A Spin on the Sand

[Green Hornet]

Its been ages since I last had a fish due to damaging the ligaments around my ankle late last year. Now recovered enough to walk okay and going stir crazy from lockdown, I decided to hit the beach for a spin session.

I’d never fished this beach before and things looked promising, when first cast I landed a salmon around 40cm which I quickly released. Must have been a fluke because I walked the whole 1.3km of that beach casting into every likely spot without so much as a bump, until I got to the very end where I had a hit but no hook up.

On the way back I couldn’t resist another cast around the edge of the best looking hole and hooked up almost immediately. A short fight and a 48cm tailor was mine. Next cast, same thing but this time a 42cm salmon hit the sand, followed by another 48cm tailor the cast after that.

Things went quiet after then and with 3 fish from 3 casts in the bucket, I was happy and called it a day, back home in time for playlunch.

By the way, in regards to another post. I do a hell of a lot of this type of fishing and for me, braid is the only way to go. I use a quality PE 1.5, 8 carrier braid and honestly haven’t had a wind knot or line/ knot failure in at least 5 years. There’s just no place for mono when it comes to lurecasting. If you’re having problems its from poor line management, not the braid itself as long its not cheap stuff. Mono does have its place when it comes time for soaking a bait.

[Rebel]

Mono forever. Great report.

[noelm]

There's been a lot of Tailor around this year, and decent size too, can't beat a simple days fishing can you? 5 minutes with the hose when you get back and you're done.

[Yowie]

Couple of nice sized tailor. Still like mono, especially as I use a hand line quite a bit.

[kingie chaser]

Nice work GH but doesn't look like any wind any wind off that beach 

Each to their own on gear selection.

What if you want to use the same rod & go from lure to baits with a paternoster & the winds blowing 20kph into your face?

 

[slurm]

Great Report mate. Stoked to see that the ankle held up for a session! Heres to many more

[Leon C]

Nice catch. Here's a question I've been pondering lately. Do you take an esky or cooler bag when walking the beach like this, with the intent of catching a feed?

[masterfisho7]

Well done on the tailor nice report and great to see you back at fishing GH

[noelm]

7 hours ago, Leon C said:

Nice catch. Here's a question I've been pondering lately. Do you take an esky or cooler bag when walking the beach like this, with the intent of catching a feed?

I just take a bucket, it gets used as a seat, esky, tackle box, kill tank, most beach trips (for me) are early morning, late afternoon, so not too hot, and are not really long trips.

[kingie chaser]

8 hours ago, Leon C said:

Nice catch. Here's a question I've been pondering lately. Do you take an esky or cooler bag when walking the beach like this, with the intent of catching a feed?

Might be a bit hard on the sand but there are some great DIY eskies out there.

If you do a lot of land based fishing & depending on location I recon I would be doing something like this to.

Edited May 7, 2020 by kingie chaser

[Green Hornet]

11 hours ago, kingie chaser said:

Nice work GH but doesn't look like any wind any wind off that beach 

Each to their own on gear selection.

What if you want to use the same rod & go from lure to baits with a paternoster & the winds blowing 20kph into your face?

 

When I fish like this, I travel light and stay mobile. A light backpack with a box of lures and a few other essentials, along with a bucket for the fish. I don't carry bait or any tackle for bait fishing.

Being semi retired I can carefully choose my days and avoid adverse conditions like you mention.

If I want to soak a bait, the Alvey outfit, loaded with low stretch mono comes out to play.

[noelm]

Pretty similar for me, I am usually doing one or the other, and if bait fishing, I only use worms, so there's not much involved, now and then I might have a bait fish for Tailor, but that's probably 3 times a year. Spinning I take an old fashioned fish looking metal lure, and one spare, that's it, I walk over the road, start spinning, and move along a bit until I have gone maybe a few hundred metres up the beach, then turn around and start walking/spinning back home, and that's it, might get a couple of fish, usually get bugger all, but I like doing it.

[Green Hornet]

8 hours ago, Leon C said:

Nice catch. Here's a question I've been pondering lately. Do you take an esky or cooler bag when walking the beach like this, with the intent of catching a feed?

I carry a largish tradie type bucket with me along with a calico bag about the size of a pillowcase. The fish in my photo are laying on the bag.

When I locate the fish I fill the bucket with water, cut the fish's throat to bleed and stick them in the bucket head down. I'll wet the pillowcase and drape it over the top of the bucket and fish to keep the sun off them. I also like to gut the fish within ten minutes of capture.

Fishing isolated beaches, I'm quite happy to walk and cast two or three hundred metres from the bucket to find more fish if necessary. 

At the end of the day, I empty most of the water from the bucket, place the fish in the calico bag to keep them moist and cool until I get home where I fillet and skin them. Rarely do I travel more than 30 minutes to a beach, so the fish are still in good condition when they hit the fridge.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Green Hornet
Pic added

[Leon C]

1 hour ago, Green Hornet said:

I carry a largish tradie type bucket with me along with a calico bag about the size of a pillowcase. The fish in my photo are laying on the bag.

When I locate the fish I fill the bucket with water, cut the fish's throat to bleed and stick them in the bucket head down. I'll wet the pillowcase and drape it over the top of the bucket and fish to keep the sun off them. I also like to gut the fish within ten minutes of capture.

Fishing isolated beaches, I'm quite happy to walk and cast two or three hundred metres from the bucket to find more fish if necessary. 

At the end of the day, I empty most of the water from the bucket, place the fish in the calico bag to keep them moist and cool until I get home where I fillet and skin them. Rarely do I travel more than 30 minutes to a beach, so the fish are still in good condition when they hit the fridge.

Sounds like a good approach. The key seems to be to fish beaches without many people and their dogs, so you don't have to keep everything about your person.

[noelm]

Yep, most beaches are not busy at daylight and just before dark, and my beach is not busy at all except for summer, so leaving my bucket on the sand is not an issue, even if some fool took it, it wouldn't be a huge loss, a free bucket, a small plastic container (maybe $3) and about $2 worth of "tackle" I have never had anyone even look like they might pinch it, at times some might walk up and have a look to see if I have caught anything, but that's about it.

[JonD]

Good to see the fish are far and wide, had another fish after fish session to your south yesterday. I'm loving how little work is involved in comparison to taking the boat out.

 

By the way, my son was constantly getting wind knots so I bought him some sufix 131 and he still got knots. After watching his style closely, I noticed he has far less line out at the start of the cast. I got him to drop his lure back to his first rod guide closest to the reel and cast from there and he hasn't had a knot since. So it's often not the braid but more to do with casting style.

Edited May 7, 2020 by JonD

[Green Hornet]

I do much the same Jon. Hang the lure somewhere around the stripper guide and a full backswing, pendulum cast. After the lure hits the water, I always pull a couple of inches of line off against the drag to ensure it isn't caught up over the spool lip or loose and going to leave one of those ugly,  loose loops on the spool that can cause wind knots.

Reading one of your posts elsewhere, I googled Sufix 131 and it looks the goods. Pity it only seems to come in 150 and 300m spools as my reel takes 200m of PE 1.5 to fill it perfectly.

First time I've ever fished this beach as my usual is locked down in a National Park 'till the end of the month. Promising results for first attempt, itching to get my lure in front of a few of those monsters like you've been beaching lately.