Sea fishing is a completely different “pair of rubber boots” than fishing on a lake or river. Sea fishing for beginners – where to start? The endless reservoir provides many extreme feelings and emotions – excitement seasoned with uncertainty, agitation mitigated by delight, tension embellished with surprise. You never know if you will manage to catch a record-breaking cod, or if you will fail miserably against more experienced rod mates. Or maybe the sight of the sea will affect you so much that you will spend the trip taking pictures or worse, fighting the symptoms of seasickness? Where to start when deciding to go deep sea fishing ?

Sea fishing for beginners – where to start?

How to fish in the sea?

You can hunt in many different ways, depending on the equipment you have, personal preferences and financial possibilities. You don’t have to limit yourself to one technique – try them all, and then evaluate which one suits you best. What sea fishing methods do you have to choose from? You may consider:

• trolling – pulling a lure behind a moving boat
• spinning – regular casting of the bait and retrieving it using a reel
• surfcasting – ground fishing from the beach or using elements of marine infrastructure (breakwater, pier)
• jigging – gradually pulling up the lure (pilker) in order to comb the entire depth of the water body

Whichever method you choose, you need to rely on heavy-duty equipment that won’t corrode when exposed to salt in the water. If you don’t want to invest in a new rig, be sure to rinse your rod, reel and line in warm clean water when you return from fishing. If you want to visit a fishing store, ask about equipment dedicated to sea fishing that will be resistant to salt water.

When it comes to fish inhabiting the Baltic Sea, you can hunt both typical marine and freshwater species (at the mouths of rivers) or bi-environmental species. Depending on the depth and place of fishing, you can find: cod, salmon, herring, garfish, sprat, fladry, turbot, whitefish, sole, eel, roach and pike. Boat owners most often organize trips for cod , less often for salmon, herring and garfish.

Fishing from the cutter or from the beach?

Both methods are radically different, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. Cutter fishing will certainly provide you with more emotions – after all, you will find yourself in the open sea and compete with other participants of the expedition. By using the offer of a shipowner organizing fishing in the sea, you have a better chance of a good catch. Almost every cutter is equipped with a sonar, with which the skipper will locate the school of fish. The organizers also care about a successful catch, because only then can they count on the customer coming back and advertising them at the same time. In addition, if you do not have your own equipment, you can rent a fishing rod on the ship. It is not without significance that in the depths you can meet species that usually do not feed near the shore. Nevertheless, sea fishing cutter has one major disadvantage – it is expensive. You have to pay from PLN 100 to PLN 400 for participation in the expedition, depending on the fishing method and the duration of the trip. However, it is worth considering that such a fishing trip  usually lasts half a day, you can fish in hard-to-reach fisheries and you have professional sonar at your disposal. The price of the trip usually includes drinks and a hot meal.

In terms of adventure , surfcasting , i.e. beach sea fishing , falls a little pale. Firstly, species that migrate from stagnant waters feed just offshore – so you may not encounter typical marine fish. Secondly, the experience will be more or less the same as fishing in a lake or river (except that you will face bigger waves). Finally, at the peak of the holiday season, beach fishingis questionable due to the density of vacationers who will scare away even the least cautious fish with their presence. However, there is no denying that this way of fishing is much cheaper than an organized cruise deep into the Baltic Sea. In addition, such a solution is better for anglers who prefer solitary hunting – at the regular price, the shipowner of the cutter requires full deck occupancy, while individual fishing trips cost much more.