Surfcasting 201 - The Surfcasters' Bible....Artificial Only thread....

[surfstix1963]

I'm just willing to admit it.

[surferman]

Oh hell that's been blown out for years I've been trying to re-light it for the last ten or so years keeps going out must be the wind blowing through my ears.

Steve....


Surfstix.....I'm glad someone else can share this feeling too....

I'm just willing to admit it.

You guys are really out there, lol!
Great thread btw.

[DarkSkies]

Thanks for the kind words, all.....

( Surfstix has told me privately that if you notice any of that wind blowing through his ears. please point it out so we can turn the fan off...... )





Some advice I gave today..... Fishing Low Vs High Tide.....
Low tide can be productive, but lately for me it has been about high tide.


When low tide can be productive for artificials.....


1. If you are fishing areas where some of the water is deep, and fish and bait are scattered...the low tide will tend to concentrate them in seams, cuts,or areas we talked about, where they can hide till the tide starts to move again.


2. The presentation and options...sometimes when the tide is high I do better with presentation on the bottom...bucktails,and rubber if the water is 5' deeper or more.....
This all depends on the season and time of year, but it's critical to know if the fish are "looking up" or "looking down".


3. As the tide drops out, I find I do better with plugs, that work the top half of the water column, as at that point the fish may be looking up.


4. One thing that is critical for presentation for me is the strength of the current.....and the pull, of that current.


5. For example, the outgoing tide, if you fish certain areas, will produce a rip on some places, and therefore a "pull" on your plug.


6. For that reason, I like the ebb tide for a lot of the plugging I do as I feel it allows me to control the speed of the retrieve.
I can therefore slow down the retrieve better on a rip in an ebb tide.


7. When the flood tide comes in, I still like to plug, because that's one of my favorite ways of nailing fish....but....
The tide coming in forces me to retrieve just a bit faster to keep in contact with my plug....so if the fish are sluggish I may miss some of the action that a slower retrieve would allow me to find.....




























*****
Note, the above is specific to fishing the surf at night, and the currents and rips I find at various places where I'm concentrating both on hard and soft structure.


Inlets are different.
Rips around points of land are different.

The approach for fishing those would also be different, for me.....


And, as always, the area you fish, has it's own times that the fish may turn on and feed...
I have found areas as close as 1/2 of a mile apart will have different feeding times for night surf fishing....

It's your job, as a surfcaster who wants to succeed, to discover those feeding patterns for that specific area, and deal with them in a way that will maximize your fishing time........

Hope this helps....
.

[Monty]

Great post Dark
Here are three pics. First one is a rip that has been very productive for me (except this year ...I have lost a few fish and missed a bunch of hits there this year, pretty sure this getting old thing has caused my cat like reflexes to deteriorate to unprecedented levels resulting in missed hits and ridicules amounts of lost fish (story for another thread....or not)).
Under some conditions at night, lower tide, I can wade out and cast into it (fun). Rubber Hogys have done well for me there as well as needles and teasers. False dawn, cloudy days and even some sunny ones have been productive with pencils, assorted poppers, metals and teasers.. to a lesser level metal lip plugs. The rip is productive from in close (caught fish 10 feet from the beach), to as far as I could cast (100 yards+). Areas like this can be very productive
I like fishing this area more at the lower 1/2 of the tide. Not because its more productive, but its more fun for me to be able to wade out onto a bar that is there. Out going has been a bit more productive.
I enjoy fishing low tide more than high, throwing artificials I tend to find a lot more structure (points, cuts, pools, rips, sand bars).
The second is one of many doubles caught there.
The third pic is of white water....

[storminsteve]

Nice rip monty. As for the last pic I can see why they call you white water monty.
I like fishing rips because the fish will come in closer looking for bait. Cool tips guys thanks.

[cowherder]

Always a wealth of information here, I feel like I still have so much to learn every time I read stuff like this. Thank you.

[plugcrazy]

Great info about low vs high tide presentation dark.Nice pics and explanation of a rip monty. I also look at the bait that is around. don't usually use a bucktail with a teaser from the surf, but lately I have been using one. They are on small bait unless the bunker are around. A small ava with teaser is a good thing to use right now too.