Fishing on a budget

[Kalmageddon]

Suddendly I have a lot of free time and not much to do with it.
So I figured, springtime has just begun, I live in a beatuful seaside city (or rather lagoonside city, I live in Venice) and I like fish. I also have a friend that likes spending time chatting and doing nothing really intensive, some knowledge of sea life thanks to my passion for ichthyology and I'm not a complete stranger to fishing at least in theory. Fishing sounds like a great idea!
What I don't have, is a budget for it. I don't have a fishing rod or any other equipment of the sort.
So I'm trying to find out how to approach this fishing idea while speding as little money as possibile on it, while still being able to catch something.
Fishing will be done from the docks or from breakwaters and will probably amount to bottom fishing for the most part.
Any advice on what I absolutely need to acquire for this endeavour, any creative solutions or tricks will be greatly appreciated.

[Crow]

Your rod and reel will be your largest expenditures. After that, you will need line. 12 to 20 lb test will be relatively inexpensive and enough for what you want to do, I'd probably go with 20 fishing off of a pier (our piers are very high here). You will then need sinkers, and then hooks. After that you will be buying bait and you are good.

The good thing is that once you have the rod and reel, they will last you darn near forever. You can find some excellent deals on ebay, or sometimes local pawn shops will have used stuff.

[thorgrim29]

If you're bottom fishing, don't spend too much on hooks, because you will loose them. That's all I've got since I haven't fished in a while

[veti]

Rather than people on the internet who are probably several time zones away, I suggest you ask advice from people local to you. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but personally I would have guessed that, between the pollution and overfishing, you'll be lucky to find anything much so close to land, anywhere in the Med. I could be completely wrong, but anyone local you know who fishes will be able to advise you better.

[Scarlet Knight]

I am afraid Veti is right; locals would know better. :smallfrown:

That said, have you considered crabbing (if they're available). You'd need a net (not expensive), a pail, some string and chicken necks.

Tie the chicken to the string and lower to the bottom. After a while, slooowly pull up the string and when near the surface you can see if the crab is still holding on and feeding. Netting them takes a little practice but it's fun and cheap, even if you throw them back in the end. If not, they go great with pasta.

[GolemsVoice]

I've got a friend who has to unload a crate of explosives on the low-low, works for fishing too, good quality, low prices. No cops.

[DixieDevil]

The only thing you need to buy for fishing is line and hooks. Use a cane pole for a rod and dig your own bait.