Surf Fishing...tip or hints?

[martrix]

Yello, heading down the beach for a few days of Surf fishing. Got any tips for success? Maybe a good rig combo?

promise I'll post a pic if I catch anything...............and no, I wont be catching a cold. I already caught that

[Stuart]

Not sure what sort of currents you are expecting - I did a lot of surfcasting off the wild west coast of Auckland, and they were pretty strong there. To compensate, I used a heavy sinker with wires that dug into the sand. This was on the end of the main line, with a 3 way swivel about 1- 1.5 ft above it. The bait line was attached to this, so it floated free while the sinker dug hard into the sand, and kept the line to the rod taut. You still feel strikes easy, and the sinker pulls free of the sand easily to fight. The bait was on 2x 5/0 razor sharp hooks (pilchard) and cotton was wrapped around and around the pilchard to keep it intact in the surf. It is a very oily fish/bait, so great for attracting the biggies in, but it is very soft. To make them a bit more resiliant, I'd lay them in an icecream tub, then a layer of salt, then another layer of pilchard, another layer of salt. This is done a day or two before the trip.

Just before casting, they were dunked in a burley mix which was very thick & sticky.

The rod is a 15' 3 piece fibreglass.

[SawDustSniffer]

if the winds behind you ,use a kite to take your rig right out

[black1]

use a three or four gang hook and bait with mulies with the head towards thre rod. good for tailor

[Shedhand]

take beer, a 50mm pvc pipe about 1.5m long with a 600mm bevel cut (to drive into the sand and put you rod butt in), a comfy chair, head mounted radio for the cricket, no women, no kids, an eski for the fish, some aniseed to dip the bait in and some polarised sunny's. (no bananas - bad for fishing)
Good luck.

[bsrlee]

If you want to really hurl a line out, get some of the old style plastic practice golf balls - the hollow ones with a pattern of big holes. You attach this to your rig with a spring clip (like the ones on steel traces). To use it, you just shove it into the damp sand with your foot until it fills up, then wind up & swing. It adds considerable mass to the throw and should get you out there, even in the face of strong wind. When it hits the water the sand falls out & the plastic ball is only marginally bouyant - if you fit a sinker as well it will sink, or leave the sinker off & it will stay near the top for surface feeders, or keep you out of off shore rocks.

If you have trouble keeping the bait on the hook, or it keeps sliding down on a 1 hook rig, try putting a very small hook loose on the line just above the main hook, then jab it into the bait when it is threaded on - this will stop it sliding down.

If you don't already have a surf rig, one of the off the shelf deals from K-Mart is pretty good value for occasional use - they have them marked with what they are intended for - a Light/Medium Surf & Estuary setup is pretty versatile.

If you are fishing in NSW, you have to buy a licence, either for a few days or an annual licence. It used to be fresh water only, that was abolished, then the Govt. decided they wanted more money, so they made it compulsory for fresh & salt. B$%^&&*ds

[JDarvall]

take beer, a 50mm pvc pipe about 1.5m long with a 600mm bevel cut (to drive into the sand and put you rod butt in), a comfy chair, head mounted radio for the cricket, no women, no kids, an eski for the fish, some aniseed to dip the bait in and some polarised sunny's. (no bananas - bad for fishing)
Good luck.

Agree entirely sheddy. Plenty of beer.......plenty of comforts to stop you from thinking about catching nothing.

The eskys probably going to be for the beer and food. Not fish. Gota be realistic. Unless you like taking home undersized whiting.

Big straw hat, turned up collar..... hidden in a womans weekly .....but if you do that, you'll have to sit right up against something, so nobody can get behind you....or.....

plant yourself near the yellow flags and have a day of perving on the topless ladies (definetly need dark glasses...wrap around...so you can perve out the corner of your eye, but keep your head forward.uno)

Try and find a nudist beach somewhere. They always seem to be good fishing spots.

[Iain]

Get a tide chart, stand on a sand dune first and look for a trough.
Seen lots of surf fisherpersons attempting to toss a lump of lead halfway across Bass Straight when all the action is 10 feet in front of them.
Fish the incoming tide, get a bottle of Rid to fend off the mossies etc, use something other than squid, hangs on well but fish prefer something else.
Target the fish with the right rig, usually spelt out on a tide chart, free at local fishing shops.
Something to get the hook out without losing fingers, leatherjackets and even toad fish have a nasty bite, get a barracuda (couta) and see how much flesh they can remove with one bite (my idiot brother can attest to this).
Use a swivel and have some rigs made up to attach to this, with a lighter breaking strain line than whats on the reel, when you do get broken off the swivel will remain and you just clip on a new rig.

[Bleedin Thumb]

Hi Matrix,
It depends on what your targeting and the prevailing conditions. At the moment there are plenty of monster whiting running in good numbers as they are very late. If your happy with them you only need a 10 or 11ft rod.
Look for good gutters at low tide and use live beach or blood worm or yabbies with light line on the incoming tide. Frozen bait = no fish.
If the current is running strong use a star sinker and whiting love anything red ie red wool on your swivel and red beads on your trace.

If you would rather go for pelargic's go the gang hooks and pillies and some mind altering substances to relieve the boredom