Quote:
Originally Posted by WIMPY
I hope I can relate what I learned here in as simple terms as possible. The ocean because of its never ending movement causes the sand to shift constantly there by morphing the shoreline constantly. This can be seen especially after a storm. The beach sand is scarped away by the waves and their constant pounding and loosening if the sand. Where does it go? In simple terms it sits just off shore waiting for redepositing back up onto the beach once more.
In doing so bars are formed a slight distance off shore. Now you have what is called a slough which is a depression that runs parallel to the shoreline. Again lets go back to the constant wave action remember that? Well as it goes over the bars a wave or up swelling is formed sometimes curling and breaking over the bar is it becomes shallow enough. Then the wave flattens out till it comes crashing onto the shore.
What just happened? Well the ocean just delivered a huge amount of water over that bar and now it wants to escape. How? By the force of the water it finds the weakest point in the bar and breaks its way through causing a cut or depression in the bar. It might not be much in fact most of the time it may be only a couple of feet or so.
Knowing this you can use this to your advantage, the fish do. What do I mean by that? Well. As the predator fish attack the bait the bait look for a place to hide, our bottom here is pretty much just sand so any depression the bait can find they make use of. More of this later.
Another distinguishing effect is the rip current. This is caused by the current running through the cut in the bar perpendicular to the beach. In the summer you hear once in a while a person swimming and suddenly is taken a long distance off shore. What happened now? The current is strong enough to carry anything off shore and that is including people. For us, it can be a problem, for the bait and fish feeding it is a super highway to either a good meal or safety.
When the water is high or it is too rough to see the cuts or the rips caused by the cuts simply read the beach. Now were are getting to the point of this article.
As the water caused by the tides rise and fall carve out sand from the beach and carry this off the beach and through the cut in the bar. This is a good place to try your luck as the fish you are trying to target are looking for bait that are washed out by this rip current.
Try the sides of the rip and also in the back parts of the slough between the bar and the shore line.
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Wow i could never really get the thing about reading the beach and structure and all that. Most of it seem to relate to fishing from boat, because i would always ask myself how would someone fishing from shore know where structure is (in the river or ocean) if its under water? Or i would try to understand the beach thing with bars and breaks. I would just walk up on a beach and cast out without being able to choose the best location for fishing, just a location thats available. Reading this post i was able to visualize things as your describing it and i cant believe how clear it is to me now about fishing the beach..thanks alot i see i can learn alot here and become better at fishing
Re: understanding surroundings for success
