Corpusfishing.com

[OldSalty]

Some of you really old salts might remember my uncle Jarrell Baker in Flour Bluff, The Padre Island Surf Reader. When I was a kid he taught me how to go down the beach and find the best spots to start fishing. I'm 69 now and those lessons have proven very effective over the years. You can see how the near shore surf breaks around cuts or washouts between the sandbars. These hold more fish because they also hold bait. I've seen a lot of people just park and fish without knowing what the bottom looks like. Usually a waste of time and very few fish.
Another way to locate good fishing spots is to go at low tide and find those cuts to fish at an incoming tide. Every day or so the cuts change or fill in so you have to find other ones and there are many. Just my 2 cents worth.

[shallowsport]

Your information is right on. I've never had a lesson in reading the surf but I am getting better. It does take a keen eye to read the surf and my vision is still a bit blurred.
Thanks for the post!
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"I do hunt and I do fish and I do not apologize to anyone that I hunt and fish." - Norman Schwarzkopf

[Tyler]

True story Salty!
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[gkrane]

Learning to read the surf better is something I am really trying to improve on. Is this something that comes from time? Do any of you get out and walk the bars before you decide to fish at a certain spot. I haven't done this yet but I am considering it.

[Donnie]

[OldSalty]

It does take some time to see the subtle differences in the way waves break near the shore. Mustang Island and the northern part of Padre Island have shallow first guts so even the cuts between the bars or the washouts behind them can be hidden. In those areas I look at the second or even third bar wave breaks to find an area that the waves sort of flatten out a little. That can mean the cut is there and the area behind the first or second bar might be loaded with bait and gamefish. Worth a stop to find out. Just get out the long rod, stand on the first bar and heave some bait out there.

[Donnie]

[landlocked beachbum]

I get to the beach rarely anymore, but learned a lot in my surfing days, and fishing days after that. Something that few people seem to pick up on are the rips. This is especially true on the Texas coast, in the often coffee colored water. In water that is at least a little green, rips are seen as sandy/muddy fingers of water flowing out from the beach. If there's no color change, you can see the water flowing out, away from shore, faster than the surrounding water that flows out after waves comes in. There's usually a gap in the surf out from there, meaning deeper water that may be the result of the rip itself, but not always. Rips are the "buffet" of the surf, and the channels marked by the gaps in the waves are the easiest travel lanes for the predators to come to the buffet!

This is pretty good and a short read, albeit, the Texas coast usually has 3 or more sandbars going out. Still, the same principals apply.

http://teachmesurffishing.com/surf-fishing-the-structure-to-find-the-fish/

Here's a good beach reading video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlF_Hy3kNLY
_________________
Dave


"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein

[OldSalty]

Rip currents were a real bonus in my old surfing days on our coast. Easy way to get out to start surfing bigger waves. However, they are extremely dangerous when you don't have a surfboard or float of some kind. Stepping into one and falling with waders on can be a tragedy. If you find a rip, stay well to one side of it and fish it as best you can because they are an indicator of where game fish might be. Too many people die each year around the world due to rip currents because they don't know how to swim to the side of them into calmer water instead of fighting the current to get back to shore. We all have to be careful out there.

[landlocked beachbum]

You are of course correct, but the Texas coast is a pu$$y cat compared to the rips on the east or west coasts! The beach angle is so shallow, continental shelf so far out/shallow and the waves so weak that most of the rips are not much in the power and speed department. That doesn't mean it can't happen, as it surely does, it's just far less the norm down there.

Humans are no differenet than any other animal: we all (hopefully) learn from doing, and surf fishing is no exception. The problem is looking without seeing.... as in looking straight at a rip but not seeing/noticing that it's any different from the surrounding water!

Surfers have been taking advantage of the rips on the upcurrent side of jetties for decades, in areas with a strong along shore current like the coastal bend. Kinda like using a horizontal escalator that will take them out quickly without much work. The fish are very often there, right in or next to the rocks and facing into the current (towards the beach), yet almost nobody you see on a jetty wants to fish anywhere CLOSE to the rocks!
_________________
Dave


"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein

[Ma4011392]

Reading the surf is a game changer when it comes to catching more fish than the next guy. I have had a couple things that helped me with my learning curve. Took a trip with Billy Sandifer when I was just starting to surf fish and one little tidbit I picked up from his was always look up the beach 150-200yds because the anomalies in the surf were easier to spot than being right in front of them. Another thing I use to step up my game is to walk to the top of the dunes with a decent pair of binoculars when I get in an area that I know has dead end guts, breaks in bars etc. This has helped me spot a lot of good suck outs and breaks in the bars. I spotted a peninsula once from a top the dunes with about a foot water over the top of it. It came of the beach and cut off the 1st 2nd and 3rd bar in flat surf and was by far the best fishing day of my life.

[Rebecca of Sunnybrookfarm]