Crossword Genius

I fish, letting nothing escape, in area with a coast (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

isle

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'letting nothing escape in area with a coast' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'i fish' is the wordplay.
'fish' becomes 'sle' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'i'+'sle'='ISLE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for isle that I've seen before include "Man, maybe" , "Man, Wight, etc" , "Land encircled by water" , "Small region of land" , "Eg, eyot or inch" .)

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