Questions on beach fishing

[Gengar]

Hi All

Have been doing mainly estuary fishing but want to try my hand at beach fishing and try and catch salmon etc. After many hours of reading online and watching videos i still have a few questions.

I have a 12 foot rod with 20lb mono and 15fb flouro leader. Planning on going to north narrabeen beach around high tide near the entrance to the lagoon using a running sinker with half cut pillies on 3/0 circle hooks.

(a) any things wrong with my plan and happy to take any tips.

(b) what sinker to use? Thinking of getting a size 1 star sinker

(c) Should i still try find a gutter/rip or just where the water flows out from lagoon? I have never tried finding a guttter but spent a long time on youtube so hopefully its not too difficult to find there.

(d) Need to berley?

Thanks!

 

[slurm]

G'day mate

I fish the northern beaches pretty regularly and it's great.

Your outfit is fine for throwing pillies off the sand. I personally use gang hooks as it holds the bait a little better in my experience but the circles should be fine.

I have two large star sinkers for beach fishing which I alternate between depending on the current. One is a 42g and the other is a 56g. Your size 1 should be fine if there isn't too much current but you may need to bring something heavier as the beaches have been very turbulent the past few weeks.

Finding a gutter is ideal on the beach. Not too sure if the lagoon is running after this rain but I'd assume so. 

I have never really found a drastic increase in hook up rate when using berley at my local but then again it doesn't hurt.

North Narrabeen is generally quite busy on the weekends so just be wary of others around and use common sense. For instance,  I wouldn't be using berley with heaps of people in the water.

The boys over at Narrabeen B&T are gurus of the area so I would highly suggest heading in for a chat.

Cheers

[krause]

Your man above is on the money.

Ganghooks and whole pillies, bigger sinker, berley will get you in trouble on the Northern Beaches but if you use it make sure its washing towards where you're fishing not away from it, be mindful of surfers, the lagoon will flow out into structure but choose the best looking structure on the day and remember that very high flow areas can prove to be a real pain.

Dont fixate on a single beach either, go for a drive if youre not happy with narra

[Gengar]

Thanks guys for the responses. Seems I am on the right track. Also will swing by the Narrabeen B&T before I head out.

I am planning on taking my kid and go either at first light about 6am or evening about 8pm so hopefully that avoids most of the crowds. I will probably skip the berley.

As for how far to flick out the rod does that really depend how far the gutters are? If I cant find any gutters should I just flick it where the lagoon flows out to the ocean?

Not quite related to beaching fishing but I find that the line guides on my rods rust. Is there a way to prevent them from rusting? Would wiping the rod down be enough?

Sorry for asking so many questions but just wanted to get as prepared as I can before heading out. Thanks!

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Gengar
Typo

[slurm]

Casting distance is often misunderstood by many. Bigger casts can hurt your chances of finding the fish. A few threads similar to this one always advise that sometimes the fish can be within a few metres of shore which is often the case. I have found some of my most productive beach fishing days not needing to cast further than 10-15m. You'd be very surprised the size of some fish that come in close to feed. You want to cast into the gutters or just aside them mixing it up if you don't get a bite.

There's plenty of info available on identifying gutters both on here and on other sites so have a good read before you head out.

Beach fishing beats the life out of gear so a good rinse and wipe down with a cloth or towel at home goes a long way in ensuring longevity of your tackle.

Took a mate and I a few outings before we became confident fishing off the beach so don't beat yourself up if it seems slow at first.

Best of luck

 

 

[kingie chaser]

5 hours ago, Gengar said:

using a running sinker with half cut pillies on 3/0 circle hooks.

I dont beach fish much but I wouldnt use a running sinker as it will just tangle up your line in the current.

Generally I use a 3 hook paternoster with popper about 14 to 16 inches above it when going for salmon or mullaway.

In saying that rigs can vary depending on what your chasing. 

If your going for whiting or bream then you need to use a rig suitable for that.

[Gengar]

2 hours ago, kingie chaser said:

I dont beach fish much but I wouldnt use a running sinker as it will just tangle up your line in the current.

