Newcomers to boat fishing often question whether they should use shock leaders offshore and struggle with deciding the advantages and disadvantages of using them.

Leader length is a grey area for many. Most anglers use leaders either too short or too long and its all done by guesswork. So just what are the criteria for deciding leader length to find that essential compromise between casting and fishing?

Sea anglers fail to understand the true facts on Fluorocarbon line. So many all too often dismiss it just on price alone, but also, and amazingly, without actually trying it, or even considering when and where it can and will give you a real advantage.

Making sure that your hooks are sharp is, in my opinion, one of the most important aspects of tackle preparation. Blunt hooks mean missed bites and lost fish.

A look at how easy it is to pick up a bargain for next to nothing.

Too many anglers spend a good part of their day afloat untangling tackle instead of fishing. This is hardly cost effective when you weigh up the cost of the trip against actual time with baits properly presented on the seabed. Those of you who fall into this category should look towards booms as a possible solution.

Lead is a lead, right? Wrong! The wide range of lead shapes, be they for shore or boat, certainly gets confusing. If you're not sure which pattern to choose, then this feature will highlight most of the more common types and assess performance and versatility.

We sea anglers are very slow to learn from our freshwater counterparts. Take swim feeders, only a tiny minority of saltwater types bother to use them, and mostly it's competition anglers looking for that extra edge that have experimented with them.