F_W_2015_03_

a gutter as this has been covered thoroughly in

the past – needless to say, pick your water

carefully as this is a crucial decision.

We aim to pick a body of water running

parallel to the beach with exit points through

the surf. Having reef nearby is a good inroad

for predatory species to enter or exit a gutter,

so long as the reef isn’t going to come into play

when you’re hooked up to a good fish.

Tides

Bear in mind a gutter will look very different

on the peak of high tide than it does when the

tide approaches low water. If you’re going to be

stationed in the one spot for a prolonged

period, ie, more than just one tide, spend the

time to find stretch of beach that will hopefully

be fishable even during the low water period.

The couple of hours leading up to the peak

of high tide and the following couple of hours

after the tide turns have always been considered

the best time to hit the beach for jewies. But

there’s just as much likelihood of beaching a

good fish during low tide if your gutter still

retains enough depth.

Here in SA we get a lot of low-water periods

around dawn and dusk during the summer

months (peak jewie time in our area), so it

means we still fish through low tide. We’ve

picked up quite a few good fish on the dead of

low tide, too. The swell usually lulls as the tide

bottoms out, meaning there’s less side current

to contend with. Jewies aren’t a fan of strong

currents and you’ll find the fish either not

entering the gutter or choosing not to feed

when the current is ripping.

Weather

Weather conditions play a big factor in

successful beach fishing. Some locations fish

better when there’s some onshore wind creating

more chop and white water, but when fishing

from high-energy beaches, ie, the stretches of

sand that collect consistent swell and boast good

gutter and bank formation, you don’t want to be

lobbing big baits into a stiff head wind.

It’s a lot easier fishing these beaches with low

winds, or even better with offshore winds. It’s

pretty hard maintaining a tight connection to

your bait when a blustery head or side wind is

working against you and forming a big belly of

line. Reducing the diameter of your mainline

can help, but then you’re compromised if you

hook a solid jewie – it’s a catch 22.

Swell

The size of the swell will also dictate how easy

it’s going to be to fish the beach and also how

effective your berley will be. A little bit of swell

is a good thing, especially for jewies. Having a

mid sized swell around the 1.5m mark generally

creates reasonable fishing conditions.

Once the swell has been up for a couple of

days, though, it invariably draws clumps of

f loating weed into the surf – the beach fisho’s

enemy. There’s nothing else that can spoil a

beach fishing mission quicker than 30kg

clumps of kelp. You can persist and fish around

the weed if you don’t mind re-casting regularly,

but having large clumps wrapped around your

mainline will eventually create a weak point.

Also with the larger swell the side current

kicks up a knot or two, making it hard for a

large bait to hold ground, and this current will

also be dispersing and diluting your berley very

quickly. If the swell is pumping we normally

fish with smaller baits and persist for as long as

we can. It’s generally hard going, though.

On the other end of the spectrum, periods of

f lat swell can be just as hard for fishing, often

keeping the larger jew outside of the gutter

where there’s more cover. During periods of

small swell the berley hangs in the gutter well,

and can be very effective when targeting sharks

from the surf.

Change

Being on a beach with a change approaching

and the barometer falling can f lick a feeding

switch for jew. We’ve beached some nice fish

just as dark storm clouds started to roll in

from the west. And quite often, the more

intense the approaching change is, the hotter

the bite can be. Obviously site selection is still

just as important, but if there’s fish in the

area, they have a definite feeding response at

this time. We used to see it in the fish

hatchery I used to work at; the broodstock

mulloway would feed more aggressively as a

change was approaching.

Day or Night

It’s possible to pull big fish off the beach at

any time during the day or night. Water

depth and availability of food are the biggest

factors drawing predatory fish into near-

shore gutters. If there’s enough depth and

there’s baitfish or crabs within the gutter or

fishingworld.com.au | March 2015 | 19

Depending on local
regulations, quad
bikes can make
accessing remote
stretches of sand
much easier.
RIGHT: Various baits
work when targeting
big fish from the
beach. As always,
fresh is best. Fillets,
livebaits and strip
baits are all worth
trying.