Fishing Tackle : A Fishing Net

Setting Up a Rod

Pick your Swim

Fishing with kids’ demands space. Pick an open swim that is free of overhanging branches. Casting the fishing rod is tricky for beginners, and a tree is just an added nuisance. A swim without too much cover for fish, i.e. lilies or oxygen weed is not a good bet. So, you have found your perfect spot and it’s time to start tackling up! Take the fishing rod out of its bag and piece the shafts together. Take care to keep the eyes of the rod in line with each other.

Take out the reel and offer it to the twin clasps on the rod butt. Tighten. Open the bale arm of the reel (so that the line is free of any obstruction, when you click it back it should sit over one end of the bale arm, not looped). There will be a switch at the back end of the reel which is called the ratchet switch, switch it so that when you wind the handle you can only wind it forwards and not back – it will probably also making a ratchet sound. Click the bale arm so that the line is free again and start to thread it through the eyes of the rod. Don’t miss any out!

When you have threaded the last eye, pull off another three or four feet of line and click the bale arm back into the winding position.
You are ready to fix a float to the line.

Take a look at your chosen float – it also has a little eye on it. It possible has a line of text telling you what weight it needs to make it cock in the water. Thread that eye onto the line, up about two feet. Squeeze a split shot on the line to stop it sliding back off the end where you positioned the float. If the float didn’t tell you what shot it needs, you will have to guess – you can always take them off if you have over weighted or add more if you have under weighted. When you have one shot either side of the float, pick up the rod and drop the float into the water to see if it sinks, doesn’t cock or is just right. Ideally, just a little more than the brightly coloured top should show. More if you find it too difficult to see clearly. Add or remove shot to get it right (more shot down line only, only one should go up line towards the rod).
Hooks and Hooks tying

I would recommend a hook-to-nylon here if you have some. They come pre tied and with a lower breaking strain than the main line – if you do hook a tree or an obstacle, the hook length will snap and save you having to re set the whole float etc. Tie the hook to nylon in a safe not (knots are explained further on an another page).

Once the hook is tied you really need to get an idea of how deep the water is. For the sort of fish we want to catch to day, we are ideally looking at no more than a foot to eighteen inches below the surface – obviously dependant on how deep the water is. There is a special weight for plumbing the depth that clips over your hook and you drop it into the water where you plant to fish and if the float sinks then it’s deeper than you have it set, if it doesn’t sink then you are already on the bottom. If you don’t have one, use anything heavy enough to sink the float that you can attach and remove easily. Adjust until you know the depth.
Plumbing the Depth of the Water

Assuming the water is four feet deep, then adjust the hook length (the distance from float to hook) to be eighteen inches. Remove the plummet.

Bait the hook with a maggot. It’s best through the blunt end rather than the pointy end.

Cast the rod out by clicking the bale arm into the open position and keeping hold of the line so the float does not drop. With an underhand swing in the general direction of where you think you would like the float to be. Let go of the line as the float reaches its upward swing. It should fly out and land perfectly. Practice this!
Fishing!

You are now fishing. Well done. Sit down, place the rod so that the tip is not in the water and relax with a sandwich or a cool beer and watch the rod. After all, that’s what fishing is really all about!
Before you know it you may have fishing partner for life.