Lead Gen, Associate, and SEO Guru Adam Torkildson

So, you think you ought to learn a new hobby and it’s going to be fishing. There are several methods of finding out how to fish, the hardest way being trial and error, however, the best way is to find an expert for one-to-one lessons.

1. Get seasickness medication: If you’re going to fish on the water, nothing is worse than having your fishing trip ruined by seasickness. Most seasickness medication is appropriate (e.g. Bonine). Even expert fishermen take some on rough-weather days. Take one tablet before you go to sleep, another when you wake up and a third one before you go on board.

2. Buy a reference book: There are a lot of good books available at your local bookshops or online. The book should give you instructions as well as terms and definitions. There are some things you may not immediately understand but that you should know anyway. For example, learn how to tie different kinds of knots. This knowledge will also be invaluable for other purposes throughout your life.

3. Go on a party boat: There are party boats that carry from five to as many as sixty fishermen. The boat will usually provide you with everything you need like bait, lures, rod, reel, weights and hooks. They will help you fish and even take the fish off the hook for you as well. You will make plenty of new fishing friends and they will assist and advise you. Party boats will usually cost between $25 – $70 a day per person and the fish you catch are yours to keep. A party boat is a bargain for novices.

4. Select a pier: After you have already acquired the skills to use a rod and reel, you need to look for a fishing pier. Most seaside cities have a public pier or pay-to-fish pier. You can rent tackle and buy bait on these piers and, if you do have problems, there are plenty of pier anglers willing to help and give you tips.

5. To do party or pier?: You should do either method three or four times each or both at the same time at this point. The best thing to do is to practise them both ways several times to really learn how to do each method.

6. The reel deal: The conventional reel is probably what you’ve been using up to this point. The conventional reel is designed to take loads of wear and tear. However, maybe you now want to consider other types or / and makes of reels. Ideally you have already met other fishermen and perhaps made a friend or two who can assist you in selecting a reel. You could even ask a tackle store owner for tips.

Firstly, you need to learn the mechanism of the reel and the other equipment. Learning to cast, tie knots and bait is not really all that complicated. Secondly, you must learn where to fish. Successful fishermen know where the fish are schooling. Fish move from place to place and knowledgeable anglers understand these patterns and are able to anticipate where the fish are likely to be schooling.

Fishing equipment is called fishing tackle by specialists and hobbyists and it usually refers to rods, lines, hooks, sinkers, spears, lures, bait, reels, nets, and et cetera. The fishing gear that is attached at the end of a line is called terminal tackle

The word tackle when it refers to fishing equipment comes from ‘takel’ which initially meant the rigging on a ship, that is, the gear consisting of ropes supporting a ship’s masts and sails. Later, the same word was recorded as having a another meaning, that of apparatus for fishing and that meaning has been preserved ever since then.

The most rudimentary fishing equipment is made up of of a rod, a line, a hook, a lure, a bait and a weight or sinker. The line is a basic cord specially made for fishing that is both long, strong and yet thin, so that fish do not notice it. There are various questions that an angler asks when buying a fishing line, like its resistance, stretch, strength et cetera. The line will be selected based on what species of fish the angler intends to catch.

The sinker or weight, also referred to as a plummet, is really only a weight that assists in casting the hook and the bait as far as possible from the shoreline or from the boat that the fisherman is using. They are usually made of lead because it is cheap and easy to melt at home. However, lead sinkers have been outlawed in some parts of the world, especially the very small ones, which are often called ‘shot’. If eaten by birds or other fish, the lead, which is well-known to be poisonous, will cause the death of that animal.

Another basic piece of fishing gear is the hook. This device meant for attaching the bait on the line and for hooking into the fish’s mouth. It is attached to the line and the fisherman can choose from a very wide range of shapes, sizes and materials.

And last but far from least, is the bait or lure, without which fishing equipment cannot be effective. A lure is a man-made device attached to the end of the line that resembles the prey of the fish you are after in every way. Its purpose is to attract the attention of the fish with its colour shape and movement. Artificial flies, tiddlers and sand eels come into under this category. When the fish bites the lure, it becomes hooked.

Whilst, bait, on the other hand, is the item physically attached to the hook. Bait is often of two types: animal or foodstuff: ‘animal’ refers to small fish or other water creatures, insects or crawlers and ‘foodstuff’ refers to things like grains, such as wheat, bread or whatever the angler thinks might attract the fish.