Well, I've finally - and literally - dipped my toe in the water, having wanted for long enough to try chucking in the salt. I headed for Hillhead at high tide on Tuesday night, having watched mackerel churn the water to foam along a few miles of coast the night before. I learned a very important lesson:

- It's impossible to fish an intermediate line at high tide without a line tray; one minute to make a cast and fish it out, three minutes to clear the weed off the line, not the most efficient method of fishing.

...and a couple of other questions came to mind:

- The flies I was using (my fly-tying kit being still on its way back from Afghanistan) were 2" zonkers in natural and black. They didn't seem completely ideal, a little large and full. Am I right in thinking that I should be going for sparser, lighter patterns - skinny clousers and little DNA baitfish - when I eventually get my tying kit back?

- High tide might be ideal for mackerel but I'm not sure about sea trout and (hopefully) bass. I've got a feeling that wading out to the channels at low tide might narrow things down a bit more than flinging at random when the channels are ill-defined or absent. Any thoughts?

- I've got a bunch of largemouth bass poppers that I brought home from the States and have never used in this country. I'm wondering if there might be any mileage in dragging them across the flow at dusk/night.

As ever, any thoughts and suggestions will be most welcome.

Cheers all,

__________________
Navybloke

If I had to survive on what I caught only using 1 pattern it would the clouser. vary the length from 2" to 5" on size 4 to 1 hooks with small, medium and large dumbell eyes and you can cover most shore situations. Bucktail and synthetics for materials. In fact for £30 you could get everything you need especially from the US mail order.

Ah, Hillhead...weed capital of the world. More varieties of weed found there than there are fish in the sea. Many of the UK's heaviest weed catches have been claimed on that most productive of shores.
An intermediate line is not ideally suited to prevailing conditions, opt for a Di-5to substantially improve your weed catch rate.
Pulling sparse or skinny patterns through the grue will only reduce your catch rate, so stick to the bulky patterns.
If you fancy a bit of meat to go with all that veg you could always try Hayling Island

It used to be a very good spot for bass and FryBri caught a lot of mullet there(The mullet used to take clousers and Shrimp patterns) but then it sanded up and there were better options for both. I havent fished there since. I did paddle around on my Yak last year and spooked a really nice bass of around 4lb's. Its tough to get out to the reef at high. Go there at low water and fish the incoming tide over the structure you find untill it pushes you off. Not many Sea trout caught on fly in the sea. Not to say you wont - I'd love to get one myself. I'd say bass are your main target here. Switch to clousers to get to know your mark and the tides it fishes best. Nights a great option, I've always caught more bass from the shore at night(very early morning or late evening.)

Remember that the legal size limit for BASS is 36cm (Although thats daft and purely a restaurant plate size thing) If you care A bass doesnt spawn untill its over 40. And if you are lucky enough to catch a monster it's more than likely a female - they need protection. Loads of great insight and advice if you join BASS. Goodluck - tightlines