hi it's Roger Osborne welcome to my new
video how to read a beach for beach fishing I'm showing you my eight key
points that will help you to be more successful fishing off the beach I'm
going to go into more detail in future videos such as targeting specific
species of fish off the beach so here we go with key point number one plan ahead the reason I like to plan ahead is because I don't like to waste my time
and go to all the effort and get down to the beach and find out that it's pretty useless I would rather plan ahead so that I can choose the
times that I know are really good what I do is use some of the surfing websites available such as magic seaweed and coastal watch when I go on I'm mainly
concerned with the wave or swell height the strength of the wind
the wind direction and the tide most of these websites give you a one-week forecast
so you can look a week ahead if the seas are really rough or it's
very windy it's only going to be a waste of your time so that's one of the things
I do I'll jump on there and I'll be able to plan ahead that I can ring my mates
and say "these days look really good" and also when you plan ahead it actually
gets you excited because you can see times that look really good for fishing and
you start thinking about it and you start getting excited about having a
great fishing trip so it's really important to plan ahead to save time and
also to make sure that you're giving yourself the best opportunity when you
go fishing key point number two is:
target species and bait selection before you go fishing you need to decide what type of fish that you want to catch we don't just take a random approach and go down the beach and hope for the best, just use any old bait, and cast it in any old place when you choose your species of fish, that will influence the tackle that
you use, for example, the type of fishing rod, the reel, the breaking strain of the
line, the type of bait, the hooks, sinkers or even a fluorocarbon leader you need to decide these things before you go fishing and that's also a lot of fun
because you're planning and getting excited about your fishing trip
I like to target species like whiting, bream flathead, mullaway and a few others and also it's good to mix it up and not just fish for the same type of fish all the
time you might have a favorite fish that you'd like to get good at catching and
it's good to focus on that until you get your skills up and you become proficient
at catching that particular type of fish so remember, decide what you want to
catch before you even leave home so that when you leave home you're all set,
and ready to go key point number three is which beach do I choose? if you live on the coast, or if you're
on holidays somewhere there's going to be a number
of beaches that you can choose from to go fishing, so how do you choose
which one to go to? the main things that influence
which beach you go to are: one: the weather two: the actual beach structure
on those beaches at that time and three: also your target species beach structure is a big one because beaches are changing all the time as the weather patterns change, as the size of the surf changes, so you actually need to go down
and have a look at the beaches have a look at the set up
you know there might be on a particular beach there might be
no structure at all on one beach but then you might go to another beach and
it'll have some really nice deep areas some shallow sandbars, it'll have a lot
of really good habitat for fish so you know, you need to actually compare
beaches and have a look before you go fishing to decide which beach you want
to go to also if the weather is coming from a particular direction let's
say that weather is coming from the south and there's strong south winds
then you would be more inclined to fish at the south end of the beach probably
closer to the headland which is going to be protected from the wind and the same
thing also happens if you've got a weather pattern from the north
it's gonna be better up towards the north end of the beach because the
further that you get down the beach when you've got a wind blowing you
actually begin to get strong currents that sweep down the beach which make it
more difficult to fish so you need to do a little bit of reconnaissance and
looking at the structure taking the weather into account, and then also
thinking about what type of fish that you're going to be fishing for key point number four is:
beach structure what is beach structure? well from the point of
view at a beach it's fairly simple there's really only a few different
types of formations that are at the beach number one is a sandbar a sandbar is a shallow area where the sand is built up it's very easy to tell the
sandbars because that's where the waves break, so a sandbar is actually a shallow
part on the beach and at low tide you can actually see the sandbars, because
when the water rushes out they become really obvious and often times, they're
actually out of the water structure number two, is what we call a hole or a gutter now quite simply a hole or a gutter, are the deep areas on a beach usually you have holes or gutters in between sandbars I guess they call a gutter a gutter
is because it's like the water runs off a sandbar into a gutter
like the rain runs off your roof into a gutter and where the water runs off the
sandbar a gutter is like a drain point where the water goes back out to sea and
it's like a deep trench so you have gutters, you also have holes
which are kind of, not so much like a gutter, but more of a just a deep spot and the last thing is where you have a beach
where there's no structure at all this usually occurs after a period of very flat swell when there's been no waves
it's quite funny how that works but when there are no waves and there's just a
very small lapping on the shore all the sandbars and holes on a beach seem to
just disappear and essentially you've just got one long beach with very little features when the beach is like that, there's really not a lot of reading
of the beach to do and when you fish on a beach which is featureless, essentially
