How To Get Started Fishing: At The Lake mainly applies to UK, see the what you will need too

[shadowx 0]

So you now know what you need to start fishing from my other tutorial, once you have it all it's time to head to the lake!

As i said pick up the bait on the way, maggots from the tackle shop, corn and spam from tescos and bread too if you want (you can eat it too of course!).

At the lake you can ask those already fishing for their tips but some anglers are liable to lie to keep the best spots to themselves. So when you get look for the "swims" These are areas along the bank where the bushes have been cleared and sometimes paving slabs have been laid to let you sit comfortably on a chair near the water's edge. Find a swim that is the middle of three swims, that way if you cast and it goes a bit wrong you wont get in the way of anyone and wont get so embarrassed! We all make mistakes, even now after years of fishing i hit an island or a bush or forget to take the bail arm off and just slam the stuff into the lake! it happens!

Ideal areas would be places with the sun and wind behind you and perhaps on corners of a lake or places that have features underwater (EG sandbars or underwater channels/islands) Or even a narrow section between the bank of the lake and an island. Once you've chosen your swim set up the chair! Then the rod, easy enough either slide the two/three parts together and line up all the rings, or eyes, of the rod then attach the reel, generally at the think end, or butt of the rod is either a screw thread with a sort of washer on it or two plastic "washers" about an inch thick, simply place the reel with the spool (the round spindle that holds the line) pointing towards the thin end of the rod and slot the back end of the metal T shape at the top into the back washer and either screw, or slide the other washer over the other end of the T bar, this holds the reel securely. Now thread the line through the eyes of the rod, the reel has a small metal bar called the bail arm that is curved and at the top of the spool, simply lift this so the bar no longer covers, or encircles the spool Like this and then pull the line from the spool all the way along the rod and through each and every eye of the rod making sure it doesnt twist around the rod or get tangled, keep pulling the line out the end of the rod untill you can pull the end of the line back down to the Butt of the road, this make sure you have plenty of line to work with, then flip the bail arm back to its original position like this

now back to the end of the line. Take your float and a rubber that fits snugly over the orange tip of the float and doesnt slide around on it. Now thread the line through this small rubber hoop and then through the little eye at the very bottom of the float so it hangs like this with the free end of the line hanging loose under the float. This set-up allows you to easily slide the float up and down the line, slide the float up now to give yourself 3 or 4ft of line underneath it. If you are using a pre-weighted float now is the time to just drop this little set-up into the water, if the float stands upright (|) skip to the hook section below, if it lays flat (_) or at an angle (/) read on!

Weighting a float: So now we get out those little weights we bought earlier and a pair of pliers or forceps. If you float is totally unweighted at the moment or lays flat go for a weight about half the size of a pea, grip it very LIGHTLY in your pliers/forceps so that the groove or cut is facing outwards and doesnt close (if it closes use your finger nail/scissors to re-open it again) now get the line about 2ft from the free end and lay it in the grove and squeeze the weight firmly around the line so it closes completely around it and doesnt move. Drop this little rig into the water and see how it lays. If it lays flat or at big angle eg / or \ repeat this step using the same sized weight, if it is almost straight up use a weight about half the size of the one you just used and put it about 3-4 inches below the first weight. just repeat the above steps untill it stands straight up, then you are ready for the hook!

This is the trickiest part of setting up. Take your hook and hold it buy the bend of the shank (the part between the bend and the eye) in such a way that you can thread the line through the eye like you would thread a needle, so thread it through the eye and now form a loop and tuck the loose end inside the loop so it effectively coils round itself in a loop like this with the hook dangling in that top part of the loop there, now pull it tight. This is a start, but now do the same thing, but instead of putting the line through the loop once do it 3 or 4 times and pull tight, seal it tight with another two of the knots you started with. It's not the neatest knot but it does work, for a neater knot look at this website specifically the Tucked half blood knot. but for now my little un-named knot is fine, and i still use it myself because im lazy! Some people like to spit on the line to lubricate it as the friction can sometimes damage light line, i sometimes do, i sometimes dont.

Once its tied on pull the hook with your fingers (dont catch yourself here) to make sure the knot doesnt slide open, once you're sure its slide trim the free end of the line leaving about 1mm left, if you trim it too short it WILL slip!

Now you are ready for bait! Whoop!

If using maggots take one maggot, a red one if you have them, and hook it lightly in the fat end of the maggot, there are two tiny tiny holes, these are breathing holes, try to nick the skin of the maggot between these two holes and it will wriggle nicely! If using corn take a single average sized piece of corn and hook it either in the middle of the corn or on the sealed end, so it hangs nicely on the hook. If using spam cut a small cube, about corn-sized and hook it in the middle. if using bread take a small amount about the size of a 10p coin and squeeze it firmly at one end leaving a "bush" effect at the other with un-squeezed bread, ideally the squeezed end should be about the size of a pea, hook this end of the bread leaving the bushy end hanging down, if you squeeze the whole thing it just looks like a round ball of weak flavoured bread but the bushy end attracts fish to pull at it and get caught.

no matter what bait you use make sure it sits either at the bend of the hook or on the shank so the point of the hook is free to hook the fish. I recommend starting with maggots or spam as these baits attract smaller fish which are good to start with.

