IRISH ANGLE
Have you noticed just how many "No Fishing" signs are appearing on piers, jetties, breakwaters and quays? More than a few, eh!

I can understand anglers being restricted if there is a danger to either the anglers themselves for some reason, or maybe to the public, say due to limited casting space. Often though, there seems little justification for the ban.

In contrast Ireland actually encourages anglers on to most public places. Ireland excels in having road type signs indicating where good fishing marks are and even detailing the most likely species on these venues to guide anglers.

Promotion of angling

The Irish Central Fisheries Board does a fantastic job of promoting sea angling in Ireland and undertakes regular survey work on areas discovering and mapping out new marks. This information is turned in to maps and information brochures, which visiting anglers can buy allowing them to tap in to the local knowledge and immediately go out and catch themselves some fish. This attention to detail has a dramatic beneficial effect on the local and national income by encouraging anglers and their families over to the Emerald Isle.

This ignorance of the importance of angling within the UK generates to the holiday trade too. Traditional and popular fishing areas like the southwest, Wales and Scotland that see a massive influx of visiting anglers should get better organised and be deliberately encouraging anglers in to their area by giving simple yet effective support by the use of those Irish style road signs and quality brochures. Few holiday brochures currently give angling even a paragraph and tourist board counter staff look at you as if you've just arrived from Mars if you enquire about the local fishing. I'm well aware of this as many potential visitors, prior to their holidays, e-mail me after drawing a blank with the tourist office.

Fact is angling is badly served by the tourist industry within the UK and by many local councils too. Anglers spend money liberally and often more so than normal holidaymakers do when in these communities. How long then before the national and local tourist information infrastructure gears up to our needs? I'm not holding my breath!

TIPS AND TRICKS
You'll often notice fish are concentrated within a very small area, say a depression on a beach where food gets washed in, or maybe they are running through a narrow gully between rocks. To make sure you cast to the same place every time carry a black marker pen and paint the reel line after you've judged and cast the correct distance. If you then slightly overcast each time, you can retrieve the line back until the mark appears at the reel and you know the bait is in the right place.

BEACH GROYNE TACTICS

Fishing near to groynes

Beach anglers tend to fish in the middle between wooden or stone groynes, but this can cost you fish. The groynes are natural food collectors and attract and hold fish.

On flood tides always try to fish on the uptide side of groynes, the side the tide hits. Food washed along by the tidal current will collect against the base of the groyne and fish will gather here to feed. Flatfish and dogfish commonly do this.

The ends of the groynes are the hotspots. The tide will deflect around these and tend to gouge out a depression or hole, sometimes leaving a big pool in the sand at the very end of the groyne. The passing tide again drops food in to this hole and fish like sole, bass, codling and whiting will take advantage. They sit on the inclines of the depression facing in to the tide and take food items as they wash in to the hole.

You can also use a groyne to minimise weed problems after a storm. The weed will get pushed up against the side the tide is hitting, but if you fish the downtide side placing your casts very close to the end of the groynes the weed will be minimal here giving your bait time to attract nearby fish.

On the ebb tide the fish are less likely to feed along the groynes edge as they become nervous of the shallowing water. They tend to stay just outside the groynes and you need to cast beyond the groynes to continue catching.

Stone groynes are a feature on some beaches and are made from boulders just piled up. These fish similar to the wooden groynes with the depressions at the end, but because the boulders are good places for crabs to hide and the rocks hold mussels you'll find that fish will work along the stones nearer towards the high water line searching for food. Bass, codling and flounder typically use this a feeding ploy.