Advice on fishing locations for a newbie father and son!

[Hayden909]

Hi all,

My son and I are both new to fishing and really enjoying learning the ropes together. My son, in particular, is very enthusiastic about it and sees each trip as a mini adventure. We're based in Ealing, West London, and we’ve made two recent trips to the South Coast—fishing around Seaford, Newhaven, and Brighton. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts (and a lot of casting!), we didn’t catch anything on either trip.

As complete beginners, that was a little disheartening for us both, especially for my son. We understand that blank days are part of the journey, but we're hoping to boost our morale a bit by planning a trip somewhere with a reasonable chance of catching something —even if it’s just one good fish!

We’re now looking to travel a bit further out (within around 3 to 3.5 hours' drive from West London) to places like Devon, Cornwall, Suffolk, or North Norfolk. The key things we’re looking for are:

Quiet or low-crowd areas – we’d prefer peaceful places, not packed piers or tourist-heavy beaches.

Natural features – ideally rocky shores or areas with underwater structure where fish are more likely to be holding.

We’d love a chance to catch bass, mackerel, or pollock.

No bait fishing – We’re using metal lures (30–40g) and mackerel feathers, as we’re not yet confident with bait.

Safety is important – we're looking for safe spots, not dangerous cliffs or swell-prone ledges.

We’re happy to walk up to 20 minutes from the car if that helps us reach a better spot.


If anyone has any suggestions for accessible yet fruitful spots for beginner-friendly lure or feather fishing, we’d really appreciate your insight. The main thing is to keep the spark alive for my son by giving him a realistic chance of a catch.

Thanks so much in advance for any help or guidance.

Happy fishing!

 

[Trampster]

Welcome to the Madhouse Hayden!

I can't offer much advice - I'm limited to the marks I can access due to health problems.
You might make some East Devon marks within your 3 - 3.5hr travelling window, but you're not going to make it down here, and certainly not Cornwall. Most of my fishing is on Piers due to easy access needed, which is what you said you don't want.
Maybe as suggested elsewhere, try Chesil beach, but if you're only lure fishing, that will limit what you can catch.
There is a lure fishing section on the forum - try a post or a search there.

 

[Angrybear]

My advice is it's probably easier to catch using bait than it is using lures, and those swell prone ledges are just the place you would need to fish if sticking with lures, although obviously conditions dictate where/when is safe to fish.
As for a quiet beach within 3-3.5 hours of London you're having a laugh.
When conditions are right you can catch mackerel around the channel coast Deal, Dover, Folkstone but the marks get swamped with people, because they're within a few hours of London & once word is out of fish about that's it.

You don't mention your son's age but as a youngster I got hooked by fishing piers & harbour walls for mini species,
but a mix of security & H&S means even that is now heavily restricted.

 

[Topwater]

Welcome to TSF to you and your son It's great to hear of kids getting involved in angling and hopefully some of our southern members will be along with advice or even an invitation or two to help you learn the ropes. If you're ever in the NW of England or SW Scotland drop me a PM and I'll be happy to share what I know - well apart from 'my' bass marks of course! They will be going to the grave with me

 

[Beach]

Welcome Haydon
I agree bait is always far better than lures imo. Have you tried the Brighton Marina (east arm only at the mo) or Beach fishing a couple or 3hours before high and the same when the tide turns? Seaford beach can be productive as well. Good luck when you go next.

 

[Craig]

My son who is 4 has just started getting into sea fishing this year, we bait fish though as he can't cast that far yet and I don't want him getting too disheartened with casting all day for no fish.
He enjoys the bait fishing as we cast out and leave it there while he gets to watch the boats go by or play on the beach, then I let him know when to reel in to change bait or if he gets a bite.
He's caught a few whiting so far and seems to be really enjoying it.

If I was in your shoes, I'd certainly reassess the bait fishing idea.
It's an easy way to get youngsters into fishing and personally I think it greatly improves your chances of catching something, there's a lot more species that will go for a bait but only a few that will go for lures in comparison.

If you're ever up Suffolk way, let me know as we have some easy access marks that are fairly reliable for bait fishing.

Sadly I can't help with the lure fishing up this way as people only seem to get bass/mackerel on lures and the few attempts I've had have been fruitless.