Fishing for adult beginners - in freshwater

Actually Catching Something.
Advice for Parents of Young Anglers

Fish Suppers for Sailors
A guide to fishing for yachtsmen.

Why not salmon or carp?

Salmon and carp tend to be big fish and an air of glamour surrounds their capture. In both cases you will eventually catch far more of them if you start by fishing for something else. Salmon fishing is dominated by the conditions on the river. If you get the timing right they are relatively easy to hook but if you are unused to dealing with fish you will scare them away before they take or if they do take you will lose them as easily. The 'right' time comes by so unpredictably that unless you actually live by the water you are better learning your tackle skills on other fish first. Carp fishing as described in most of the periodicals is a very lazy, unproductive form of angling that will rarely produce as much as active, rod-in-hand fishing which is better learned on other species. Once you have the skills you will outfish the people who learned their fishing on carp nine times out of ten.

What should I do?

Learn to handle a float in a stream to catch dace and roach. Try a spinner or a fly for perch, chub or trout. Learn how to freeline, to use nothing on the line except a baited hook. Make your first, horrible, tangles where you are not paying a fortune for your time on the water. When your tackle control begins to feel natural you will be ready to try the more fashionable fishing — but by then you may be having so much fun that you no longer want to.