Craig, if you scroll down to the bottom right of the page, you will find the NESA homepage, if you click on that you will find lots of tips that will help you. Scroll down the left hand side of the page and you will find, a rig section, local tackle dealers, local fishing clubs and fishing marks. Towards the bottom you will find the "Junior Section" aimed at younger anglers but it has a few things you could use as a new angler too. what to take with you and rigs and traces.
If you look through the catch reports section above, you will find some of the more popular fishing marks mentioned in there. At the moment you will find more of the river marks as shore fishing is quiet right now on our coast.
I said previously to go out and have a look at the area you want to fish. Now that you are wanting to fish beaches, have a walk along the beaches in the area. Whitley Bay, Tynemouth and Blyth beaches are all completely different, I personally prefer Blyth beach. If you have a look at the south end of Blyth beach (Seaton Sluice) at low water, you will see all of the sandbars and holes that could hold food for the fish. Some of them are only a few yards from the high tide line but could still hold fish. Don't always aim for the horizon as you could be casting well over where the fish are. Always try to have a look at a beach at low water before you fish it and you will be able to find the best places giving you a better chance of getting a fish.
There is always a good chance of picking up a flatfish or Bass when fishing close in, something to keep in mind for the summer season. Just drop your hook sizes down and you can pick up a few species, always watch out for Weaver fish, usually from July through September as they lie in very shallow water in the sand and can easily be hooked or stood on with bare feet and I'm told the result can be quite painful. Also be careful when unhooking Bass, as they have very sharp fins that can give a nasty cut.
Check all of the minimum sizes of fish you are likely to catch, some people don't even know that there are minimum sizes and you can be prosecuted for taking anything below those sizes. There are others too that take no notice of minimum sizes taking juvenile fish that are too small for anything.
As previously said, get some different baits in your freezer, Runnydown, Squid, Mussel, Razorfish and Mackerel will all keep in your freezer and if you have them in you can always go out at short notice, keep them in smaller amounts so that you don't have to carry too much with you, they can also go back in the freezer to use again. When using these baits you will need some bait elastic to tie them to the hook, my tip for that would be to buy two rolls. Keep one in your box permanantly and the other in your pocket. The reason for the one in your box is, one day you will go out with different clothing and leave one roll in the house, You can't fasten these baits to your hook with no bait elastic and your mates will continue to mention this for years to come after you have borrowed theirs lol. If you are by yourself however you are snookered, I have heard of people pulling alsorts to bits to get thread, I tried my hand towel, something else you must remember to take
Jim.