you're fishing really close to the shore the fish patrol up and down that edge
because you know that's the only place where there's any action or
there's a little breaking wave right on the edge of the shore so the fish swim
along the edge so you can actually fish with a hand line in those conditions you
could put your bait on and just flick it out because the fish generally aren't
going to be too far out key point number five is: how to find the fish this is the big one the sole purpose of reading a beach is
to find the fish fish are not really complex creatures all they're really thinking about, is their next meal so when we read a beach, we are trying to
determine where the food source is, for the fish and that's where we're going to cast our bait key point number six is: concentrated food areas so we've already determined,
that the fish are going to be where their food source is so what are the food sources on a beach there, you're going to find fish? a good food source is on the
edge of sandbars and drop-offs because when a wave breaks on a sandbar
it stirs up the sand and reveals little crabs, crustaceans, possibly worms, and
different sources of food a great place to fish, is just over the edge of a sandbar into the deep water the waves wash across the sandbar and wash any food that's being stirred up over the edge of the sandbar
down into the gutter or drop off the fish often patrol this edge looking for food small baitfish like mullet, also like to find cover from large predatory fish in the white water
on the edge of sandbars I like to cast my line actually onto a sandbar,
let it sit there for a minute and then just pull it off the edge and just let the
bait sit off the edge of the sandbar lake entrances and river entrances also
great food sources for fish because, particularly lakes, you've got things
like prawns, little mullet constantly coming in and out of that area so
they're a great place to fish because you've got big fish waiting in the surf
for all the bait fish to swim out and all the prawns, and all the goodies
especially when you've got a run out tide or in summertime when it's
prawning season when there's a dark and you know all the prawns are going to
be running out there that's a natural place that the fish would congregate and
that's also a great place to fish for all species including jewfish/mulloway
which are very popular and obviously your bream and your whiting, flathead, salmon etc another food hot spot for fish, is near the
headlands at either end of a beach because where you've got a headland and you've got
rocks running out beside the sand there's lots of bait, there's lots of food
on the edges of those rocks there's weed there's little crabs, there's even like little
prawns there's all sorts of things and that attracts fish it attracts little
fish, it attracts big fish I actually find that that's also a good spot for
whiting even though it's next to the rocks I've done a fair bit of
spearfishing and when I go spearfishing I often I've speared a lot of whiting along
that rocky edge at the end of a beach right within two or three feet of the
rocks and also if there are whiting in there, for example at the end of the
beach, there's going to be a bigger fish like mulloway that would feed on whiting,
on blackfish, and other small fish that are patrolling that edge between the
sand and the rocks so that's a great place to fish is that corridor at the
end of a beach next to a headland key point number seven is:
the high value of prospecting what I call prospecting and what I mean by prospecting is, testing
even though you've done all your research, you've looked at the beach
structure, you've checked out where you're going to fish, and you've chosen
the place that you think looks the best don't just throw your line in the water
and leave it there you know you need to still be looking for the fish so what I
do when I go to a particular spot for example I might put in my biggest cast
first and cast right out the back and then I'll wind my line a few feet and
wait, and wind my line a few feet and wait and I'm trying to locate for
example are the fish close to shore? are they further out? sometimes you'll cast
your line out and you wind your line into a particular spot all of a sudden
you'll get a bite so what you do there next time you cast out you just cast straight back into that same spot and you'll often find that that's where the fish
are and you'll just start catching fish after fish and also don't just cast out here try to the right, try to the left, walk
along the beach 20 meters if you've thrown your line out in the
water and you've been standing there for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and you haven't had
a bite, don't just leave it there keep looking until you locate where the fish
are it makes a huge difference it can make the difference between getting a
bag of fish, and getting nothing one the best times of day is to go fishing
off the beach first thing in the morning that is, from the very first light until
sunrise or just after probably even a better time, will be the last hour before
dark in the evening, and then an hour after dark the only exception that I
have found, is fishing in overcast or rainy weather you can fish all day in
these conditions generally when the sun is up and shining brightly into the
water, it's not good for fishing I'm an all-season fisherman I don't just
fish in summer, I just like to fish all year round and if you apply the things
that I've been teaching you in this video it will certainly double/triple your success when you're fishing off the
beach so there's my eight key points on how to read a beach I hope it's been
helpful if you've got any questions just put them in the comments section
underneath the video, and remember that no time spent beach fishing is ever a fail you're always generally fishing with a
mate you're out in the fresh air and you always learn something - even the
best fisherman that I know, have days where they don't catch fish
so remember click subscribe, and I'll see you in the next video
