Most resort beaches have tons of sand pumped into them. These beaches become very broad and gently slope out to sea. There is not much structure here and fish may be scattered. However a beach not visited for bathing has some key differences. Visit the beach at low tide and look for sand bars and sloughs. When the tide comes in the waves may crash further out sometimes building swells. This is where the wave strikes the bar. After that, they suddenly slump down and get shorter as they move over the slough, a deeper portion of the beach's structure. You want to be able to cast into the other side of the slough or cut out behind the sand bar. look for cut outs and fishing the downcurrent side of any cusp will put you on the fish. Big fish are lazy (smart) and will wait at the openings for the bait fish to be flushed through. Always visit at low tide. Learn to read the beach and you'll start catching more fish from the surf.
Absolutely Paulie. I get pretty beat up getting down there, but that is just the structure that this thread talks about. The water eddies right where those boulders are. "Subsurface structures often cause a narrowing in the flow of the tide. This will create a venturi effect, accelerating the flow of water into the deeper recesses of the structure. Look for the predatory fish on the downstream side of the structure. At this point, eddies are often formed"
in effect and not all area or structure is the same as in /shoals/channels which change on sometimes a daily basis if you fish the beach with long sweeping uneffected (dunes if you will) then you will see the waves coming in on an angle in one direction or another (depending on where you are in the hemisphere). when fishing the surf as the previous article shows (btw very nicely put) there is a current that runs parallel to the beach close to shore called a "longshore current" or "along the shore current" and if you toss a plug or fly into the surf it tells you which direction the current is moving ( in the same direction as the oncoming waves) and there is where the bars and troughs are made parallel to the beach. after a continuous supply of waves feeds this longshore current it gets to the point it has to make it;s way back out to deeper water and there is where you get your rip currents. these are another ideal place to catch disoriented baitfish (dangerous to be near but if you can cast far enough into it) it;s easy to see or distinguish where the rip current (some call it a rip tide but is not a tidal factor) by seeing a swirling foamy water behind the breaking waves and if i can find the pic of that overhead shot in my files i will post it. hope this adds to an already well informative thread.:notworthy:
If I take pictures of a couple of my fishing spots, would y'all mind taking a gander and pointing out anything on them that sticks out to you as signs of better/worse fishing spots? I figure I read them pretty well, but 'd be interested in some objective opinoins, and they're not secret spots or anything.
If I take pictures of a couple of my fishing spots, would y'all mind taking a gander and pointing out anything on them that sticks out to you as signs of better/worse fishing spots? I figure I read them pretty well, but 'd be interested in some objective opinoins, and they're not secret spots or anything.
the tide will be higher and lower at the new moon than at the full moon. You are looking for structure and sand bars, at low tide. at high tide look for the rips around the inlets to the sand bars. you may also notice a drop off if you get in the water at low tide. this means at high tide that deep water shelf is within casting distance. unless you are like me who spend two years learning a beach only to discover it is a clam bed for 200 yards out. oops. just my 2 cents.
Mike Smu basically covered it. Twice a month the Full and the new moon will have the highest of high tides and lowest of low tides. Known as "Spring tides" they happen when the sun and moon are on the same side of the earth (New Moon) or when the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth (Full Moon) These extreme low tides can reveal structure not seen under normal circumstances. Submerged outcroppings of rocks often extend out way beyond the visible water lines. Lower tides offer places that concentrate fish or provide good cover for predatory fish waiting for a meal to tumble by. At higher tides the water can fill in behind structures and this water needs a way to escape. These escape ways can form what we look for as rips or eddies as this water accellerates back out into the main body of water. The water accellerates out underneath faster than the water coming in. This constriction of water is known as the venturi effect. It creates "nervous water" and bait fish can be disoriented and stunned in these tidal eddies. Making the water prime for targeting cows. This may be completely unnoticible until you have looked it over at all tide stages and sat there and quitely watched a rip form.
