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The summer is coming, so lets go fish Vilano Beach!
The summer is a testing
time for fishing the beach! The weather is never predictable,
the beach even less so. No reason to give up! Just because
it is difficult is no reason to default. In fact, the
more difficult it is, the more rewarding it will be.
So let us begin. Where does one fish?
"The beach" you say. Ok, which 50 yards of
the 25 miles of beach between St Augustine Inlet and
the St Johns River do you want to fish?
Yep, the secret of fishing the beach
is not in the fishing, it is in the walking! Walking
the beach at low tide, finding out the lie of the sea
bottom is the most important step in the fishing process.
This is good, because it gives us the credibility to
call fishing a sport and not just a recreation!
So what are we looking for during the
low tide walk? Just watch the waves. Usually what you
see are the waves breaking a few yards out, then the
resultant foamy waves reform and rebreak closer to the
shore. Where it first breaks is a sand bar, where it
reforms is a slough (pronounced slew}. If you were to
walk out from the beach you would first struggle through
the deeper water of the slough then climb up onto the
bar where the water can be only inches deep.
So once you have identified the sandbars,
the big break is finding the gaps in the sandbar, the
spots where the fish will find the deeper water and
follow the rising tide into the sloughs. You find these
when the waves do not break out at the bar but roll
all the way in to the beach. When you find it, mark
it carefully with a beach landmark. It is incredible
how different it will look at high tide! Once you identify
the gap, plan to fish in the gap itself and just inside
the sandbar on either side of the gap.
Ok! We are halfway there with the where,
now what about the when? My experience is the two hours
before and after first and last light are the most consistent
fishing of the day, while the two hours before and two
hours after high tide are the most productive choice
of tide. So, put the two together, you get an early
morning high tide (that also means an evening high in
most places) as the best time.
(If you are planning your vacation,
how do you know when the tides will be? Actually, it's
not that difficult, early morning and evening high tides
will normally follow the full and new moons, and every
calendar has those dates marked!)
In the three months of summer you will
find whiting, pompano, bluefish, Spanish mackerel, kingfish,
trout, flounder, redfish, and drum. You will also find
shark, skate, catfish and crabs. It will be a race who
will get your bait first, but whichever wins, it will
be fun, and you will be the final winner! Get out there
and fish.
1howto.com
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