Once you have sorted out your rod and reel, get your partner or a friend to help you put the line on. It is always worthwhile since they can tangle like mad! Put on a good dollop of backing first and then attach the backing to a superglued braid connector on the fly line using a loop to loop connection. Reel on the rest of the fly line and then use another superglued connector to attach your tippet (the nylon or fluorocarbon line to which you will tie your fly). Now you are ready to cast - which is a whole different story! I am not going to describe it here but would say that the best thing to do is to find a friend who knows how to cast and get him, or her, to show you. You could, of course, pay for an instructor, which will be money well spent, but it is quite a lot of money. Personally, I taught myself from books and videos and I can get a reasonable distance. Once you have cast out your fly, let it sink and then begin to work it back to where you are standing. I like to figure of eight the line back but some people just grab and strip. It's up to you really. I would suggest though that you use an intermediate fly line to enable your fly to get some depth before you retrieve it. Sometimes, depending on the fly, you will find that you get mackerel take it on the drop but usually it needs a little movement to get it going.
		The rig on the right looks and casts pretty awful but boy does it take fish! I have had countless pollack - some very good size - numbers of mackerel, garfish, whiting, bream, scad and pout on it. It has proved to be absolutely deadly, especially if you tie a fly with a hokkai style of head on it and give the luminous coating a good charge from your torch before it goes in the water.
									If you are fishing at night, the rig on the left is well worth a go. It's horrible to cast but can catch an awful lot of fish. One night, for example, I had 57 fish on it while five other chaps, fishing 7 beachcasters between them, had only seven fish. What you tend to find is that the rig will float out with the current, often taking fish as it does so, but you can then stop it and retrieve with a figure of eight whenever you like. The hook, which is baited with mackerel strip, will take fish on the drift and on the retrieve while the fly works best on the retrieve. Double hits are not uncommon.