How to: Reading the water

[surfstix1963]

Outer Bar & Cuts:

Another way to identify cuts when the waves aren't around is to look for foamy water or just a difference in what the water looks like as it exits.

This will be vertical to the beach.

You need to look a little harder but you will learn to see it.

I feel the larger fish stay on the outer bar right near the opening of the cut. As the water naturally comes in and recedes through the cut, there will be a current or eddy formed because of the surrounding sandbar on both sides of the cut.

This forces the water and the bait to be washed in and out of the narrow opening. Easy pickings...big bass are lazy, and they didn't get big by being stupid.

If you can reach the outer bar I like to fish my bucktails real close to the bottom in these cuts. Just my .02 cents

[surfstix1963]

Sloughs or troughs:

Another good holding spot is slough or trough.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, the fish use this to feed against the inside of the bar.

Sometimes you have a situation when the wave is rolling over the bar into the trough, but flattens out all the way to the beach. This is when the trough in front of the inner bar has a rising hump in the bottom midway to the beach and a drop off in front of it.

So you have:
a) the sandbar,
b) the trough in front of that(fish holding here)
c) then the hump
d) and a drop off between the beach and the hump.(fish holding real tight to the beach.)

This is why you never lift your plug out of the water -- keep reeling until it is on the sand.



Another thing... don't step in the water when you first get there because:
#1- theres a drop off and you will take a swim
#2- thats where some of the fish will be, and they will get spooked.

You can only identify this at high tide by the wave action.

At low tide you will see these humps as you walk the beach.

If you can imagine what these humps look like at high tide you will see the uprising and a deeper depression between two of them.

The bait and fish like to lay in the deeper spots between the two rising areas.

You can feel these as you walk at the lower tidal stages at night if you can remember what they felt like when you walked on them at low tide during the day.

I don't try to reach the outer bar too much in this situation, because the fish like to get inside the trough at night.

I like to work the trough and bring it into the drop off right to the beach.

Stay out of the water! Remember #1 and #2 at night.

[surfstix1963]

I'll just give a quickie on inlets because I cannot educate NJ jetty jockies. I may learn much from you guys.

An inlet is basically a hwy from the bay to the ocean for bait and fish to get from one to the other.

Current is the big factor in the inlets.

It brings the bait to the fish where they lie to feed in the various structure...rocks, eddies, and rips.

The fish will feed on the inside when the current is moving in and vice versa when going out.

What you need to know tide and current are 2 different things.

I don't know how many times someone has come up to me and asked why the tide is going in or out.

It was supposed to be doing this at this time according to the tide charts.

Well it is doing that, but the current continues until the bay water and the ocean water equalize or level out. The tide may be changing, but the current will still be running for another 1-2 hrs. Depending on the size of the bay it is filling or emptying.

I think the best fishing for me is the 2 hrs. from tide change to the current change as the flow slows down

I feel this is also when the fish are on the move opposite of where they were. I'll let the jetty guys fill in the spaces.

[surfstix1963]

OK gotta go my back is shot hope this helps you new guys out.

[Dreaminofishin]

As a result of reading these threads I'm going to be spending a lot more time studying the water instead of throwing and hoping. When you fish an inlet do you always throw your plug/jig upcurrent and let it come down to the fish?

[DarkSkies]

Dreaminofishin, here's what I do when I fish an inlet. Other guys do it differently, it's all a matter of preference and what you're comfortable with:


Flood tide...
I generally like to be near the back of the inlet. If the inlet has a bridge or some kind of structure, I'll fish against the current and fish from whatever side allows me to do that. I don't want to confuse you by bringing bridges into the equation, but often there are car or train bridges near the back of inlets.

Big predators hang around structure in wait to ambush smaller fish. Since I generally fish at night, I look for the shadow lines made by the lights, and try to throw out so my offering ends up in the darkness of the shadow line.

Again, I'll try just to stay on the inlet topic here. All inlets are basic in their design. As Surfstix said, they are a highway for a water and the fish. There are many subtle differences for each inlet. That's why you should pick one inlet and learn those differences at different stages of the tide.

The first thing I would do if I didn't know an inlet was to go there at extreme low tide, right before slack. Pay attention to the rocks on the sides and the variations. All sorts of little fish, and also seabass, tog, crabs, etc will be hiding in those rocks as the tide fills. It's also a good time to check any nuances in structure you can see near bottom. If you're bait fishin it will save you many lost rigs.

As the tide fills in, you may have eddies, pockets, or areas in back of the inlet where the current is less. I think Surfstix, despite his modesty, did a fantastic job of explaining the difference between tide and current above.

The current will become stronger or weaker at different stages of the tide. A lot of guys like to fish the middle areas of inlets. Fine, but know when to move from them. IMO the middle areas are best at the beginning and end of the tidal flow when current is weaker. That's a great time to toss out plugs because you can retreive across the current and still have your plug at a slow enough retrieval speed.

