COVER STORY: SURF FISHING
EEING a surf rod double over as
line empties from the spool is a
sight all keen beach fishos long for.
After so many hours in preparation
and effort it’s often surreal when you finally get
that howling run. With quivering hands you
prize the rod from the holder and set the hook
to feel the weight of a good fish. Your mind
starts ticking over ... “was that a headshake?”
... and you start hoping that you’ve finally
hooked a decent jewie.
Beach fishing can be very rewarding, but it
can also be extremely frustrating. There are a lot
of obstacles to overcome when fishing the surf,
and even when the conditions are right, a lot of
hours can pass without any action. You certainly
earn every big fish you pull off the beach.
And while jewies are at the top of the hit-list,
there are plenty of other worthy “big” targets in
the surf, ranging from gummy, school and
bronze whaler sharks, oversized salmon andtailor, and (depending where you’re fishing)
even a few decent reds. These species may not
be the glamorous silver f lanked fish we’re all
after, but they still put up a good scrap off the
beach, and can help to pass the time when the
jewies are quiet.
While consistent action off the sand won’t
happen straight away, there are certainly a few
steps you can take to give yourself a better
chance. We recently returned from a beach
fishing mission here in my home state of South
Oz. Using Google Earth we managed to
pinpoint a beautiful stretch of sand, and using
these maps we weaved our way through a
labyrinth of red-earth dirt tracks before
eventually arriving at the chosen beach. And it
looked fantastic with steep sloping banks
dropping into a deep gutter running parallel to
the sand.
After setting up camp we deployed some
berley and fished for three days straight. Theberley drew in salmon on the first day, which
were iced down and used as fillet baits over the
following few days. The second day we had
some good action from both gummy sharks
and whalers. Late that night we scored our first
jewie of the trip, and then on the third day we
beached a further nine jewies ranging in size
from small guys of around 70cm up to fish just
over the metre mark. It was obvious our
persistent berleying had paid dividends.Beach Berley
Berleying from the beach is a super-effective
way of drawing larger fish into your gutter or
hole, but it’s often overlooked or done in a way
that isn’t beneficial to where you’re fishing.
Firstly, make sure it’s safe to berley off your
local beach. If there are any swimmers or
surfers in the area, move on and find a vacant
stretch of sand elsewhere or continue fishing
without berleying. The main beaches we16 | fishingworld.com.au | March 2015
Set ting up camp and fishing a chosen beach for a few
days makes a lot of sense, especially when you are
planning on berleying.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Not all beach jewies are monsters.
Jamie admires a schoolie before release.S