So now the hard part, casting, i could write a whole tutorial about this alone!

so take your rod, i cast with the rod on my right but hold the rod and see what side you feel comfortable with, i suspect you will like the right sided method. Now to start the cast reel in the line using the reel handle of course, to the point where you have about 5-8ft of line from the end of the rod to the hook, you will get a better feel for the length later on but make sure the line is shorter than the rod, now take your right hand (if the rod is on the right, or left if the rod is on the left) and take your index finger and hold the line against the rod so it is secure with your finger pointing toward the end of the rod but at a slight angle towards your body, now with your left hand flip the bail arm up like you did when you threaded the rod, so now if you let go with your finger the line will run freely and the float and hook (collectively known as the rig) will drop to the floor (dont let go im just saying!). So now keeping the eyes of the rod facing upwards raise the end of the rod so it goes vertical and then upside down with the rod tip behind you (check behind for people, dogs, trees etc... first) still holding the line with your finger keep going backwards untill the rod is at about a 30 degree angle or slightly lower, then fairly quickly (not not too quick, your not swatting a fly or cracking a whip!) swing the rod tip forwards again untill it reaches about 30-40 degree angle in front of you at this point let the line go with your finger eg: backwards: _ \ | / _ stop forwards: _ / | \ (let go of string here and let the rod swing down to a horizontal position) _ Now the float and rig should fly through the air and land hopefully in the water, it might not go far, it might go wonky but as long as it goes forwards! If it goes straight up in the air too much then you need to of the line a little later, if it goes down too quickly let go a little earlier till it flies at about 40 degrees. This will take practice, dont worry! Smaller kids will take longer but as an adult it will only take 10 casts or so untill you get it straight and flying well 90% of the time. when you let go of the line your finger should be pointing along the rod.

Now you have it in the water you are fishing! the trick to catching fish is.. there is no trick! there are things you can do that help but nothing works 100% of the time, try throwing about 10-20 pieces of bait (maggots, corn or spam cubes) around your float every few minutes for a start and then about half of that every 5-10 minutes or so until the fish start biting, the idea here is to keep a small, steady stream of bait going in. Think of it like this, if you have 30 mars bars and threw them all into a school room at once it would be fairly orderly, each kid taking one and eating it, if you throw in two or 3 at a time the kids might well fight over them! And fishing competing mean more bites for you!

So when you finally get a bit you will know about it, your float will bob, go under or even lift up unusually (eg it wasnt a wave or the wind) and that is a bite, dont do anything yet, if the float goes up and stays up or falls over it is a take (more on this in a second!) If the float moves sideways much faster than it normally drifts or if the float goes under and stays under this is also a take.

So if you get a "take" you need to "strike". this is simply lifting the rod tip in the air and reeling in any slack line untill the lines is tight and you feel the fish on the end, this sets the hook in the lip and you are now hooked in! If you do this and dont feel a fish no worries, pull it in, check the bait and rebait if needed and then cast it out where you were before and wait.

Playing the fish: Once you have hooked a fish you now "play" it into the bank. If it is a small fish you really just pull it out of the water, which is fine! If the fish is less than a few inches. If it's over 4 or 5 inches you might want to net the fish if you can and anything bigger than several inches should surely be netted! while playing the fish simply make sure the line is always tight and there is a slight bend in the rod, if you can just pull it in then do so, otherwise keep the line tight and apply some pressure to tire the fish out untill you can pull it in and net it. Never wear a fish down the point it can no longer swim or fight, just enough that you can net it.

when netting a fish dont scoop the fish up, instead hold the net under the water and use the rod to pull the fish over the net, then raise the net upwards and net it, if you scoop around for the fish you risk accidentally unhooking and loosing it.

Once you have the fish on the bank unhooking begins, either hold the fish or lay it on soft ground like grass or a towel or a special landing mat, never on rocks, stones or hard surfaces, they will flap about and could hurt themselves but on grass they will be fine. Take your forceps which of course were close to hand and hold the eye or shank of the hook with them, hopefully you can easily see which way the point is and easily pull the hook free, never force or rip the hook out, always trace the route the hook took (eg if the hook point is on the left of the lip tilt the eye end of the hook to the left and this will have the effect of pulling the hook point out of the fish). Easy! Now gently put him back and start again!

if the fish is deeper hooked i find holding it upside down helps calm it down, insert the forceps carefully into its mouth, following the line, hold the eye of the hook with the forceps and very gently push it further into the fish, this should dislodge the point and you can pull it free, if not gently, VERY gently juggle the hook slightly to loosen in and determine which way the hook is face and then try to pull it free. If this doesnt work ask for help, the fish wont die yet, if it's been a minute or so put it in the water inside the net for a minute or so and get someone to help. We all need help sometimes, they might have a tool you dont have, there are many times ive struggled to free a hook and had to get help from someone else.

If everything fails or there is no-one around you must cut the line as close to the hook as possible. This isnt ideal but it most likely wont kill the fish, it will dislodge the hook and spit it out on its own so dont worry! I have caught big pike that had another trace (set of two hooks) still inside it from a previous snap-off and it obviously didnt affect the fish much as it still went for my bait so was able to eat etc.. and we carefully took it out and he was fine!

Sometimes the fish will accidentally get caught in the tail or fin instead of the lips, gently remove the hook and put him back in the lake, this is called foul hooking because in a match it wouldnt count! It wont harm the fish at all and will heal very quickly.

Remember to take all rubbish, especially lines, weights and hooks home or bin it properly, birds can easily die in tangles of fishing line and a hook in a dogs foot isnt nice so clean up!

Remember to buy a rod license for Ł25 a year from the environment agency website, without it you can be fined Ł2k for not having one! Bad times! the money goes into helping the EA to provide and maintain fishing spots all over the UK. Remember to take your wallet too as you will normally have to pay the owner to fish there for the day on a "day ticket" normally between Ł5 and Ł10 for a day.

Tight lines and good luck!!

Later in the month/year i will hopefully write a tutorial about pole fishing once ive learned how to do it myself!