As the year has ticked on the credit crunch doesn’t seem to be as bad as the media first made out. Having said that, it does remain a strange year! As I travel around fishing each month I’m finding some anglers are struggling, yet some angling businesses are reporting their best year to date. One thing’s for sure, even if we are skint or rolling in it, as a whole we have all cut back, so this week I thought I’d give you some more ideas on how to get out to wet a line in these tough times.

BOAT FISHING
Boat Anglers seem the hardest hit by the credit crunch. Lots of clubs and groups are finding they are struggling to find enough members to fill a trip. If this is the case for you or your club, why not post your clubs availability on the WSF Forums and/or on Deep Sea on their Fishy Message Board. Likewise quite a few small boat owners are finding running costs and annual expenses of a boat difficult to warrant, in a year where on the whole money is tighter. If you’re a small boat owner who’s finding it hard this year, why not join a large boat angling club like Herne Bay A A that I visited a few weeks ago. Within clubs like this you’ll always find keen anglers to hop aboard and share the costs of a day afloat. If you’ve got to sell your boat to release capital, perhaps one option could be to sell shares in the boat and form an owning syndicate with friends?

SHORE ANGLING
Shore Angling wears tough times well. Why? Because it doesn’t have the overheads or costs of boat fishing, well apart from perhaps more bait, but the shore angler can always do something about that.

Bait collecting can save an angler serious money. Lugworm and common shore crabs (hardbacks) are pretty easy to collect from most coastlines and are suitable for a wide array of species. From the right locations, getting a few months supply of fresh mackerel to be frozen at home is also possible. With a little bit more thought, finding peeler crab, netting prawns, and even digging rag worm isn’t impossible. Collecting and storing bait is one way forward for the shore angler to reduce their costs.

Lure fishing is another option for the shore angler to fish on the cheap. Now I hear you say “lures are expensive” – yes they are. But once you buy them, you really shouldn’t lose many if one, you tie good knots, and two, you use the right lure for the right depth! I’ve had some of my lures for years and if I divided their cost by the amount of times they have been used, I’m sure I would find they’re the greatest value-for-money bait I have ever bought! A note here is that all my sea fishing lures I also use for Pike fishing, and visa-versa, making them double value!

Mulleting is for anglers on the breadline (excuse the pun!). A waggler float, some shot, a packet of Kamasan B983’s, a couple of loaves of bread and hey presto – a session that can be had on loose change. Use cheap bread for groundbait and a good loaf for hook baits, add a drop of fish oil to your groundbait too if you have some.

COARSE FISHING
I’ve coarse fished for many years and I find the best of all freshwater fishing is also the cheapest... touch ledgering, household food baits, on the many rivers that cut through our land.

I generally use an Avon style rod for all my river fishing, but there is no reason why a sea fishing spinning or plugging rod wouldn’t be suitable. Directly to my 20lb braided mainline I tie my hook (usually an ESP raptor size 2-10 depending on what bait I’m using). Then 30-40cm up from the hook I sometimes put shot on the line (anything from 1-8 SSG) to just keep the bait on the river bed. Now here comes the cheap bit...

Hook baits for coarse fishing are easier to locate than baits for sea fishing, and about the most strenuous is gets, is digging worms from the bottom of my garden. More often than not, the baits I’m looking for will actually be in the kitchen cupboard. Bread, Cheese, Luchen Meat, Pepperami and Sweet corn are all great baits for simple river fishing, proven long before our times.

Coarse fishing might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but there can be no denying that touch ledgering household baits on rivers, is a cheap way to get out on the water and get a bend in your rod. Much of my coarse fishing is done when strong winds are forecast and sea fishing is off the cards... saving me lost fishing time as well.

In the last month I’ve been wrassing twice – the cost - a couple of lost Sakuma hooks as I collected my own crab for bait. I’ve been mulleting twice – once with Skipper Rob Thompson from Lymington and once finding a new mullet mark nearer to home. The cost of both trips couldn’t have been more than £6 in bread – no lost tackle. I also have spent three days fishing the beautiful river Avon with my good friend Andy Hart. Again I didn’t lose any tackle and between us bait amounted to £10 each from Tesco! And finally on two mornings this month whilst plugging, I didn’t lose any lures but I didn’t catch any bass either – cost – zilch!

In total that’s seven days or sessions for under £20.