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Print versionFootloose fishing
There's always a hint of the Huckleberry Finn in all anglers. As a teenager, days and nights camping on the beach, eating the catch and soaking up the stars are still some of my most cherished memories, and for many other anglers, too.
From time to time, marks packed out with anglers, match rigs, cocktail baits and pendulum casts all gets a little too serious. Such spiritual crisis calls for drastic action. That action being to get away from it all, recapture just a fragment of our youth, and recreate those footloose days when fishing was minimum tackle, rucksack, stove, the essential curiosity to fish marks off the beaten track, but above all, the freedom and fun.
TYPES OF FISHING
Your only bounds are those set by yourself. Footloose fishing can simply be putting a few spinners in your coat pocket and walking further than anyone else dares to along a boulder beach and trying your luck for bass. Alternatively for winter cod when light equipment encourages you to walk past the lines of anglers to where your bait has no competition from others.
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The best fun is in locating a specific rock mark or hidden bay or cove and back packing in with enough tackle, bait and equipment to stay overnight. The rocks always fish best at night for a variety of species, and hidden sandy beaches will hold bass, flatfish and rays that may never have seen another hook.
ACCESS
The first purchase for any would be wanderer is an Ordnance Survey map of the area that interests you. It's also worth getting an Admiralty chart for the same area so that you can check out inshore depths to locate the best marks.
Note interesting areas and potential marks on the map, then use the nearest footpaths and bridle ways to check them out. Footpaths and bridleways are marked as broken red lines. Only use marked footpaths and avoid walking over farmers fields without permission. Rough tracks, providing their also marked as right of ways, are always worth following when running parallel with the coast.
The same goes for parking. In all the years I've been footloose fishing I've never be refused permission by a farmer to park the car or gain foot access when asking. Problems only occur when you park without asking or deliberately trespass. It's often the case the farmer or landowner knows a fishing spot anyway, and passes it on with precise directions.
EQUIPMENT
For daytime trips, or just short night sessions, a smaller rucksack of between 40 to 60 litres capacity will carry everything you want. Overnight trips, or full day trips with a variety of fishing in mind will need something from 70 litre to 110 litre size. Whatever you choose, make sure that it has small side packets which separate tackle from food and clothes, and has a separate rain flap.
A small 8 litre sized cool box takes frozen bait and is just the right size to fit in the top of the rucksack for ease of carrying. If you make a thin sheet of wood to fit inside the cool box, you can make enough room to separate a packet of bacon which will stay fresh in the cool box well over 24 hours.
If you prefer a flask, then spend the money on a stainless steel type. These are robust and just about unbreakable in normal use, but keep liquids much hotter than normal flasks, which are also too easily broken.
Keen backpackers will soon realise the potential of a small stove. There are several makes on the market, but the best are the Coleman ones that run on lead free petrol. They are lightweight, safe to use, very easy to light, will not blow out in a wind, burn extremely hot and prove economical. In fact, one fuel fill will last a weekends meals without having to carry spare fuel. I find cheaper gas type stoves less reliable in bad or windy weather.
A combination pot, pan and plate set is the next step. Go for stainless steel types that fit inside each other to condense space. Again, lightweight, and easily cleaned. Coleman again, do an excellent set with folding handles. You can rob the kitchen of a knife, fork and spoon.
A small knife (no, you don't need a Rambo survival tool) and compass, plus small torch complete the essentials list.
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Now to the best part. What food to carry? For serious backpacking, go for lightweight dried foods like savory rice dishes, and packet soups. Remove their main packaging and store the packets in a sealed tupperware container. Some specialist mountain shops stock freeze dried foods which are wholesome, but these can be expensive. Chocolate snacks are okay in colder weather, but unusable in the heat of summer. Packets of mixed nuts and raisins are good, dried banana slices and apricots, too.
Tins of beans and spaghetti are okay for short hikes and car based camping, but are too heavy for long distance back packing.
The best food of all is fresh mackerel, pollack, bass or cod, the latter three gently fried in bacon fat and never mind the cholesterol, all washed down with hot coffee.
By carrying a small container holding coffee, maybe tea bags, you can eliminate carrying water or flask. In the wilder parts of Britain stream water is perfectly safe if boiled for several minutes. Water is hardly scarce in the UK, even in the summer. A hip flask of whisky, or in my case rum, just gives the coffee added umph! Drink enough of it and the fish look bigger, too!
BIVOUACS
No need for anything elaborate! There is enough protection from the standard fishing brolly for fair weather summer night camps, especially if the brolly has storm sides. If two of you put the brollies together, you get a good weather proof space with enough room to stow gear and yourselves.
On beaches, a carp mans brolly camp or the John Holden Beach Buddy are equally good. Having said that, for a weekends camping in the dunes above a bass or cod beach, then a small igloo shaped two man tent with separate fly sheet and sown in ground sheet is the best and most comfortable choice. There are some good ones available for less than the price of an average priced beachcaster.
Sleeping bags are now much better than they used to be. They are sold by season ratings ie, spring, summer, autumn and winter meaning they are suitably protective for use in those seasons. Then there are bivvi bags which are waterproof and windproof with the sleeping bags fitting inside these and allowing outside use without tent protection. Four seasons sleeping bags cost from about �45 but you can pay double that for a bivvi bag. And don't forget a roll matt for comfort.
PERSONAL CLOTHING
Your boots are the most important. Leather type or performance suede type, it's up to you, but go for a sole that bends a little under foot pressure, not those that are like standing on a stiff board. A slightly giving sole bends to the contours of rocks etc, and increases grip, stiff soles do not.
A quality lightweight waterproof coat and roll up waterproof trousers are light, wind proof and warm. several light jumpers are better than one big one. Ant take a change of boot socks.
DAMPER BREAD RECIPE
Instead of carrying bulky bread, try this recipe for damper bread. You'll need some self raising flour, a little salt to taste, and water.
Mix the flour and water into a stiff dough and mould the dough into flat cakes. Dust with what's left of the dry flour and either bake on tin foil in the hot ashes of a camp fire, or fry in bacon fat in a pan on the stove. When done, if you push the point of a knife into the dough and it does not stick, then it's ready. Served with bacon and hot coffee they are delicious.
You can mix the flour and salt in meal sized quantities and put it in plastic bags for ease of carrying.
TIPS
- Tell somebody at home where exactly you'll be and have a definite return time.
- To keep clothing dry, or separate wet clothes from other contents, buy a plastic rucksack liner. They cost 40P at any outdoor shop.
- Carry two cheap plastic cigarette lighters. They will light when even waxed matches won't.
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