How to: Reading the water

[storminsteve]

There is something in them for everyone even those with experience.

Absolutely, i just went back and re-read this thread, great stuff!

[DarkSkies]

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. It may have been said already, but when fishing rocks and inlets, there are rips, eddies, and ambush points. There are key places to fish at each, depending on the tides. moon phase, and season. And if you fish one set of rocks and try to apply your discoveries to another, you may be making complete opposite assumptions other than what will work for the place you are comparing.

How many of ya's go somewhere, and just look at the water for 5 minutes before you even make a cast? I do....


Reading the current pattern of the night, in conjunction with the tides, and even a swell, or sweep from morth to south, or vice versa, can be critical to your success. Try to learn one area at a time, and pay attention to what some have said in this thread, some great advice here.....

[baitstealer]

Thanks so much for this, fellas. great read.

[DarkSkies]

Reading the current pattern of the night, in conjunction with the tides, and even a swell, or sweep from morth to south, or vice versa, can be critical to your success. Try to learn one area at a time, and pay attention to what some have said in this thread, some great advice here.....

Time to re-visit this thread....there are a lot of good solid observations and suggestions here. The beaches, the ones that we have access to, have changed drastically....if you still want fish now is the time to get out there and do your full and new moon scouting....

There are cuts and holes in some of our beaches that haven't been there for 20 years.....
Much appreciation to all those who shared their thoughts here.....

[jigfreak]

If people would read this whole thread and pay attention there would be no more need for the internet forums. The new breed wants everything handed to them on a silver platter. It is there right in front of your face. Like said go and walk the beach for a few hours every low tide. It will all unfold before your eyes. And I agree some of the mew holes are really sweet. i think within a month some of them will be filled back in though.

[storminsteve]

Went back and looked at this thread over the weekend. Great winter reading, thank guys!

[hookset]

A quickie on tides,naturally we have 2 high and 2 low.

Spring or Moon Tide:These happen twice a month they cause very high and very low tides.

They also occur around the full and new moon when the gravitational pull is the strongest.

Fish feed when the water is moving:So it makes sense to fish around the new and full moon phases because the water will be moving quicker. Personally I like to fish 2 days before and 2 days after a full moon.(Actually I like to fish whenever I can)

The other thing with a full moon is sometimes it casts too much light on the water if this is the case I will bring a couple of lighter colored lures because they could make it happen if darker is failing you.I will either fish the shadow lines or seek a darker area.

I agree hate fishing when the moon is bright at night unless you're tossing bait. Best for me is when it's a full moon and cloudy.
btw the full moon tide is a good chance for the newbies to get out there on the beach and learn the structure at low tide. A lot of it has changed this year with the effects of dredging and sandy. with the dredging its ever so important to go out and do this as many places are lame and flat now. You need to look for the areas that are configured differently like it says in this thread and low tide is the best time to do that. Now that all the tourists are off the beach. Then when you read the water at high tide it will have a lot more meaning. Great points surfstix thanks for sharing.

[fishinmission78]

Won't have much water to read after the beach replenishment. The cuts and bars will be gone and it will be one long flat stretch of beach. Will take at least a year for things to come back. I don't wish anyone any harm but we really could use some severe spring noreasters to give us some of our soft structure back.

[Monty]

Won't have much water to read after the beach replenishment. The cuts and bars will be gone and it will be one long flat stretch of beach. Will take at least a year for things to come back. I don't wish anyone any harm but we really could use some severe spring noreasters to give us some of our soft structure back.

Used to be 5 or 6 rock piles visible in this pic.....
Frustrating.

[buckethead]

This is a great thread for the younger or younger angler to review periodically.

[surfrob]

This is a great thread for the younger or younger angler to review periodically.

or ... us seniors fighting off dementia

great thread.

I can say I'm still mystified about the south jersey marsh system(s) near me and I'm (re) learning to read what otherwise are flat featureless beaches.

There is almost *no* hard structure on the beach I fish, but there is concealed soft structure. When I stumble upon something, it's the ticket.

The backbays are completely different than anything I'm used to, or rather the back bay/river system where I used to live, stymied me (almost) as much or more
than the backbays here. I was able to unlock a few secrets there while down here I'm still looking at the vault's user guide.

"When the water is moving the fish are feeding. Marsh systems can be very long and meander endlessly, like a freshwater stream. So, how do we locate fish? What do we look for? Well, the key word is structure. Structure can be anything that helps shelter fish or bait. It could be rocks, deep holes, rips, ledges, channels, undercut banks, logs, depressions, sand bars or the channel itself. Fish it like you would a river. Look at your favourite marsh at low tide and it will open up all of its secrets."

Problem is there are systems down here that are vastly more complicated than just "structure". It's "structure" "bait" and "predator" movement in combination.

You can find predators looking for structure (I know of some places), but equally important is where is the bait at a given time/season in the tide relative to those structures.

Some things are a given anywhere mostly because well, bait is bait. Docklights at night. I mean, c'mon... if you can get out at night and don't check docks you're really striking out. But "reading the water", more to the point, is as or really more complicated in the backbays than it is on the open beach.

ah, just realized I'm rambling a bit...

[porgy75]

I was curious if any of you guys here have any tips on reading the water in monmouth county now that all the beaches have been bulldozed and filled in with sand. Is there any hope to get the cuts and openings back or will that take years and years. Thanks.

[surfstix1963]

I don't fish NJ but the bottom line is structure is structure if you know how to read it.It's either there or it's not,a beach void of good structure is a waste of time.They can spend all your tax money but they cannot fight Mother Nature the storms will remove most of what they are doing it's like the proverbial pissing up a rope.Montauk is fighting a similar battle right now with beach replenishment.

[surfrob]

I was curious if any of you guys here have any tips on reading the water in monmouth county now that all the beaches have been bulldozed and filled in with sand. Is there any hope to get the cuts and openings back or will that take years and years. Thanks.

The beach repleshment itself disappears in about one big storm. By spring, you will see a lot of that $ missing. However, in my experience several things happen as a result. The worst is that a beach-long bar forms near the edge of casting distance with no cuts. This trough can last for much of a season and is just a relative dead zone through much of a tide since it's all pumped in sand, devoid of much life. However, eventually that too gets cut and dissipates and life returns. Best bet is to hit areas with remnants of rock piles.

[DarkSkies]

Bump for a great thread. Thanks for the thoughts people, feel free to add any more.

[plugcrazy]

Used to be 5 or 6 rock piles visible in this pic.....
Frustrating.

I agree, reading the water is so different now because a lot of Jersey has a big sandbar or just flat beaches. There are some good inlets jetties but not many. A few drop offs in places where the structure is coming back but it really sucks overall.

[Monty]

I agree, reading the water is so different now because a lot of Jersey has a big sandbar or just flat beaches. There are some good inlets jetties but not many. A few drop offs in places where the structure is coming back but it really sucks overall.

Its disgusting, fished Jersey 1x this year if I remember correctly. LI has so much more to offer and a lot of it is about the same distance from my house in Jersey.

[finchaser]

Reading the water now is easy 1 large sand bar

[fishinmission78]

Yeah especially at Island Beach. Very few cuts like there used to be. We need some severe winter storms to change that up.

[baitstealer]

This is a great thread for the younger or younger angler to review periodically.

I go back and look at this thread every winter. have learned a lot from it, thanks guys.