Reading the Beach
 

I have noticed that alot of people say to go to beaches at low tide and look for spots. My question is ( without trying to sound like a complete moron ) what are you looking for? I have been fishing for stripers for 5 years and alot of my fishing is done in some local bays ( flats ), rivers ( early in the year ), and sometimes the canal. I would think that you would be looking for rocks and structure, maybe a drop-off, but I don't see alot of the things that I hear about. The beaches that I am familiar with, when it's low tide, the beach looks almost the same as high tide, ( sand , some small rocks ) and that's about it. Does this mean that I'm missing the right signs? Or maybe it's not a great looking spot? I can't ever remember seeing a beach at low tide and saying " look at that drop-off, or gulley, or hole". Is there any good books or websites or seminars that I can check out? I'm thinking of joining M.S.B.A......I know some of you belong, can I learn from your meetings? I am an avid fisherman who loves to fish and I take it quite seriously, but most of my fishing is done alone, and all I know I figured out on my own through doing my homework and being skunked for weeks at a time. I think I need a little more help to get better results though...biggest fish ever was 42"......get my share of 30 or so inch fish as well but I feel as though I should be doing better. Any advise is greatly appreciated. Thanks Alot.

i saw this somewhere else. it might help ya.
Demystifying The Beach

A few years back, a guy on the WMI surf fishing message board
using the board name, Bassdozer put this up in
response to a question about beach front fishing. It
is, IMHO, chapter and verse of the surf fishermans
hand book, regardless of where you are. If you are on
the beach, fishing, the following is absolutely the
most thorough explanation of sand beach structure I've
ever read. All the information and common sense you
could hope for.

Basically, there are four primary sand structures that
define the character of a beach and that attract fish
to feed on a beach. All fish-attracting sand
structures on the beach can fit into one of the four
following descriptions:

1) POINTS - WHAT IS IT. Points extend out from shore
and can be way big or surprisingly small protursions.
The classic point configuration extends out at right
angle to the beach. Sometimes the beach may take a
turn and it may look more like a "bend", but it still
is a big, rounded point. Sometimes, points are
actually the beginning of bars, and in these cases, I
categorize and fish them as bars (see below), Not as
points.

HOW TO FISH. It is not uncomon to have wadable shoal
water, more white water, and a faster sweep on points.
It is classic for fish to feed at the "tip" of a
point, including right on the tip, or in the open
water to the left or right of the tip. Going back
towards the beach, anywhere along the sloping sides of
a sandy point can hold fish, particularly in the
"pocket" which is a scooped out depression just out
from the base of the point on both sides.

2) BOWLS - WHAT IS IT. Bowls indent into the shore and
typically form between two points. Bowls can be wide
and deep in a classic "tea cup" configuration. At the
other extreme, they can look like hardly much more
than a straight, featureless stretch between points,
but still a bown, as you will see as wind and tide
shape it over time.

HOW TO FISH IT. Fish along both the right and left
rims of a bowl where the base of the points end and
transition into the of bottom of the bowl.

3) BARS - WHAT IS IT. Bars parallel the shore and
typically, the most important bar is the outer bar. If
your are new to surf fishing, then there's two more
words you should know about surf fishing..."Be" and
"careful".

HOW TO FISH. It is not uncommon to have wadable shoals
water, more white water, and a faster sweep along the
entire length of bars. Fish will usually feed along
the outer sloping front side fo the bar, particularly
the bottom where the sloping front of the bar ends and
transitions into the trough. A "cut" is a classic and
highly productive spot between two parallel bars which
often forms a conduit where water from the inner and
outer guts sluices thorough between the bars. A cut
can range from (1) very treacherous "rip" water right
in the gut or (2) it can be more complacent water
which scoops out depressions or "holes" just inside
and just out side of the gut, or (3) a cut can form
both rips and holes.

TROUGHS - WHAT IS IT. Troughs parallel the shore(or
bars) and it sounds like Texans refer to these as
"guts". A trough can exist paralleling the sides of a
bowl even if there is no accompanying paralles bar.
But usually trought, or guts, accompany and parallel
bars.

HOW TO FISH. Fish often prefer to feed along the
sloping sides of a trough, or gut, particularly if the
sides of a trough has a stiff upper "lip" where it
transitions into the adjacent shallower structure (bar
or beach).

THAT'S IT! - Points, Bowls, Bars, and Troughs (Guts)
are the only four primary structures on a beach. Other
sand structures are secondary and cannot exist without
the prescence of a point, bowl, bar or gut. These
secondary sand structures include tips, pockets, cuts,
rips, and holes.

COOL PATTERNS FORM! - The coolest thing is to
consciously make note of the primary/secondary
structures you hitfish on. Why? Because you can then
usually move down the beach and continue to hit fish
in the exact identical types of structures for many
miles. That is, if you bang fish on the left hand side
of a point, the fish will pretty much be on the left
hand side of all points down the beach. That is, if
you take fish in the center of a bowl, or in the
pocket of a point, or in a pronounced trough,
paralleling the shore, then you can move along to
other identically structured bowl, pockets, guts, and
expect to catch fish in the same areas. Often, this
becomes a pattern, which may last for one day, a few
days, a week or even form an extended pattern for an
entire season. You should know what the fish are doing
and focus your efforts on being in the same spots that
the fish are in.

READING THE BEACH MADE EASY - A lot of times people
make a big issue about "reading the beach". But ir is
easy if you just focus on finding these four promary
structures, and then target the secondary "spots on
the spots". You can dissect the layout of any sand
beach into these defined structrures. Then you can
methodically fish them, thereby identifying which
structure the fish are not currently using. If you do
so, you put yourself in the company of gamefish who
also focus on these four primary structures and
especially the secondary ones.

The above description is a good one...

As far as book recommendations go....
Inshore Fly Fishing by Lou Tabory - even though it is about fly fishing, is the best book that I've read with respect to beach, structure and water reading. It is somewhat dry, but very well thought out.

My father used to look for "queer water" u can find it at any point in the tide.
Waves breaking out further in certain areas usually means a bar At the each end of the bar there will be an area where the waves break right on shore. This will be deeper water right off the beach, and an entrance and exit for the water flowing through the trough-so in theory, the fish will be hanging on the downcurrent side, where the water is leaving the trough, setting up a feeding station.
Looking a piece of shoreline over and finding where the water moves or breaks different isn't hard to do, it's like looking for a ripline-
Eben is an expert at finding queer water:D

The Mighty and Fearsome 'Dozer. He has a website with a host of surf fishing articles. I've printed hard copies of most of them. Last I heard, he had moved to Nevada and was fishing stripers on Lake Mead.

http://www.bassdozer.com/surf/surf_f...articles.shtml

It only looks queer when your in it up to your man-boobs bubba:bshake:


Something very important about fishing a beach that wasnt mentioned is Rip-tides. if you take careful notice you will see where the current sweeping the beach will collide with either another current, or a bar and the current will take a turn outward t'wards the sea. This is a great place to throw out a floating swimmer and let it drift with the current until it stops then retrieve slowly agianst it. Ive found many fish hanging out at the off shoots of these currents at some of the beaches I fish.

u can see my man boobs thru my cool aguaskinz jacket?

waves...

waves...

waves...

:D