Guiding Martin to his 1st UK Saltwater Fish - June 2016

Martin's girlfriend got in touch with me through a friend and asked if she could 'buy' a days fishing with me for her fella...as a christmas present. A rather strange request I thought, but at the same time a nice challenge!

Martin had moved to the UK from Latvia some years before and hadn't had the time to fish. The brief was to get him into something that 'pulled back a bit' from our Sussex beaches. His experience was limited to a little freshwater fishing but other than that he was pretty green to it all.

We talked over the phone in the spring and agreed it would be best to wait until later in the year when some better fish were around. In my mind, I was thinking that Smoothounds would be the ideal target. We get a good run of them here in Sussex, they're not the trickiest of fish to catch and they certainly pull back a bit!

Come June, the jungle drums had been beating and I got wind of the arrival of the Smoothounds on the West Sussex beaches. I set a date with Martin and we went for it.

Armed with crab, squid, sandeel and mackerel as baits we hit the Sussex beaches full of hope and anticipation. We planned to fish from low water right up and over the top of the tide, if the weed would allow.

I set him up with 2 x beachcasters, fixed spool reels and pulley rigs. After a few practice casts he got in to it and we agreed he would cast one of the rods short whilst I would get him some distance with the other.

Initially, we started with squid and sandeel wraps to try and find a ray. Amazingly, on his first cast we had a good bite and he wound down into a lively fish that led him a merry dance. Much to his astonishment (and mine!) a nice Bass came in steadily through the gentle surf. What a start! We returned the fish in accordance with the crazy rules this year and fished on. He was over the moon!

It was then rather quiet until dusk when we changed over to crab baits to see if we could tempt a hound or 2 for him. Almost immediately we got into a few dogfish, but before long there was a slack line bite. I instructed Martin through the drill of winding down and tightening up to the fish and he was away.

It was great scrap and the look on his face was priceless. Catching a small shark from our local beaches really made his day. He then went on to catch a couple more before I too got in on the action myself.

The day was a resounding success with some fine fish caught. I thoroughly enjoyed getting Martin into a few fish and I think he got lots out of the experience too. Not to mention my fine BBQ'ing skills! It was one of those days when everything came together, a nice introduction to UK Sea Angling for Martin.