Fishing Basics - getting started part 1

After many years spent on the water, often in the company of experienced anglers, the lessons learned eventually become second nature. Sam Mossman delves back to the basics of fishing and the simple things that make a lot of difference to those taking their first steps down the path.

It’s easy to forget that we all once had to learn the basics of fishing, which become habitual for most of us long ago. Cutting baits so they’re the right size for your hooks and choosing hooks that are the right size and type for the sort of fish you’re hoping to catch, are a couple of examples.

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This was brought back to me a month or so ago when fishing with the NZ Fishing News crew out of Whitianga. Everyone on the trip had notched up many years on the water, apart from our new operations manager, Sarah Ng. She was keen and enthusiastic about fishing, but had very little experience. However, with all of us giving her advice, she was soon picking up the basics. When she caught a reasonable blue cod on a soft-bait, she was stoked, and took it home whole for her mum to cook.

It’s great to see the excitement of someone catching their first reasonable fish, and it brought home to me how much the basics – the seldom thought-about things that are second nature to more experienced anglers – have to be learned before success becomes more regular.

A line on lines

Let’s start with one of the basic fishing tools: the line. Lines can be as simple as a hand-line. These can be a twisted cord type or a monofilament (single strand), which are mostly extruded nylon. Cord hand-lines are often stored by winding them around a stick in a criss-cross fashion. About 1.5m of monofilament leader is usually tied to the end of the cord via a swivel, and the hook/s and sinker are attached to the nylon, as this material is more difficult for the fish to see, so you get more bites.

Monofilament (‘mono’) hand-lines are usually wound onto a plastic spool called a hand-caster, which has a sloped face on one side. As the name suggests, the hand-caster can be used to help throw out the line. Before hand-casters came along, the sloped base of a glass Coke bottle could be turned to the same purpose.

The hooks and sinker can be tied directly to a monofilament hand-line’s end if it’s strong enough, but these hand-lines usually have a swivel and leader attached to help prevent line twist (we will come back to this) and enable the thickness and strength of the leader to be easily changed. Thicker leaders stand up better to damage from fish’s teeth and sharp rocks and shells, but if they are too thick it can be hard to attach hooks and the fish can see the line more easily, so you get fewer bites.

Hand-lines are very simple and cheap, and many kids first start fishing with them. When I was a boy, my dad saw that I did a couple of summers using a hand-line before I was allowed to progress to a rod and reel. I will never regret the good grounding in basic fishing skills that hand-line fishing gave me.

Fishing Basics - getting started part 1

Spare the rod…

A rod and reel is the tool of choice for most intending fishers these days. The reel stores the line and has a slipping clutch that is set so the fish can pull line off the reel’s spool before the line reaches breaking point. Turning the reel handle winds the line back onto the reel. Simple, eh.

The reel is mounted on the bottom (‘butt’) end of the rod by a screw-up clamp called a ‘reel seat’ or a ‘winch fitting’. Line from the reel is threaded up the length of the rod through rings bound onto the rod. These are called ‘guides’ or ‘runners’. The one at the top of the rod is called the ‘tip’.

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The rod’s purpose is partly to help absorb the shock on the line when the fish gives a strong jerk, partly to use as a lever to help pull the line in (taking some of the pressure off the reel), partly to help cast out the line, and partly to help guide the line around obstructions such as the sides of boats, outboard motors, wharf piles or rocks. To help with this, and be capable of making longer casts, rods designed for use from the shore or from wharves are usually longer than rods intended for boat use.

Two types of line are commonly used on rods and reels. One is (again) nylon monofilament and the other is variously called by a number of names, including ‘braid’, ‘superbraid’, ‘PE line’, or ‘polyethylene’. This line is a very thin for its strength and has very little stretch (nylon stretches quite a lot – up to 30%). Braid has many advantages for the experienced angler, but can be challenging for someone just starting out. In addition to requiring special knots, minimal stretch means the margin of error is reduced when playing fish, and tangles in it can be very difficult to undo. It is more expensive than nylon monofilament, too. 

Overall I recommend you start fishing with nylon monofilament and progress to braid lines when you become more experienced, as monofilament is easier to handle and fish with, and the knots are simpler to learn and tie.

Problems to avoid with reel and line

When first using a rod and reel, a few things should be learned so some potentially frustrating problems can be avoided. The first is called laying the line – something you need to do while winding the line onto some types of reels.

The reel type called ‘fixed-spool’, ‘spinning’ or ‘eggbeater’ has an metal arm called the ‘bail arm’, which rotates around the outside of the reel and automatically spreads the line evenly up and down the spool so it doesn’t bunch up in one place.

Another type, the ‘baitcaster’ reel, has a guide/eye that tracks back and forth across the spool when the handle is being wound to also automatically spread the line evenly.

But if you have a reel without these devices, you’ll have to learn to spread the line evenly across the reel spool with your thumb so it doesn’t bunch up in one place and jam on the reel’s frame.

Another thing to avoid is line twist. If the line gets twisted, it can cause lots of tangles and knots, which can also weaken the line. You can check for line twist by taking hold of the line in both hands, about 200mm apart. Move your hands together so the line between them goes slack. If the slack part twists together, you have line twist. If it twists very tightly, you have a real problem.

Line twist is more often associated with ‘spinning’ or ‘fixedspool’ reels (mentioned earlier), and builds up if you keep turning the reel handle when a fish is pulling out line or you are not gaining line. You will usually hear the ratchet clicking if this is happening. Don’t wind the handle if line is not being gained.

Fishing Basics - getting started part 1

There are other ways line twist is caused, too. It can be introduced if the line is initially wound onto the reel in the wrong orientation. It can also build up if a spinning-type lure is towed or repeatedly cast, or if you are pulling up a bait or fish that is spinning around (called ‘helicoptering’) in deep water. Incorporating one or more swivels in your leader can help reduce or avoid this problem.

Once you have line twist, how do you get rid of it? The easiest way is to remove all the hooks, sinkers or lures (collectively called ‘terminal tackle’) from the end of your line, then let it back out and tow it behind the boat for a while at moderate speed, or, if shore based, let it out in a current from a bridge or wharf in a channel. In all cases, keep an eye out for boats that may run over your line and keep it out their way.

Getting the line out into the water so it can untwist is a bit tricky to start with, as the afflicted line will try to tangle around your rod until the water’s drag gets it running off steadily. There is no need to let all your line out – just the line that’s twisted.

It generally takes a few minutes for the twist to be removed from the line. When winding it back in, keep checking for twist (as mentioned above) and give it longer if required. Likewise, try to avoid using ‘unbalanced’ rigs or lures which look as if they might twist up your line. 


November - 2016 - Sam Mossman

New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
Copyright: NZ Fishing Media Ltd.
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

 

 

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