum still tells the tale of she came home and went mental when she found my bait box full of maggots in the family fridge to stop them turning to casters so quickly, she went absoluely apest at me!!

Always wanted one of those blue Shakespeare tackle boxes, could never afford one back in the day, maybe I'll get one one day .....

https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/shakespeare-seatbo...

Edited by PurpleTurtle on Tuesday 9th July 12:40

[otolith]

PurpleTurtle said:

Always wanted one of those blue Shakespeare tackle boxes, could never afford one back in the day, maybe I'll get one one day .....

https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/shakespeare-seatbo...

I had one of these - in fact, I still have it somewhere!

https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/daiwa-team-daiwa-s...

[PurpleTurtle]

otolith said:

PurpleTurtle said:

Always wanted one of those blue Shakespeare tackle boxes, could never afford one back in the day, maybe I'll get one one day .....

https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/shakespeare-seatbo...

I had one of these - in fact, I still have it somewhere!

https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/daiwa-team-daiwa-s...

Brilliant - I used to lust after one of those! Was it Stan Piecha who got a big endorsement deal with Daiwa in the 80's? I remember reading all about it inthe Angling Times that I used to scour from cover to cover every week.

[Ayahuasca]

I like the idea of fishing - but fishing for those carp that are stocked and reared and even named and caught so often that they must think ‘here we go again’ is not much sport.

[paintman]

Ayahuasca said:

fishing for those carp that are stocked and reared and even named and caught so often that they must think ‘here we go again’ is not much sport.

Doesn't interest me either.

[otolith]

Ayahuasca said:

I like the idea of fishing - but fishing for those carp that are stocked and reared and even named and caught so often that they must think ‘here we go again’ is not much sport.

The carp scene is something of a circus, and not my cup of tea. The heavily stocked places tend to be match venues, though - loads of small carp at unrealistic stocking densities. The named fish are usually exceptional specimens in less unnatural circumstances, though, and are not necessarily caught very often.

I know a guy who created and until very recently ran this place;

https://www.anglersmail.co.uk/news/wingham-venue-r...

I would say that it has a very good chance of producing a record fish, there are a number of huge carp in there and they are growing fast. But it's one of the most natural places I've ever fished. It's a couple of gravel pits in the middle of a nature reserve. The management over the years has amounted to keeping the angling pressure low and the natural predation by pike and perch high - no deliberate pike fishing allowed, for example. I didn't fish it for carp, I was interested in the big tench and perch and a little in the bream which once threatened the UK record, but a large part of the joy of the place was how wild it is. I've never seen so much insect and bird life. I used to get to go there once a year for a long weekend, but I think those days have come to an end.

[PurpleTurtle]

I used to read legendary tales of Redmire Pool when I was a lad, scene of Chis Yates' very long-standing record.

Seems it's had an interesting recent history, including a draining and restoration of the lake and is now in new ownership.

https://www.carpfeed.com/fishing-news/article/redm...

https://www.carpfeed.com/fishing-news/article/redm...