Boat fishing for the first time

My Dad had just bought a small 4 man dingy with an outboard motor.
We're planning on doing a spot of sea fishing this year around Aldborough.

How safe is it to take a boat out? what sort of information do you need to know? I'm thinking along the lines of tides and currents.

Also without an echo sounder, how do you find the fish? Do you drift with the tide and use a running ledger rig in search of the fish?

I've done a fare bit of beach fishing before but we are both complete novices when it comes to boat fishing.

Any information on tactics and safety please.

talking from a bad experince.

make sure the engine is trustworthy, dont go out to far the 1st few times.

have a spare engine, or a set of oars.

life jackets.

flares.

handheld radio, small ones are about ?35-?40, dont trust a mobile.

take a spare anchor, and spare rope.

what size engine is it? you need to know the speed of the current in knots in yuor area, and an average of 1.5hp per speed of knot to make headway agaisnt it.

Hi Alan, it's a 4HP engine, it's virtually brand new so hopefully it should be reliable.

I think we're gonna stick to river esturies to start off with.

thats a little small for going out far.

stick to the esturies etc, or do what we do.

potter along to your normal beach, and anchour up a few hundred meters from the shore, its not far if you get in to difficulties and the extra distance can and does make a huge differance to what you catch.

if your not that far out, use an uptide rod, or a small spinning rod and cast out as you would normally, same bait, same tactics etc.


watching the sun set on a hot summers night, while floating out on a boat, with a nice cold whiskey and lemonade is an absolutely blinding way to relax.


(dont over do the booze, a boat is not the place to get pissed)