Early August · mackerel are in
Sixteen euro, and from now to the end of September you can fill a bait box off any pier in Wicklow in twenty minutes. Everything else on this page can wait until the nights draw in.
Complete setups
Rod, reel and everything you need before you buy bait. The all-rounder and the lure build cost about the same, so the choice is not budget. It is whether you fish bait on open beaches or lures off rock and pier.
The standard entry level beachcaster for Wicklow beaches. Rated 4 to 8 oz with a long casting action, and it handles everything from whiting up to smoothhound without complaining.
Where the money goes
The honest bit
Learn to cast, learn a mark, and find out whether you actually enjoy standing on a beach at six in the morning in November.
Everything but the rod carries forward. You keep about €70 of it.
Real distance, grip leads, night gear. This is the point where the fish start showing up in numbers rather than one at a time.
The old combo becomes your pier and spinning rod. Nothing gets thrown out.
You already own the reel by then, so the lure build costs about €200 rather than €271.
Two rods, one reel, and a season with no gap in it.