Beach Fishing During Large Swell Episodes

[CarlRak]

Hi All,

A mate and I are quite new to fishing but have certainly been hooked. Our enthusiasm day-to-day varies between feverish, completely preoccupied and "dude, chance of a new species, what are we waiting for?". 3-4 nights a week we manage to rug-up, gear-up and head-out to fumble our way through a new technique or the improvement of one. Idiots at play. Smiling our way through it.

Of late we've been having most (well some) success off the beach at night. But each session has been during low/almost no swell. We're itching to give it another go over the next few days but considering the current conditions we had a few questions to ask, thinking the collective knowledge of users of this forum may be able to help?

1. We have been fishing on rising or full tides. Does a large swell affect which tide is productive? Is there an opportunity to fish a falling tide?

2. In a large swell, will usual gutters be productive or will the huge volumes of water rushing down these "highways" inhibit the bite?

3. Is afternoon fishing on a rising tide, but still sunny, worthwhile? My logic was that the abundance of whitewater covering a parallel-to-beach gutter would provide cover to species such as salmon(?).

4. Does the abundance of swell change the species we are likely to encounter?

5. Does swell period have much effect? E.g 4 metre swell on a 9 second period is quite different to 14 second period.

6. During low/no swell we've been using unweighted pilchards, or running ball on main line to swivel with approx. 60cm leader rigs. Does the bigger swell necessitate a new approach?

7. Are we hopelessly optimistic?

Any help/tips/advice would be enormously appreciated.

Thanks

Carl

[marley]

In a BIG swell like we are having at the moment I find those protected corners or bays fish very well.

Imagine you were a fish and there were 6foot waves, where would you go to "get out" of the swell.

hope this helps

gav

[CarlRak]

Cheers gav, much appreciated.

[Fisheroudge]

You can fish the Beach in a big swell but it's not easy. The further out the bank is the better and you will need some big star or similar sinkers to hold you in place. I used to think it was impossible but one night at curl curl I saw a guy get a couple and I matched his tactics with some success. I think there are less fish around but they are still there so u need to spend as much time as possible in the zone rather then drifting through at a rate of knots and then reeling in to re-cast. There's a variety of sinkers for this situation, the pyramids are good as are others with spikes and weight. you may need to use reasonably strong line (18lb )too which may take some of the fun out of fighting the fish and turn it into a skull-drag, but it's more fun than re-rigging constantly because you snapped your line trying to cast the big sinker over 4 feet of shore dump.

I dont think the tide is as important as the general conditions like barometer, wind, light levels and numbers of surfers/swimmers in the water, but I'm still (always)learning. But what you most definitely need is enough water to cover the fish by a couple of feet, some gutters have this at high tide and others at low. Generally on Sydneys northern beaches you can only find enough water at higher tides, lately with all the swell there are some beaches that will actually fish well at low tide byt htis is rare. And finally, I haven't paid any attention to swell periods since I stopped surfing, which relates more to the power of the waves and the comfort of those bobbing up and down on them (boaties) as far as I know than anything tangible for land based fishos - I'd be happy to be proven wrong though!

And one small anecdote from my second outing with the new rod I got for xmas about ten years ago - I convinced my brother in law to fish with me in 2 foot waves, no gutters, onshore wind, almost dead low tide in Janurary (i now know he only came along for the beer) . . . we were running out of servo pilchards because I was so bad at puttting them on ganged hooks they were falling apart, so he changes to the mangled remains from my earlier failures on a single hook and chucks them into the lamest rip running back out to sea and sits back to enjoy his beer whilst I was babbling on like a fool. To cut an already long story short he pulled in a legal Kingie after about a half hour battle on 10 pound mono. having never seen one before we had to get on the net to ID it! I've fished (and surfed) that same strectch of beach semi regilarly for most of my life and I've never seen aother king in the surf there or any other beach.

Cheers,

Gerg.

[Koalaboi]

Hi All,

A mate and I are quite new to fishing but have certainly been hooked. Our enthusiasm day-to-day varies between feverish, completely preoccupied and "dude, chance of a new species, what are we waiting for?". 3-4 nights a week we manage to rug-up, gear-up and head-out to fumble our way through a new technique or the improvement of one. Idiots at play. Smiling our way through it.

