First time beach fisherman in dismay

[juicy233]

Hi All, I've been in Hat Head for 4 days and have been fishing the beach and creek and have found relative success with pulling up a few flathead and bream in the creek, however I spent 6 hours today (and probably another 6 over the other days) hunting these gutter things I'd heard about online and any species of fish on the beach just to end the days exhausted and even more confused about how to fish a beach. I was just wondering if anyone has any tips about finding these gutters, all the articles I've read and people I've spoken to have said if you find the gutter, you find the fish but I've been fishing in spots I've thought to be a gutter and coming up blank. I've used a combination of soft plastic paddletails, grubs, divers, small metals, bigger metals and different baits such as pilchards, chicken and live yabbies. If anyone has any tips on locating gutters and fishing them or can point me to some useful articles about beach fishing (I've found the search tool on this site a bit funny) it would be greatly appreciated and would make my week an awesome week of fishing. 

 

I've taken a picture of the most promising spot I've found, do you think any of these spots on the blue or red arrows might be a gutter, hole or rip that would hold fish, the spots seem to have less waves and no whitewash

 

[slowjigger]

Possibly. It's very calm though. They might be rather shallow without significant wave action and water movement. You might do better just casting pass the break. PS: I have never done much good with lures off the beach. 

Edited July 8 by slowjigger

[linewetter]

Roger Osbourne on YouTube has been a great beach fishing resource for me.  I haven't had much success still but watching his vids has taught me a thing or two.  

[juicy233]

Yeah I've found bait to be more reliable everywhere, I'm having lots of trouble casting past the break as my casting method is not very refined and I've just got a stubby 7'6 rod

[Ryder]

You could try beach worms or pipis. Fish as light as possible and you should find dart and bream.

 

[juicy233]

I'll grab some beach worms tomorrow, my dad says he's a 'master' of pulling up beach worms and see how that goes.

Also just wondering if anyone had any fishing charter recommendations out of south west rocks.

[slothparade]

id be going in the wash next to the red arrow. 8 lbs mono with a ball sinker and a 2/0 circle hook with pippi or beach worm

[juicy233]

 

10 hours ago, slothparade said:

id be going in the wash next to the red arrow. 8 lbs mono with a ball sinker and a 2/0 circle hook with pippi or beach worm

Silly question, do you mean to the right or the left of the wash?

[slothparade]

27 minutes ago, juicy233 said:

 

Silly question, do you mean to the right or the left of the wash?

Right in the middle of the wash. That's where you usually get large bream. We recently had a trip and caught 11 bream that were all around the 36cm mark. Just fished the wash, about 1m in from the sand bar with a running ball sinker and a 2/0 hook 

[sashkello]

Flat beach is quite hard / impossible to read, that looks like a tiny sandbar literally 5 meters from the shore, and unlikely to signify any fish presence. In such situations you don't need a heavy beach outfit (or rather, if you've already brought it, just set it up in a random spot and check whether something hooks itself up). Take a lighter rod and cast while walking along the shore. Don't cast very far, literally 10-20m there'll be whiting patrolling the beach - they will take worms or yabbies within seconds if they're around. Same for bream really, maybe a little farther out... If you're into soft plastics, rarely you see such good conditions to fish with them on the beach - use this opportunity to play with some paddletails and land a nice flathead. Just don't keep casting in the same spot - 4-5 casts in all directions, move 30 meters, repeat etc. Flathead don't move around, you need to find them.

Also, if you can't see any structure, ends of beaches have structure by definition, so just go to the end if there's rocky headland or something and set up your rod there. Next to the rocks is where lots of different fish congregate.

Edited July 8 by sashkello

[james Cutler]

Mate I go beach fishing all the time. You need a 12ft rod for beach fishing. 10ft the smallest. I use 12lb Mono with a ball sinker & circle hooks. If the ocean has big swells change to a star sinker. Always use SCENT on your bait & lures

[sashkello]

You absolutely do not need a 12ft rod for beach fishing. Whiting and sometimes flathead can be found like 10 meters off shore. Just don't go out in 2m+ waves. Below Roger is fishing exactly in conditions like shown in the original photo with a 7ft rod. I see people targeting whiting in any kind of conditions casting in the wash even when waves are quite a bit higher.

 

Saying that, the whole point of going to the beach for me is targeting bigger fish like salmon, mulloway etc. For them, you definitely need a big rod  Whiting & bream can be targeted in estuaries and it's a much more pleasant experience, without sand all over your gear and freak waves soaking you over.

Edited July 8 by sashkello

[mrsswordfisherman]

Good video there @sashkello

Thanks for sharing that. 

[juicy233]

3 hours ago, sashkello said:

You absolutely do not need a 12ft rod for beach fishing. Whiting and sometimes flathead can be found like 10 meters off shore. Just don't go out in 2m+ waves. Below Roger is fishing exactly in conditions like shown in the original photo with a 7ft rod. I see people targeting whiting in any kind of conditions casting in the wash even when waves are quite a bit higher.

 

Saying that, the whole point of going to the beach for me is targeting bigger fish like salmon, mulloway etc. For them, you definitely need a big rod  Whiting & bream can be targeted in estuaries and it's a much more pleasant experience, without sand all over your gear and freak waves soaking you over.

Roger Osborne was a great suggestion, I've watched a few of his videos about beach fishing tips and some others and he knows his stuff. Thanks for all the tips @sashkelloI'm stuck on a family sightseeing tour of the mid north coast right now but as soon as we get back to hat head I'll go out for an afternoon beach fish and maybe get some whiting and bream. I think I gotta move around more like you've said for the flathead I've kinda just been sitting in 1 spot.

Edited July 9 by juicy233

[james Cutler]

@sashkello Well I must be doing something wrong. I have used a 12ft rod on the beach for over 20 years. Never had a problem catching fish. Just ask them.