Feature finding on a beach

What is the best way of finding features on a beach? i.e gulleys , sandbars, depressions etc.

I presume a cannonball lead and a fixed spool loaded with braid would give alot of feedback.

I know that coarse anglers have special leads they use but I don't thing they would be of any to the beach angler.

you could try going down to the mark at low water, or try to view the mark on a settled day so you can see all of the eddies in the water.

alternatively if you can view it from a hight you can often spot features. pay special attention to the way the water seems flow and look for any deviations from the norm.

otherwise its a case of ball leads as you say

before every match i usually use the spinning rod, braid and lead technique. i am on the look out for aerial photos of mark which like paul said would help greatly. for my home beach i simply got out the kayak and fish finder and made a personal map of the beach including all the gullies,sand banks and reefs easy peasy :wink: try doing that for every mark you fish and ya should be grand :lol: :lol: :lol:

The only thing with mapping features is that alot of these features change the whole time. One day there is a gulley 20yds out he next day its gone or 50yds out. If fishing a match the likelyhood of been pegged in an area that you have maped out is slim, but I suppose you never know

Paul, I suppose as you say learning to read the water and spot deviations is one way. I think that an are of calm water represents a depression, I think? But what if it dark?

i just ask someone :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: or drink red bull and have a wee look myself :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

But what if it dark?

PANIC

Walk the beach at low water with a handheld GPS. Mark the features as waypoints. When the tide comes in, you can get position and distance to the features.

the beach i have mapped out has basically no tide run whatsoever so the features are pretty constant, then again when a storm hits your in trouble.
reefs are easy to as well, just wit till you get snagged :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

google earth...

there are some nice high res pics of the coastline and you can make out alot of features, has come in handy for a few local marks where i cant see past a reef visually but Google earth shows a small sandy patch... ended up pulling a few fish from it :)

What is the best way of finding features on a beach? i.e gulleys , sandbars, depressions etc.

I presume a cannonball lead and a fixed spool loaded with braid would give alot of feedback.

I know that coarse anglers have special leads they use but I don't thing they would be of any to the beach angler.

Hi John,

i cannot believe you have not had the answer to this one yet,forget google this and gps that,,, god they will be reeling in a live cod on the computer next,,,,John , what about the grand old fishing art of watercraft and reading the beach,,
where i learnt my craft as a match angler was on the moving sands of the yorkshire coast normally we fished comps on sundays in a roving manner not pegged like it is here,,so saturdays were spent ,not fishing but revising ,looking at the beaches,at relative times to the forthcoming match reading the gullies ,dark water,sand bars and weather this can be done at all stages of the tide by reading wave actions on that particul;ar beach even picking out a agenda of movement within the match to different venues ,,,

it is more difficult here john the peg picked is everything,reading the beach on a rough sea is still the best way to identify gullies and sand bars and potential fish runs but the guy 6 pegs down may have the best spot i have found when match fishing here as anywhere try to shorten the odds with having top baits and been the total oppitunist and a few strings to your bow,
one trick we used to use john was at the start of the match or earlier,,if you draw a peg with a fantastic feature in it but as the match progresses and a rising tide into darkness ,,,pace out the beach and mark it 50yds,60yds,70ydsetc and clip the line down on your reel fixed spool only for high water ,therefore you have got control in the dark
hope this helps

gee

I must admit that I have only recently started looking at google earth but I have seen a few interesting things also. Gives you a totally different perspective alright.

Graham, lets say on your standard flat (featureless) surf beach with a nice rolling surf is there a few locations that you would expect the fish to be hanging out? Are the fish just behind the breakers where the seabed is getting churned up?

Nice point about marking out the beach when you find a feature. The fs spool comes in handy with a line clipSeen chris from waterville doing this on a surf beach where there was a crater of a hole at the LW mark. He was pacing it back. Some people put a mark on their line with a marker so that they can hit the same spot time and time again. That Braid from veals that is a different color every 10yds would be good for hiting the same spot also.

John,
the question you asked ,yes the fish do tend to be behind the last breaker , to be honest well documented is that fact too ,its a very simple question but one that could have a thousand answers, there are many factors to take into consideration , many of witch come with experience and dedication ,learning as you go or cocking it up as you go you can still learn when you dont catch and thats what fishing is all about,,
look at the prime example of eugeen :shock: :shock:

1,BAIT
2,WEATHER
3,CONDITIONS
4,WATERCRAFT
5,TARGET

Graham would you not agree that saying the fish tend to behind the last breaker is a bit of a generalisation? Each beach is going to be slightly different and again its going to be different dependent on the species and again whether its day or night or for that matter the state of tide. I've got sucked into that last breaker way of thinking before and it cost me in a number of comps till i realised.