Of late we've been having most (well some) success off the beach at night. But each session has been during low/almost no swell. We're itching to give it another go over the next few days but considering the current conditions we had a few questions to ask, thinking the collective knowledge of users of this forum may be able to help?

1. We have been fishing on rising or full tides. Does a large swell affect which tide is productive? Is there an opportunity to fish a falling tide?

2. In a large swell, will usual gutters be productive or will the huge volumes of water rushing down these "highways" inhibit the bite?

3. Is afternoon fishing on a rising tide, but still sunny, worthwhile? My logic was that the abundance of whitewater covering a parallel-to-beach gutter would provide cover to species such as salmon(?).

4. Does the abundance of swell change the species we are likely to encounter?

5. Does swell period have much effect? E.g 4 metre swell on a 9 second period is quite different to 14 second period.

6. During low/no swell we've been using unweighted pilchards, or running ball on main line to swivel with approx. 60cm leader rigs. Does the bigger swell necessitate a new approach?

7. Are we hopelessly optimistic?

Any help/tips/advice would be enormously appreciated.

Thanks

Carl

Hi Carl,

Here's my thoughts on your perceptive and thoughtful questions:

1. Tides: I have generally found that land based fishing into the open ocean, either off the stones or sand is better around the top of the tide. There's always going to be exceptions but that's the general rule I work on. The reason is that the intertidal zone is where a lot of the best food is and the rising tide gives fish access to that food. I've regularly seen large groper wash over a weedy rock platform in inches of water with a wave, swim back into deeper water then do the whole thing again. It's quite a sight!

2. In a large swell the main problem is the longshore current...especially so in this recent swell which was so strongly from the south. Added to that is the fact that you tend to get a lot of clumps of weed torn from their strongholds by the swell.

3. Yes. Afternoon fishing on a rising tide is primetime!

4. I don't know for sure. Locals around my way reckon that it's not worth fshing for jewfish unless there's a decent swell running.

5. The longer the period the more powerful the swell. That means greater water movement, bigger waves etc

6. With more water movement you'll need more lead. Also, you'll not be able to get down the beach to cast like you can on a low swell day so you'll need a bit more lead to get the bait out to the deeper water. In big swells like this the beach can be pretty dangerous. I remember the big swell of 1974 from cyclone Colin. Bilgola Beach had about 70 metres of sand down to the water's edge. Next thing the whole beach right up to the carpark had 4 to 5 feet of swirling water all over it after a set of bigger waves came through. It was pretty scary.

7. No, you're not hopelessly optimistic. You do need to develop your planning and this will come through experience and innovation. Fishermen who regularly catch fish do so because they know where to fish in a range of conditions. Yesterday I went to have a fish for luderick on the rising tide in the channel at The Entrance. I got one fish but the inflow of water with the swell proved difficult and I decided to move to a nearby bay where the rock platform formed a buffer to the large swell leaving a gutter about 4 to 5 foot deep between the rocks and the beach. The tide was well up and the wind from the west just right, in addition it was late afternoon. I got a quick 5 fish including one of the biggest blackfish at 46cm that I've caught in 40 years targeting this species. Normally you'd be struggling to get anything there but it's a redhot spot in a huge swell.

In large swells like this recent one, the really protected southern corners of some beaches/bays become havens for all sorts of fish. This is especially so if the water rushing over the adjacent rock platforms drains into your spot bringing lots of tucker with it. It also means that you're fishing safely away from dangerous spots.

So try different spots and species in a range of conditions at different times of the year and after a while you'll know where to go and what to target. This will lead to you bringing home a feed on nearly every trip.

I hope this helps.

Koalaboi

Edited July 12, 2011 by Koalaboi

[bennoz]

AND KEEP YOUR RIG SIMPLE !

no point having a 2 dropper with bottom sinker surf rig as its just going to get all twisted and you wont catch a thing.

also i like the single hook idea in large swell. Using a whole ganged pillie in heavy surf, the pillie is much larger and will be caught up in all the currents and be thrown about a heap more

[CarlRak]

Thanks all.

Had a shot at it from the near the top of the tide last night, as it fell away, for a few hours with no luck. Fished a protected southern corner but think I need to repeat as the tide is running in rather than out (damn contsraints of work).

All tips and comments noted.