Sand beaches often change. The sand bars shift after severe wind and weather. Its best to read a sand beach at low tide. You may spot a slough or cut out parrallel or perpendicular to the beach that fish will use as pathways. Predators often lay at these edges in ambush.
Please be aware that some of those shots on google earth and the other sites are years old! The sand shifts and the bottom changes after every storm.I realized the shots were old when I was looking at a spot where I fish and I noticed an empty lot between two houses. They built a house on that lot 2 years ago!:biglaff:
A lot of times people make a big issue about "reading the beach". But it is easy if you just focus on finding these four primary structures - points, bowls, troughs and bars - and then target the secondary "spots on the spots".
You can dissect the layout of any sand beach into these four well-defined structures. Then you can methodically fish them, thereby identifying which structures the fish are currently using and equally important, discover which structures the fish are NOT currently using. If you do so, you can confidently eliminate unproductive types of spots for the moment, and you can consistently put yourself in the company of gamefish all up and down "any beach" where gamesters are using these four primary structures - and especially the secondary "spots on the spots" to put on the fall feed bag. "Russ Bassdozer"
This particular structure the tide has been receding for some time . When it was full the water filled behind the boulders and would excellerate out as a washout on the drop making very distinct eddies.
I once went surf cast with a type of bucktail jig. It was a very stormy night, with pounding surf, a very high high-tide, and lots of sea weed. I got one rocket cast out maybe 70 yards into a head wind. On my retrieve everything just felt weird, and then my line started being sucked out to sea, and I really couldn't do anything about it. I tried fighting back, and then my line snapped.
I know nobody could ever say for sure, but do you think it was just sea weed being sucked out by a rip tide, or . . . a fish! I'd like to think I hooked moby dick, but I just don't know.
dp ....even on stormy seas you might have been able to "turn around" a decent clump of weed. If you didn't feel the "shoulders" pumping as it stripped line, you might have been hooked into one of other ocean's tossings ( telephone pole chunks, pallets, felled trees) You're right, though, just about nothing you could do about it.
When I was fishing on LBI in May, I noticed that every so often that the foam line out about 50 feet or so would have a bulge in it that went out to about 70 or 80 feet. Since the beach is all reconstructed and really flat and undistinguishable from one section to another, would it be a safe bet to assume that the bowed out section would be a rip or other form of current? It's after the fact now but, I did make it a point of fishing these spots just because they were different from the other 18 miles of beach, and was rewarded with 3 bass, all over 34", not bad for my first ever time salt water fishing. I guess my question would be; is that a sign of current or, just some random wave action causing the change in the surface suds. I don't know if maybe someone that fishes the island could shed some light on this or if it happens everywhere. Not a big concern since it's after the fact but, it would be nice to know if I was doing something right by noticing the difference.
Hi everyone. I'm new to the forums here, and I've been reading up on this topic for about 4 days now reviewing. I fished using bait for a while now but i was blindly casting everywhere. Now I'm going to lures but the area i fish at is kind of tough to read. Mind lending a hand in reading this silly place. It's plum island state park Massachusetts. I'm usually right where the jetty meets the sand. If anyone could help by google mapping it, I would appreciate it.
if you can get your bait/lure to the coordinates im going to give you you should have a real shot at hooking into something big...oh..i got the numbers from google earth for you.
Thanks Jimi for your time. I'm actually going tomorrow in the afternoon and i'll try it out. Wish me luck!!:mental:
Anyone have ideas for the Plum Island for newburyport, MA too?
As you guys scout your own areas, what types of spots can you actually see better with polarized lenses? I"m still green when it comes to looking for spots.
It may take a bit of scouting work to figure out the lay of the land. I don't know about polarized glasses, because that would mean fishing during the day. I have polarized glasses, and I guess they help.
Try to see (using your glasses) during the day where the sand banks are, and where the deep channels start. It may take some practice, but you can usually see the water turn dark. If the tide is way out, you'll see it easier too . . .during the day.
I try to fish at night or early morning. It's when I have the best luck. I hope the picture uploads, because you can easily see the channel from the bird's eye view.
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