Flounder tend to be alot closer than the last breaker, during the hours of darkness read the very first breaker often no more than three inches of water. Probably where you were standing to reach the last breaker :lol: Even during daytime they run incredibly close, between the first and second quite often. At this time of the year whilst alot of the bigger lads will have migrated off shore to spawn the smaller flats will be still around and these tend to feed in really close, they still be around the 20cm mark, but if you whack it out to the last breaker you'll over cast by a long way.

If you have a decent surf running you'll often get a kind of 'slough' running before the normal waves, these are kind of unruly waves (can be normal sized too) which tend to whizz back and forth and fish avoid them at all costs as there is a good chance of getting beached. Wade through these and then start thinking about where which wave your looking to put your baits into. Coalies too especially during the hours of darkness will be lurking about the second or third breaker, not necessarily the last. Alot of the smaller fish, the 20cm lads, in keeping with their small floundery friends will also come very close. One of the hardest things to do is too cast this close, takes alot of effort to convince yourself that the fish may be this tight.

I suppose the bottom line with surf fishing is to be flexible, go in there prior to fishing saying to your self that your going to concentrate on the last breaker or the first for that matter is dangerous. Be flexible, if the fish arent at the first try the second and so on....maybe cast to the last and if nothing is happening inch the baits back into the second and after another while edge it in closer again. The same goes with features in front of you, if your lucky enough to have one on your peg suss it out, cast to it, behind it, in front of it etc. As Graham does say though with our matches generally being pegged finding out features before hand is worthwhile but having the luck to be drawn on them is another :wink: .

Pete, That slough you mention before the normal waves can be pretty bad sometimes alright. When you mention 1st, 2nd, 3rd breaker, is this the exact position where the wave actually breaks. I have also found that the flounder seem to come very close this time of the year also.

sometimes i wonder are those flounder in the water at all :lol:

I guess if your asking me would i be casting directly to where the wave is actually crashing i'd say no i'd be thinking about the areas in front or behind. You've got me thinking now about whether i should try an place it immediately behind the breaking wave or actually well back in the troughs in the middle of two waves. I've spent hours in the last two years trying to figure out surfs and where exactly fish will lay in them and i still end up doubting myself, days (especially comps) it'll do your nut :x Trial an error on the day is a good policy but i know with the comps you can't afford to be playing around like that if the fish are in a fairly short band.

My assumption on casting in front or behind of any breaker is this.....fish are as lazy as they need to be, like humans they probably dont like to knock themselves out unnecessarily, just in case they need to make a run for it....so I believe they will either wait in front or behind of the suds to see what gets thrown there way by chance......thats in cold waters like ours, unlike fish that swim in warm water will enter the suds to get more oxygen as warm water holds less than cold water.....if I fish in say Florida I cast right into the suds....but this is man trying to think like a fish :lol: :lol: .....it pays to try anything and everything until you get a bite, then cast in the same place again and keep doing the same thing until its not productive.....now! add tide strength to the above and it will probably change again......its a fecker! this fishing lark eh! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Tom.

I guess if your asking me would i be casting directly to where the wave is actually crashing i'd say no i'd be thinking about the areas in front or behind. You've got me thinking now about whether i should try an place it immediately behind the breaking wave or actually well back in the troughs in the middle of two waves. I've spent hours in the last two years trying to figure out surfs and where exactly fish will lay in them and i still end up doubting myself, days (especially comps) it'll do your nut :x Trial an error on the day is a good policy but i know with the comps you can't afford to be playing around like that if the fish are in a fairly short band.

pete ,john,

one trick on fishing a storm beach ,which on various occations has worked very sucessfully for me is do not just limit yourself to multipliers only,i do agree that they are great to fish with compared to the old sausage grinder but certainly the fixed spool will win all hands down in certain circumstances,i have 2 zipplex rods for fixed spool and 2 for multi
when fishing beacher in ireland from low to high normally in munster the beaches are flat ,or most are,and after storm conditions you may get 5 to 7 breakers coming in,,are you sat there lads??,,the only way to get past them breakers is to catch ,too much rough and tumble close in,,,
i would then proceed to a single clipped pennel,short trace,half a black mabey tipped ,,a very small streamlined tucked in bait,, the zipplex and fix spool with 8 lb mono to a tapered leader you got to get passed that last breaker,,either hold or place the rod high in the rest and sit back for the big one,,another advantage of the fixed spool is when the fish is on the retrieve in the surf surge in the edge helps keep contact with the fish ,lost many on the multi in the edge due to lack of retrieve