Reading the water

The following was written by a fellow surf fisherman "Poppy," who frequents the Delmarva peninsula.

Why is this important? If what lies below the surf waters was thoroughly understood and embraced, the more success the surf fisherman would have at catching fish! Sounds simple, but truth is reading the water is difficult.

So what is below the surf waters? Well, certainly there are fish, we already know this...and for many of us that is all that needs to be known. So, for those so inclined, I guess reading the water is not a prerequisite to successfully catching fish. There is some truth in this, a surf fisherman can totally disregard what the water is telling him, make a cast, and put a fish on the beach, it happens all the time. Why? Because the fisherman more than likely, but unknowingly, had put his offering into the surf where there happened to be a fish. The question though is why was that fish there? Was it by random chance that the fish happened to be swimming by at that exact moment? Well yes maybe, but the fish may have very well been there for other reasons. One of those reasons is what I will call the physical environment or "structure" of the surf waters or more precisely the structure of the sandy bottom of the surf waters that attracts game fish.

I'll address bottom fishing w/ bait along the sandy beaches of the the DelMarVa coast. Fishing the inlets, rock groins, piers and backwaters of the DelMarVa peninsula is another subject all unto itself.

Our beaches for all intended purposes are typically very flat w/ a gentle incline. This beach structure is rather common up and down the east coast and is deceptively uninteresting at first glance. The following is a simplistic drawing of a cross section of the beach and surf.

Note, there are "generally" 2 main sandbars that run parallel to the beach. In the drawing they are labeled the outer and near shore sandbars. Also, there are "generally" 2 main sloughs (troughs) that too run parallel to the beach. The location of sandbars is revealed above the surf waters where waves initially crest and rollover, these crashing waves are called "breakers." The outer sandbar of course has larger breakers, while the near shore sandbar breakers are smaller. The sloughs also are revealed above the waters where there are little to no breakers. The next image is a picture of a typical looking surf on the DelMarVa coast.

The above picture I took not for the waves but something else, let's see if any of you sharpies can identify what is going on.

Now that this basic surf structure is understood visually the next step is easy. Fish will frequent the sloughs in the surf, especially Stripers. They like to get as low as possible w/ their bellies virtually touching the sand as they cruise the sloughs. It is here they are most comfortable plus the slough gives them a certain degree of stealth as they move about looking for food. So, placing your offerings in the slough would be optimal as shown in the next image.

A less viable option would be to place the offering on the sandbar. If the slough does not produce fish I would considered placing the offering on the sandbar, but only during high tide and not at all on the near shore sandbar at low tide. The water would just be too skinny at that time and location.