Quote Originally Posted by surfstix1963 View Post
Paying your dues is putting your time in thats the bottom line.
This is how to learn the game, fish day and night get used to the differences if you are serious especially at night it is a whole different world at night you need to know what your lures are doing by feel, during the day take the time to walk the areas you fish to find structure take a pole w/you you never know practice casting different lures and try and perfect them.
Learn to read the beach because it changes all the time you won't walk too many days in a row with the structure not changing you need to adapt to what the beach is doing because thats what the fish need to do to eat.
How much effort is related to how serious you want it just like anything else in life the more effort put in the better you should get at it.How much is too much that didn't exist when I started surf fishing probably cost me my first marriage amongst other things I fished every chance I could and heres a tip for you newbies weather you want to hear it or not you can learn more from an old timer in 10 minutes then you can fishing by yourself for a month the key is to listen.
Just a quick example there use to be a guy Leo probably in his 80's sat in his chair and watched and waited for the fish to come into reach for him if it didn't happen oh well but one day I knew the fish were there but just out of reach as I was talking to Leo he said go get the fish I said I can't reach them his reply was take those damn treble hooks off the popper and you will reach them to make a long story short he was right on the money the drag from one treble hook was stopping that little bit of distance I needed.
Experience is the best teacher. Moving around I will not stay in one spot regardless of tide if the fish are not there I will walk and cast along the beach until I find them fishing structure along the way you can feel the humps under your feet as you walk(points) or they just plain aren't there.
Getting skunked thats part of the game get used to it. Sorry so long but if it bores you, your a surfcaster & you already know this.


I don't think you need to apologize for the length of that post, you related a lifetime of experience in there.

You made a lot of the key points that translate from someone catching fish once in a whille to bringing consistency to your catches.

Even the best have their off days. Sometimes the fish just aren't there in any numbers, or a list of variables combines to make it difficult to present. However, they don't give up, and learn from it. Any subtle difference, no matter how small, can make your next trip into a better one if you are willing to adapt and learn from it.



Thanks for the very well-worded response.