Generally I use a 3 hook paternoster with popper about 14 to 16 inches above it when going for salmon or mullaway.

In saying that rigs can vary depending on what your chasing. 

If your going for whiting or bream then you need to use a rig suitable for that.

Sure can use a paternoster rig. Sorry but what do you mean by a popper?

For running rig I normally have mainline to swivel to leader with sinker then hook.

For paternoster rig I normally have mainline to swivel to leader with dooper loop (to which the hook is attached) and then sinker at bottom. Thanks!

[Gengar]

3 hours ago, slurm said:

Casting distance is often misunderstood by many. Bigger casts can hurt your chances of finding the fish. A few threads similar to this one always advise that sometimes the fish can be within a few metres of shore which is often the case. I have found some of my most productive beach fishing days not needing to cast further than 10-15m. You'd be very surprised the size of some fish that come in close to feed. You want to cast into the gutters or just aside them mixing it up if you don't get a bite.

There's plenty of info available on identifying gutters both on here and on other sites so have a good read before you head out.

Beach fishing beats the life out of gear so a good rinse and wipe down with a cloth or towel at home goes a long way in ensuring longevity of your tackle.

Took a mate and I a few outings before we became confident fishing off the beach so don't beat yourself up if it seems slow at first.

Best of luck

 

 

Thanks for the tips. I think I know how to find the gutter so lets see how it goes!

[kingie chaser]

1 hour ago, Gengar said:

Sure can use a paternoster rig. Sorry but what do you mean by a popper?

For running rig I normally have mainline to swivel to leader with sinker then hook.

For paternoster rig I normally have mainline to swivel to leader with dooper loop (to which the hook is attached) and then sinker at bottom. Thanks!

[Ryder]

There is a great looking gutter at the southern part of Newport. This photo is from low tide this afternoon. There is a lot debris up on the sand from the storm and the big high tide last week, but the beach is clear and weed free!!!

[Rebel]

Hi,

When I lived at the Northern Beaches, Avalon was my favourite followed by the rocks on the other side of the Collaroy pool. Dee Why is ok , but busy.

Cheers.

[Gengar]

On 2/22/2020 at 8:35 AM, Rebel said:

Hi,

When I lived at the Northern Beaches, Avalon was my favourite followed by the rocks on the other side of the Collaroy pool. Dee Why is ok , but busy.

Cheers.

Thanks for sharing. I didnt manage to get out last weekend but should be able to this weekend. Only problem is that the high tide is at about 1am or 1pm. I could do evening or early morning but its gonna be low tide. I presume tide is more important than time of the day? If i went say 8pm would it be too dark to see where the gutters are?

[krause]

Tide makes a difference but on populated beaches I normally make a habit of evening fishing. Rock up prior to sunset so you can find a good location and set up camp. Doing so avoids a bulk of the day crowds but allows you to see where to fish. Ill then normally fish into the night until I'm bored.

Everyone has a theory on tide and generally no two people will agree. I like a high tide, but in saying that if I only fish during that time because I think its the best, then of course ill catch all my fish at high tide! It quickly becomes bias... I personally think beach fishing is structure dependent so that should be my first port of call. Buuut structure changes with tide so it quickly becomes a nightmare. My thoughts, don't fixate to hard... Get out when you can, fish "good" and "bad" times and see what works

 

[Gengar]

1 hour ago, krause said:

Tide makes a difference but on populated beaches I normally make a habit of evening fishing. Rock up prior to sunset so you can find a good location and set up camp. Doing so avoids a bulk of the day crowds but allows you to see where to fish. Ill then normally fish into the night until I'm bored.

Everyone has a theory on tide and generally no two people will agree. I like a high tide, but in saying that if I only fish during that time because I think its the best, then of course ill catch all my fish at high tide! It quickly becomes bias... I personally think beach fishing is structure dependent so that should be my first port of call. Buuut structure changes with tide so it quickly becomes a nightmare. My thoughts, don't fixate to hard... Get out when you can, fish "good" and "bad" times and see what works

 

Makes absolute sense! Gonna try and report back!

