So, you have decided that you want to learn how to fish. There are a few ways of learning, the hardest being trial and error. The best way is to find an instructor 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 medicine is appropriate (e.g. Bonine). Even seasoned 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 deck.

2. Get a decent reference book: There are a lot of very good books available at your local bookstores and online. The book ought to give you instructions as well as the terminology and definitions. There are some things you may not immediately understand but that you have to know anyway. One good thing is to learn how to tie different kinds of knots. This useful knowledge will also be invaluable for other purposes throughout your whole life.

3. Get on a party boat: There are party vessels that carry from five to as many as sixty anglers. The boat will usually provide you with everything you need from bait, lures, rod, reel, sinkers to hooks. They will show you how to fish and even take the fish off the hook for you as well. You will make plenty of new fishing mates on board and they will assist and advise you. Party boats will generally cost between $25 – $70 a day per person and the fish you catch are yours to keep. A party boat is a bargain for beginners.

4. Select a pier: After you have already acquired the skills to operate a rod and reel, you ought to look for a fishing pier. Most coastal cities have a public pier or pay-to-fish pier. You can hire tackle and buy bait on these piers and, if you do have trouble, there will be many pier anglers around to help and give you advice.

5. Party or pier?: You may want to do either method three or four times or both at the same time at this point. The best thing to do is to practise both ways several times to really learn them.

6. The reel affair: The conventional reel is probably what you’ve got at this point. The traditional reel is designed to take a lot of wear and tear. However, maybe you now want to consider buying another type or / and make of reel. Ideally, you have already met other anglers and perhaps made a friend or two who can assist you in choosing a reel. You could even ask a fishing equipment shop owner for advice.

First off, you need to learn the mechanics of the reel and the other equipment. Learning to cast, tie knots and bait is not that complicated. Secondly, you need to learn where to fish. Successful fishermen know where the fish are schooling. Fish move from place to place and clever anglers understand these patterns and are able to work out where the fish are located.

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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 so on. The fishing gear that is attached at the end of the line is referred to as the terminal tackle

The word tackle referring to fishing equipment comes from ‘takel’ which first 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 equipment for fishing and that meaning has been preserved ever since then.

The most rudimentary fishing gear 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 string especially 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 chosen depending on what species of fish the angler intends to catch.

The sinker or weight, also called a plummet, is really only a weight that helps 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 as their purpose is also to sink and to get the bait closer to the fish in the water as fast as possible. However, lead sinkers have been banned in some parts of the world, especially the really small ones, which are often called ‘shot’. If ingested by birds or other fish, the lead, which is known for its high toxicity level, will cause the death of the animal.

Another elementary piece of fishing gear is the hook. This device meant for holding 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 pretty wide range of shapes, sizes and metals.

And last but far from least, is the bait or lure, without which the fishing equipment cannot be effective. A lure is a device tied to the end of the line that looks and moves something like the prey of the fish you are after. Its purpose is to get the attention of the fish with its colour and movement. Artificial flies, tiddlers and sand eels fall into this category. When the fish eats the lure, it becomes hooked.

Whilst, bait, on the other hand, is the item physically attached to the hook. Bait is usually 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 believes might attract the fish.

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