Retrieving plugs when the current is too fast, like in the middle of a tide when current is at its strongest, can be a waste of time if you're targeting bass. What I usually dto is hit an inlet up to 2 hours before and 2 hours after high tide, as many have advised. That seems to be the best window.

Ebb tide:
Everybody's different. I like to be at the front of an inlet for the ebb. I try to figure out where the sweep is. The sweep is the direction the water is moving in the ocean. This depends on the moon stage, wind, offshore weather patterns which sometimes give rise to a swell, among other factors. Also the structure at the outer area of the inlet.

Based on that sweep I'll decide whether I want to fish the N or S side of the inlet. I'll note here that right before a storm, I might concentrate on the front of the inlet for he ebb, depending on the wind and sweep. If fish are pulled out of the inlet by the tide, and there is a swell pushing the water in at the same time, there can be some big predators right in front, or to the sides of the rocks in front. This gets a little dicey, safety gear is an absolute must. More on that in a bit.

When I work the front rocks of an inlet, I will take the bucktail and bounce it on the bottom as close as I can to the rocks without getting hung up. This is where you will lose the most jigs until you get the hang of it. Even after you get better, you'll still lose some jigs if you're fishin it right. I generally like to bounce the bucktail around the frong of the inlet, gradually working it around the structure WITH the tide.

If you were a scuba diver, you would be amazed at all the bass that sit at the bottom near the safety of the rocks. The strong current just 20 feet above them is less intense as the current action is broken up by that bottom structure.


Full/New moon tides:
However my fishin rules are not set in stone. If there's a full or new moon tide, the current will be extremely strong. It's a waste to fish the fastest running water during the mid-tide.

Does that mean ya go home? Nope, that's why ya need plan B, and C sometimes. I will bounce around an area and may come back to an inlet area 2 or 3 times in a night, fishing other spots until I feel the tide is optimal.

[DarkSkies]

Should I stay or should I go?
Also, if you're not doing anything at an inlet, how do you know if the fish are there? My guage is the bait. If there is a lot of bait around and popping, I know fish will usually be on them. That's not the whole picture. Many times you will see bait running in and out on the sides because the current is usually a little less intense there. You won't see anyting popping or on the surface at all. You have to train your eyes to look for them. Sometimes that's difficult in fast moving water. It's something I don't believe you can teach to someone. You have to learn to recognize it at your own pace to get good at it.

My intensity and focus on fishing a place becomes more directed when I see lots of bait. However, there are times when you will see no bait and fish will still be holding.

Jigging and bucktailing:
That's where the bucktailing comes in, or throwing rubber jigs. A lot of guys will make a few casts at an inlet, move around once or twice, convince themselves because there are no fish busting on the surface that it ain't happenin that night. Sometimes they're right, but I always remember a simple rule an old-timer taught me years ago:

"The fish are on the bottom"
If you don't probe the bottom as part of your fishin that night, you will never know if you missed the fish by not being deep enough.

As the current strengthens through the tide, it's an effort for a fish to not get swept in or out. So many bait fish will hold to the sides, and bigger fish hold on the bottom, away from the stronger.

Another reality is that the bigger fish move with the current. Striped bass love current. You have a higher chance at catching a big bass in strong current than you do on the flats somewhere.

The key is realizing that a bass will move during the tide stages up or down an inlet area to find the combination of water they can comfortably swim in, ambush food, and not get swept away.

Current is less strong on the bottom, so that's where the big predators will sit during strong parts of the tide. Or they'll find a ledge, a seam, or crease in the bottom to sit and pop up once in awhile to nab a juicy enough baitfish.

Bucktailing/fishing rubber:
Your job bucktailing or throwing rubber is to find where those fish are sitting. Learning creases, ledges or seams is good if you have a boat with a depth finder. From shore you have to do your own prospecting.

If you're jigging, you'll lose bucktails and jigs. Never buy expensive bucktails or rubber when starting out. Buy stuff in multi-packs, or at flea markets. If you have a friend who makes bucktails and likes to trade, that's golden.

The functionality of a bucktail doesn't depend on how much you paid for it or how artistic it looks. It's all about how you work it in the water. I have seen old timers fishing next to other guys outfish them 3:1 with the same bucktail. At times I've been the one outfished 3:1 as well. When that happens to you, you will quickly try to learn the subtle differences.

The best advice I can give you about beginning bucktailing or jigging is to:
1. Read a good book on bucktailing (Skinner's comes to mind)
2. Buy a lot of cheap or used bucktails at shows
3. Learn to bounce the bottom.

As you become more proficient and get into bigger fish, the quality of the bucktail hook becomes more important. You will tend to learn which ones to stay away from if you lose a big fish when a hook pulls. Big fish don't just break your line, they break your heart! You don't need to worry about that much in the beginning, just work on your technique.


Fish with mono in the inlets first when learning. As you lose jigs it's not cool to put a lot of braid out there on the bottom. I can recommend sufix tritanium 17 or 20lbs for inlets. We have gotten jigs stuck on the bottom and been able to retrieve them with that line.