[Volitan]

My thoughts.

time of day beats time of tide. Our local beaches are shallow and the water is clear so salmon and many other species will have retreated to deeper water as soon as he sun is well up. Of course it’s best if you can coordinate both.

for salmon, always have a surf popper. Sometimes they will catch more then the pilchards, especially over the next few months. I get the occasional bream and flathead on them too, but mainly salmon and tailor.

i hate gang hooks. They are stiff and don’t present the bait nicely, and they will tend to break the bait up. I favour a 2 hook pennel rig, with the top hook smelled on at about pilchard eye level and the other hook 2 thirds of the way down the body. Use bait elastic to keep the pilchard on and the hook points facing outwards and clear of the pilchard body.

i also don’t favour gang hooks because they do too much damage to a fish you are probably going to release anyway (talking salmon here).

i prefer a running sinker rig fished loose when the wash is small but, no question, it will tangle too much if the surf gets up so I swap to a paternoster and keep it tight. I believe that if conditions allow the use of the running sinker then it outfishes the paternoster by a good margin as it presents the bait in a natural way washing backwards and forwards with the surf in co-ordination with everything else that is out there.

with the running sinker rig, always use those blue slider clip things. They mightn’t look like much, but they reduce tangles by about 80% (of that I am certain).

only use a circle hook if you are allowing the fish to run with the bait (ie not the paternoster), as the hook needs to rotate in the fishes mouth and the line needs to stream along the fishes body for them to work properly. The fish needs to swim some distance with the bait to accomplish this.

15lb trace might be a bit heavy as local fish tend to be leader-shy — but probably not a big issue really. Try something lighter if not getting results.

fish the gutters and structure wherever you can. Again, our beaches are shallow and outside of gutters and structure they are actually a fairly hostile environment for most fish species.

and most important thing, keep mobile. Try different spots till you find the fish. Even though the beach might look all the same to us, a fish sees it differently and there will only be a couple of spots on the beach where the fish are congregating, so if you are not getting results move along and try somewhere else.

[Volitan]

Forgot to mention. To find structure, you may need to visit the beach at low tide. 

Its a tradition at our local beach on the Central Coast for people to walk the beach at low tide and mark the worthwhile gutters with driftwood pushed into the sand vertically just above high tide. If the same goes on at your beach it’s a big help.

most of the YouTube videos on finding structure are made in locations where the structure is fairly easy to spot at high tide, but our beaches are shallow in close and it’s not always easy to do this. Sometimes a ‘gutter’ may only be 200mm deeper then the surrounding bottom so you won’t see it at high tide. Don’t be discouraged though, even a gradient that small is meaningful to a fish and it will still define where they swim.

[kingbonito]

If you want to get in to beach fishing you should get your self a light set up and cast metals out off the beach it’s 10x more fun and your covering loads more ground !! @Gengar

[Volitan]

42 minutes ago, kingbonito said:

If you want to get in to beach fishing you should get your self a light set up and cast metals out off the beach it’s 10x more fun and your covering loads more ground !! @Gengar

Agreed, even with bait the lighter you go the better the result, and more fun.

i find using a ‘surf rod’ around Sydney is unnecessary and not very productive.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Volitan

[Hill373737]

15 hours ago, kingbonito said:

If you want to get in to beach fishing you should get your self a light set up and cast metals out off the beach it’s 10x more fun and your covering loads more ground !! @Gengar

... and if there are no tailor around, throwing plastics on light gear can be productive off the beach, just gets expensive when there are choppers intent on removing plastic tails.

[Gengar]

Ended up going to north narrabeen on sat morning about 7am just after low tide. There were no visible gutters within casting distance but found a small deeper around where a couple other fishos were casting. Unfortunately there were too much weeds. Ended up moving around and there were some bites on the pillies but still hit weeds everytime. Called it quit after about an hour or so. Not sure if weeds is a common thing or how to avoid? Hopefully better luck next time.

Edited March 1, 2020 by Gengar