Surf on the beaches, how big is too big

[Volitan]

Hi. Talking about typical Sydney or Central Coast beaches here. How high does the surf have to be to stop you fishing? And why do you stop, is it because you find it too difficult to control your gear or do the fish bail out?

and the at the other extreme, when it's flat, do you still fish, or do you feel that reasonable wave action is needed to get the fish feeding ?

cheers

arron

Edited June 12, 2017 by Volitan

[GreasePit]

Depends on if there are good gutters formed or not.
If there is a fair amount of swell (anything reported from 3-4ft), but it has some deep gutters in close, the swell will generally just wash over the gutter lightly and your baits won't get washed ashore. Anything above 4ft is usually frugal unless you really know what you're doing (i don't).  

In terms of no swell, you can still catch fish, i just find you need to burley to bring the fish in. The purpose of fishing in surf is there will be gutters or (deeper sections of water). This is typically the structure which fish will congregate along an otherwise formless length of coastline. 

-Chris

[FunkyJT]

1.5m I think ...

[rickmarlin62]

all this can change depending on what beach you are going to fish...some beaches are long and open to swell..some are shorter..some may face north.east.south..leaving them to completely different conditions on any given day...check weather..wind..swell then choose appropriate destination...rick

[Squid Inc]

Big seas usually go hand in hand with a strong current running along the beach. So if your rig is getting dragged down the beach fast, that's where I draw the line.

[macca02]

10 hours ago, Squid Inc said:

Big seas usually go hand in hand with a strong current running along the beach. So if your rig is getting dragged down the beach fast, that's where I draw the line.

^ Yep.

The sweep/current of the beach is the real pain. I generally find over 1.5m is when it starts to get bad.

Also if theres been big seas, and the wind direction has been blowing in the direction the beach you're fishing faces, then you're probably going to have a bad time with the seaweed (as i found over the weekend :/ )

Edited June 13, 2017 by macca02

[Gutamouth]

Ide prefer fishing in big surf rather than when it's flat, but like everyone's said once it gets over 2m the sweep generally pushes too hard to hold your bait, plus big raging surf goes hand in hand with strong onshore winds that make life even harder.. If it's solid surf I try find a rip where the water flow is heading back outwards, instead of sideways across the beach