Kit 02 of 03 · What most people should buy
One setup for the open east-coast beaches, bass to smoothhound. Pick a part to see why it is in the kit.
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01Rod. 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.Power Cast Marine Beachcaster 12ft
View on Amazon.ie12 items on the list. The leads are fixed-wire Sputniks: they hold well on the clean sand and shingle this kit is written for, but over rough ground a fixed wire stays dug in and you lose the rig, so buy breakaway grip leads from a tackle shop for that. This is the kit for open east-coast beaches, Kilcoole, the Murrough, Brittas, where you need to put 5 or 6 oz out past the first bank and hold bottom in a run. It is not a tournament outfit and it is not a lure kit.
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.
Fishing this kit
This is a bait-fishing outfit for open beaches. The kit gets you to the water; these are the habits that turn it into fish.
Spool the reel, tie a shock leader and make up a handful of rigs at the kitchen table. A shock leader is not optional with a beachcaster: the lead puts more force through the last few metres of line on the cast than the main line is built to take, and a crack-off sends a lead across a crowded beach. Practise the leader knot until you can tie it by feel, because you will be retying it in the dark.
Pick a clean, sandy beach and go on the flood, when the gutter fills close in. Cast gently at first and aim for a smooth, controlled swing rather than distance; a tidy medium cast into the gutter catches more than a wild long one. Set the rod in the rest with the line tight to the lead and watch the tip. A proper bite pulls the tip round or drops the line slack as a fish moves toward you with the lead, and both mean pick up and wind.
The beachcaster is built to hold a grip lead in a run of tide and put a bait past the first bank, which is exactly what the east-coast surf beaches ask of you. It is the wrong tool for working lures off rock or for light float fishing from a pier, where its weight and stiffness work against you. If most of your fishing will be off walls and ledges, the lure kit is the better first buy.
Salt is what kills beach tackle. Rinse the reel and rod rings with fresh water after every session, and do not submerge the reel. Back the drag off before you store it so the washers do not set, and check the leader and the first few metres of main line for nicks before the next trip, because shingle and rock scuff line on every retrieve.
The other two
Combo, rigs, bait gear. Find out if you like 6am in November.
Built for rock, pier and clean-ground lure work: summer bass, mackerel and pollack, not a bait rod on a beach tripod. The reel is a size 3000 spinning reel, far lighter than the beachcaster’s.
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