Its nice to see so many newcomers to the wonderful sport of fishing. Some because retirement leaves a lot of spare time. Others because the kids want to give it a try.
To anyone who is the complete novice I can highly recommend that first you try either plumphill or lightmoor as these two lakes 99.9% of the time offer you the chance to catch your first fish.
The best bait for an almost guaranteed catch is maggots. They may not bring you the biggest fish but they will usually get you something. The other baits such as sweetcorn, luncheon meat & uncut bread should be bought with you incase you want to try and attract the bigger fish.
Tackle shops usually can help with your choice of bait as there are now lots of different products available, soft hookable pellets, flavoured luncheon meat, flavoured corn etc.etc...
The one bait that I don't think of that highly is boilies. When using these you sometimes might have to wait 3 or 4 hours before you get a bite.
Before you do turn up at a lake to fish I have found that tackle shops (wye tackle at ross, forest tackle at lydney) Can offer a lot of information about how to set up floats, ledgers & feeders.
magazines such as improve your course fishing can show you new ways to fish aswell as giving you reference diagrams that can be used again and again.
Also you can get coaching by professional anglers such as nick oakley, who will teach you all the bits you need to know about the type of fishing you want to do(email: Nick@Angling4aCatch.co.uk)

Once you do get to the lake, if its looks like all is lost and your chances of catching a fish are getting slimmer by the minute don't be afraid to ask other anglers on the bank for advice as we will usually offer help if we can.
Hope this information will help.
So tight lines and wet nets to you all
Chris

P.S. Don't forget a bag to take any rubbish home in(fishing line, packets etc.etc......)

Nice post Chris with some good sound advice.
If I can just add something to the post.
If you get the chance always have a chat with fellow anglers who
have fished the venue before.
Try and find out what fish are stocked so that you can choose your tackle
and methods to fit into the venue.
Also if you are starting out keep a diary with weather, bait, tackle details
ect.
I myself have only returned to course fishing in the last few months.
After 20 odd years beach fishing.
But things do come together pretty quick if you keep your eyes and ears open :-)