Howdy!

[agnes_in_nh]

Hi everyone!

It's 60 degrees here in Hillsboro NH and my mind has drifted to fishing. Although I have lived in NH for about 20 years now, I have never tried salt water fishing, I know, I'm bad . Sad thing is...I don't know where to begin

I just want to try fishing from shore. I like to start slow and work my way up AND since my husband will be fishing too, we'd like to start out kinda cheap...I could have said inexpensive but what the hey lol So....my questions are;

Any good links to teach me/us the basics? We have plenty of gear for freshwater fishing (which we love to do). Do we need different rod & reels for salt water? If so, where can we buy inexpensive ones? Hey, I was born in West Virginia, learned to fish there...no oceans lol Can you salt water fish all year long?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

[Merrillizer™]

Glad you found us here at this local site!


A GREAT way to start in the salt is to hit the rivers and marshes. "Up inside" as we say, you can really get a feel for the salt and the different presentations, etc. You can definitely use freshwater gear, I have been known to use light and medium freshwater tackle in the rivers and marshes, but you should ALWAYS rinse them down after a trip to the brine. You can find some decent rods and reels though for the salt, an Ugly Stik and an Okuma reel is decent. Throw 20 pound Fireline on there, and you have a pretty safe setup, and wont have to worry about being disappointed by break offs and dropped fish. You can find some stuff at the link below...
http://www.marshmarauders.org/howto.html

I will be adding some more content and updating the site this week as well.

I have to run out, but I will post a lot more later, along with the other folks!

[mr. bones]

Agnes,
Welcome to the site- you'll get lots of great information here.

I lived in Hillsboro on Church Street for a number of years- great hunting and fishing that way!

When things all boil down, saltwater fishing is not all that different from freshwater fishing, except now you have to factor in tides.

Typically fishing the salt you're looking for some sort of water flow, whether that be a rising or falling tide, or what we call a rip, a strong current that usually runs parallel to the beach.

Everybody has there favorite spots, times and these vary depending on tide and weather conditions.

Depending on gear you currently have you may be able to use your existing freshwater set-ups in certain areas, specifically the Hampton Marsh in the spring where a lot of schoolie striper congregate- they are sure fun to catch on plugs on "light" tackle- which is probably a medium freshwater set-up of a 6 1/2-7 foot pole 12 pound test and a reel to hold about 150 yards of line.

Just remember to thoroughly wash your gear after hitting the salt because of the corrosive properties of salt water.

There are a ton of places to buy gear cheap- you will see a link to Cabelas and/or Bass Pro Shops and they have a lot of cheap combo deals.

Dave

[Riverjim]

Mr. bones and Merrillizer already gave great answers. I too , begen my fishing in fresh water for both trout and bass. the principals are the same.

Trout fisherman often call it "reading the water", but it's easier to do in the salt because of the tides. I recomend using the advantage of low tide to study the topography of these underwater haunts. Remember that Stripers, like many other game fish are often trying to find food, so that is where to begin. Next is shelter or cover where the bait and the stripers can hide , and the third is a current block so that they can lie in one spot , waiting for the food to come to them without needing to expend energy in the chase.

Of course there are many times that mother nature will prove me wrong on this and many times that a striper will be in the middle of a long beach with absoluterly no cover, but the above principals often apply when Striped bass are in the estuaries and rivers especialy durring the spring.

Welcme to the forum, Jim

[Merrillizer™]

I'll add a bit more....you can fish the smelt in the brackish water in the winter, but you wont find any gamefish "out front" in the winter, so surfcasting is all but worthless lol. The "combo" idea Dave mentioned above is a great start. And Ugly Stik combo can be had pretty cheap, and as stated above you might even find a link here in the Buy-Sell-Trade forum from Bass Pro or Cabelas for a great deal on one. You could also order them locally if you'd, just contact me about that.

If you do end up doing to the combo thing, the only thing I would swap would be the line. If it comes with line, its usually what we call "slinky line".....cheap crap that comes off the spool like a slinky. Terrible! It's a recipe for disaster, so definitely pick up some better line. Try a braid like PowerPro, a superline like Fireline, or some decent monofilament....suffix is smooth and fairly priced. I was surprised by it myself. I use it on 6, 8 and 10# test setups.

Check out the castin N blastin forum too, might be info you can use.

[Skunch the Skunk]

Checking...stand by.

[Merrillizer™]

Skunch, if you're not going to offer any help for help, MYOB!

lol, sorry about him, he's a crazy "Artificial Intelligence" Mascot!