Start with how they fish
Fishing advent calendars are built for one style of angling, so buy the wrong kind and most of the doors will be useless. Before you look at any calendar, find out which of these they do.
The simplest test is the last fish they talked about. A carp, a perch, a trout and a mackerel need four completely different calendars.
The kinds you'll find
Carp calendars
Usually small rig parts: hooks, swivels, beads, hook-length material and the odd bag of bait. A good fit for a carp angler who ties their own rigs, but much less use to someone who buys them ready made.
Coarse and match calendars
Floats, small hooks, shot and feeder parts. These suit a general coarse or match angler, but check the hook sizes against what they fish for before you buy one.
Lure and predator calendars
Soft plastic lures, jig heads and small spinners. They suit lure anglers after perch, pike or zander, though perch and pike need very different sizes, so check before you buy.
Fly calendars
A fly behind each door, or fly-tying materials. Good for a trout angler, but only if the flies suit the waters they fish.
Sea calendars
Sea hooks, feathers, leads and beads. For shore and boat anglers. Check the hooks suit their target species. The Angling Trust puts mackerel and bass near the top of what UK sea anglers land, so feathers and lures for those get used.
What to check before you buy
- The contents list. A good calendar lists every door, and if it doesn't, it's fair to assume some of the doors are filler.
- Sizes. Hook and lure sizes should match the fish they catch.
- Age guidance. Hooks and small parts aren't for young children without help.
- Who it's from. Calendars from a tackle shop they already use are more likely to hold kit they trust.
- Returns. Check whether an opened calendar can go back. Most can't.
Reading the contents list
Count the doors that hold kit they'd use, and ignore the rest. A calendar with sixteen useful doors and eight fillers is better value than one with twenty-four doors of things they'll never tie on. Sweets and stickers count as fillers. If a door holds sweets instead of kit, that's fine for a child, but it's a door an adult angler won't thank you for.
Check the sizes run in a sensible range. Hooks for carp and hooks for roach are a world apart. A list that mixes both is aimed at nobody. Look for the brand's own photos of every item, not one shot of the box.
Is an advent calendar worth it?
For an angler who ties their own rigs or flies, often yes: they'll use the bits over the winter. For an angler who's settled on one setup, less so. Twenty-four doors of near misses can feel like a drawer of things they'll never use.
If you're not sure, look in their tackle box. A tidy box of one brand of hook says skip it. A box full of mixed bits says go ahead.
Storing the bits
Twenty-four doors of small parts need somewhere to live afterwards, or they'll end up loose in a bag. A small compartment box keeps hooks, beads and swivels apart. Label each compartment with the size, so they can find a size 12 hook in the dark. If you're buying the calendar, a box to go with it is a cheap add-on that gets used for years.
A calendar for a junior angler
Advent calendars can be a good way into fishing for a child, as long as an adult opens the sharp doors with them. Remember the licence too. Under-13s fish without one, and from 13 the GOV.UK junior licence is free, but it still has to be applied for.
When the first fish comes, take a photo and print it as it is. That's the one they'll keep.
After Christmas
River coarse fishing in England is closed from 15 March to 15 June under the GOV.UK rules, but stillwaters and canals mostly stay open. So a coarse calendar opened in December still has the rest of the winter on the rivers, and all year on most lakes. A lure calendar suits the cold months, when many anglers fish for predators.
Making your own
A homemade calendar avoids the guesswork. Fill twelve or twenty-four small bags with things you know they'll use: hand warmers, a pencil for the catch log, their favourite chocolate, a spare head torch battery. Ask a fishing mate which hooks or floats they buy, and add a few of those.
Save the last door for the main present. A rolled A4 print of their best fish, tied with string, fits most calendar pockets. Our stocking fillers guide lists more small things that get used.
If an advent calendar isn't right
Some anglers are too particular for a box of mixed tackle. If that's them, buy for the wall instead, because a print of their own catch is something they can't buy for themselves. Print their photo as it is, or choose a plate from the collection.
For smaller ideas, see our fishing stocking fillers. For order-by dates, see Christmas fishing gifts. Our fishing gift ideas guide has ten more.
Craig Fearn runs Scale & Fin, a UK studio that prints anglers' catch photos and fish art to order. He writes the guides here, and every fact in them links to the body that published it.