Advice on What to Buy for Course Fishing

[chrisb1357]

Hi all,

I enjoyed course fishing as a teenager at my local ponds were I use to live. I am now 36 and having not fished for many years I am looking to get back into it. I was never into anything special and just use to do general course fishing at the weekends.

My wife is also wanting to give it a go (last time some years back she caught a good sized carp) but was not great at casting out etc but I use to help her cast out etc.

As I don't have any of my original kit I am looking for some tips of what to buy without spending to much that will keep us going for a while and get us started. A few people I have spoken to have suggested we would be better moving to using a Pole than a rod/reel setup but my knowledge is very limited.

Also is it a good time of year to start out or would you suggest waiting until the spring. We don't mind going out in all weathers but soon the days will be very short.

Any advice or tips on what sort of kit I should be looking at would be a great help

Many Thanks
Chris

 

[sam vimes]

The type of gear you might look to buy will depend greatly on the type of venues you intend to fish. Depending on the answer, it may not be unreasonable to suggest a pole of some description, but rod and line will always have a place. The fortunate thing is that budget gear has rarely been as good as it currently is.

 

[rich66]

When I started back after a long break, I bought a cheap 13’ match rod and cheap reel to get me started again. I’ve still got the rod and still use it on the odd occasion or use it to lend a friend.
If you used a rod/reel set up before then you may be more comfortable using the same now.
Plenty of decent 2nd hand kit around on gumtree and Facebook no need to spend a fortune.
If you can get out while it’s still relatively warm the fishing is still good.

Canal and river trust do a get fishing day, lets you have a go with some guidance and little cost. Look them up on Facebook

 

[Another Dave]

Also is it a good time of year to start out or would you suggest waiting until the spring. We don't mind going out in all weathers but soon the days will be very short.

Any advice or tips on what sort of kit I should be looking at would be a great help

1. This is a great time of year for fishing

2. As others indicated, we'll need to know the type of fishing you enjoy and the kind of waters you intend to visit. If you can come up with a budget figure I reckon you would get some good suggestions here. I wish I'd done that when I restarted as there has been some money wasted, whereas the gear bought as a result of recommendations here is still getting used.

 

[mikench]

All of the above but if you and your wife are likely to regularly fish together and you don't want to spend too much I suggest you buy a float rod and a feeder rod with appropriate reels. That way you can alternate and both see which you prefer. You can buy new or sh and should be able to buy the lot( hooks, feeders, shot ,floats line , landing nets etc excepted) for less than £200.

I cannot comment on Poles as I don't have one .

 

[Keith M]

If I was starting up fishing myself and buying my first rod I would most probably start off with a 12 or 13 ft commercial float rod (with stand-off rings) and a front drag reel which matches the rod balance wise (ie. not too big and heavy for the rod); either a 3000 sized reel or a smaller bodied 4000 sized reel similar to the Shimano 3000 or. 4000 RA front drag reels which came with spool reducers, or maybe one of the cheaper Diawa Ninja reels

With this I could quite easily use it for catching Roach, Rudd, bream, Chub, Barbel, Tench, Crucians etc. right up to small Carp, using lines from around 2.5lb right up to around 6 or 7lb and hooklengths from about 2lb right up to around 5 or 6lb; which would be near enough to an all round float rod as I could get.

My second rod would most probably be a 1.5lb or 1.7lb Avon/Quiver leger rod which would allow me to use it with either a quivertip or a standard Avon type tip section and allow me to fish for Barbel and Chub on my local streams and rivers and Tench, crucians and Carp etc. on my local stillwaters; and would be another all round rod but this time for legering/quivertipping; and I would match it with a small to medium sized freespool reel (a 3000 or 4000 type reel)
A reel that comes with the freespool function can be very useful at times when you are legering however it can be ignored if you don’t really need it.

Anyway good luck with your choices.

Keith