Coarse Fishing in France

Coarse Fishing is an expression used mainly in the UK to name angling for coarse fish, which are those type of freshwater fish excepted game fish, that is to say trout salmon and char.

The sport and the techniques used are particularly popular in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe.The term "coarse fishing" itself originated in the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. Before that period, the gentry used to angle for salmon and trout that they use to call "game fish", other fish were grouped as "coarse fish".

Coarse fishing tackle and technique

There are several type of tackle that can be used for coarse fishing, which one to use mainly depends on the situation. Of course, the most common is the rod and reel, in which the rod is generally between 10 and 13 feet long, and nowadays manufactured of tubular carbon fibre. A reel is then attached at the base of the rod to hold a long length of line. The line can eventually be retrieved by winding a handle on the reel.

However, another element that is more and more used nowadays is the pole. In this particular case, the line is fixed to the very tip of the rod, with no reel used in order to retrieve the line. Indeed, the pole itself is taken apart until the line can be swung to hand.

Basically, the main techniques used for coarse fishing are the following:

• Float Fishing : It consists of suspending the bait beneath a float made of hollow plastic, wood or quill. The top of the float is usually painted in a bright colour and bites are indicated by the top of the float dipping under the surface of the water.
• Legering is another technique that does not use floats. Instead the bait is held on the bottom of the lake or river by a sinker or large weight. Bites are detected by watching the quiver tip of the rod for movement, or with the use of electronic bite alarms for the most advanced.
• Spinning consist of using either a brightly coloured lure or a small fish attached to a hook, and tow it through the water to attract carnivorous fish such as pike, zander and perch.

Coarse Fishing Types

The type of coarse fishing depends on the angler' attitude, objectives and motivations. It could be pleasure angling, when anglers go out to enjoy a relaxing fishing day just trying to catch everything that comes up, considering every caught as a positive point.

Then you have match angling, in which anglers belong to clubs and gather together at a venue to catch as many fish as possible in an allotted period of time.

Finally you have Specimen hunting which aim is to specifically target a chosen species of fish in order to weigh and photograph when you catch a personal best. The main target species for this branch of coarse fishing include carp, pike, zander, perch... Some dedicated specimen anglers spend weeks camping by the waterside waitng for that "fish of a lifetime".