Zalastar
Member
So, there I was in Wales, in early summer on the beach (yes it was that week in summer when we saw sun and high temperatures!). The better half and my old dad were getting some rays, the girl (a four year old, precocious little angle.... yeah right!) was building sand castles and the boy (a seven year old bundle of uncontrollable energy and clumsiness) was bugging me to set up the fishing rod that his Grandad (the aforementioned old dad) had seen fit to bring along on holiday with us.
Being a hater of sitting aimlessly on a beach I decided to give it a go. It's been years since I set up a rod and my middle aged eyes struggle to see past the end of my nose these days, I didn't hold out much hope of tying a knot in fishing line! After about an hour of threading line through rod guides, removing said line from rod guides and re-threading after OPENING THE BAIL ARM, tying a string of feathers to the line, removing hooks from fingers, palms, arms and on one occasion an ankle! we were finally ready to cast out.
I handed the rod to the boy, showed him how to cast then stood back, the rod came back, the lead hung just above the beach, the line trapped between finger and rod blank, a slight pause and whoosh! The rod curved majestically over the boy's head, the line, feathers and weight arced with some degree of ferocity towards the waiting ocean, the line was released from its trapped position between forefinger and rod blank, the line, feathers and weight extended about four feet past the boy.... a perfect cast....erm why is the rig speeding back towards us at that speed?
Ten minutes later, after digging hooks out of hands, and arms and applying a little savlon to various cuts, we tried again, this time we TOOK THE BAIL ARM OFF!
A whoosh of a rod tip, the feint whistle of a line comming off a reel and a distant splash later we were fishing, well I say fishing. What actually happened was this.... The weight landed with a plop, i reached over and flicked the bail arm back on (see, I'm learning!) then explained to the boy that he had to wind the line back in so that the feathers moved and appeared in the water as a small swimming fish. The boy wound in the line enthusiastically, I continued to explainn to him that the feathers were designed to make predatory fish think they were other, smaller fish, or food as we call it, he continued to wind in enthusiastically. There was a feint nagging at the back of my mind, something wasn't quite right. The cast was made by a 7 year old with no experience, it managed about 10 feet, that's 10 feet of line plus the lenght of the rod, allow for the length of the rig, it should take about 30 seconds to wind in..... bu99er...
So half an hour later, after untangling about 100 yards of line from around the reel, re-rigging and remembering to TAKE THE REEL OFF BACK WIND so the boy can only wind in ONE DIRECTION!! we cast out again.
Success! (No not a fish, a successful cast an wind in).
Three casts later... "I'm bored", "this is boring", "I'm off to make sandcastles with my sister".
I am now left at the edge of a beach with a rod, rigged line and a whole ocean full of fish.... So there I stood for the next hour, casting out, reeling in slowly, rinse, repeat.
A strange thing happened, I knew the gear was all wrong, 8 ft rod, heavy line, one ounce weight and a max cast of about 50 yards with my poor technique. The only fish I was going to catch was a battered cod in the chippy on the seafront, but I didn't care, I was relaxing like I hadn't done for ages and enjoying the process of failing dismally to catch a single fish. I'd discovered I was an angler in the making.
It's now been a few weeks and I'm hooked, I've dug all of my old gear out of my old Dad's shed, cleaned all the dust and cobwebs off it and have managed about four trips so far, two blanks, one trip cut short after catching 3 small roach and losing a disgorger (I now have 5 in my tackle box) and one trip resulting in two decent Bream and what I think was a small Crucian Carp.
I'm desperate to get out again but The Boy, The Girl and the weather are keeping me inside lots (waterproofs on order hopefully delivering tomorrow)
All of which is a very long winded way of saying hi from a new member, love the forums and I'm picking up tips by the hundred.
Being a hater of sitting aimlessly on a beach I decided to give it a go. It's been years since I set up a rod and my middle aged eyes struggle to see past the end of my nose these days, I didn't hold out much hope of tying a knot in fishing line! After about an hour of threading line through rod guides, removing said line from rod guides and re-threading after OPENING THE BAIL ARM, tying a string of feathers to the line, removing hooks from fingers, palms, arms and on one occasion an ankle! we were finally ready to cast out.
I handed the rod to the boy, showed him how to cast then stood back, the rod came back, the lead hung just above the beach, the line trapped between finger and rod blank, a slight pause and whoosh! The rod curved majestically over the boy's head, the line, feathers and weight arced with some degree of ferocity towards the waiting ocean, the line was released from its trapped position between forefinger and rod blank, the line, feathers and weight extended about four feet past the boy.... a perfect cast....erm why is the rig speeding back towards us at that speed?
Ten minutes later, after digging hooks out of hands, and arms and applying a little savlon to various cuts, we tried again, this time we TOOK THE BAIL ARM OFF!
A whoosh of a rod tip, the feint whistle of a line comming off a reel and a distant splash later we were fishing, well I say fishing. What actually happened was this.... The weight landed with a plop, i reached over and flicked the bail arm back on (see, I'm learning!) then explained to the boy that he had to wind the line back in so that the feathers moved and appeared in the water as a small swimming fish. The boy wound in the line enthusiastically, I continued to explainn to him that the feathers were designed to make predatory fish think they were other, smaller fish, or food as we call it, he continued to wind in enthusiastically. There was a feint nagging at the back of my mind, something wasn't quite right. The cast was made by a 7 year old with no experience, it managed about 10 feet, that's 10 feet of line plus the lenght of the rod, allow for the length of the rig, it should take about 30 seconds to wind in..... bu99er...
So half an hour later, after untangling about 100 yards of line from around the reel, re-rigging and remembering to TAKE THE REEL OFF BACK WIND so the boy can only wind in ONE DIRECTION!! we cast out again.
Success! (No not a fish, a successful cast an wind in).
Three casts later... "I'm bored", "this is boring", "I'm off to make sandcastles with my sister".
I am now left at the edge of a beach with a rod, rigged line and a whole ocean full of fish.... So there I stood for the next hour, casting out, reeling in slowly, rinse, repeat.
A strange thing happened, I knew the gear was all wrong, 8 ft rod, heavy line, one ounce weight and a max cast of about 50 yards with my poor technique. The only fish I was going to catch was a battered cod in the chippy on the seafront, but I didn't care, I was relaxing like I hadn't done for ages and enjoying the process of failing dismally to catch a single fish. I'd discovered I was an angler in the making.
It's now been a few weeks and I'm hooked, I've dug all of my old gear out of my old Dad's shed, cleaned all the dust and cobwebs off it and have managed about four trips so far, two blanks, one trip cut short after catching 3 small roach and losing a disgorger (I now have 5 in my tackle box) and one trip resulting in two decent Bream and what I think was a small Crucian Carp.
I'm desperate to get out again but The Boy, The Girl and the weather are keeping me inside lots (waterproofs on order hopefully delivering tomorrow)
All of which is a very long winded way of saying hi from a new member, love the forums and I'm picking up tips by the hundred.
:thumbs:
