Surfcasting - secrets for success

Setting up for success

Keeping an eagle eye on your fishing rod is fundamental to surfcasting success, says Wellington-based beach fisher Andy Macleod.

Fishing your rod spikes close together allows you to switch your attentions quickly if the other rod receives fish interest.

Just as fly and soft-plastic fishers watch their line with the upmost attention, advanced surfcasters keep their eyes trained on their rod tips, alert for just the subtlest movements indicating possible fish interest. Consequently, setting yourself up on the beach so you can easily spot such interest and get quickly into position to strike can significantly improve your surfcasting catch rate.

These days every surfcaster worth his salt fishes with two rods, using the downtime between bites and baiting-up to get a second rod working, thereby doubling the chances of success.

Breakout sinkers are another non-negotiable in contemporary surfcasting in this country (in most circumstances, anyway), allowing a perceptible bend to be placed in your rods, which massively aids in bite detection.

On arrival at the beach, positioning yourself relative to your rod spikes is one of the first tasks to carry out. To some degree this is dictated by the conditions (more about that shortly), but all things being equal, my approach is as follows…

Get close to the water

Over the course of a long surfcasting session you will do a lot of walking back and forth between your sitting position, the rod spikes, and the water’s edge (casting position).

For example, fishing two rods and changing baits every 15 minutes will see you walk out to cast 40 times over a five-hour session. It doesn’t matter whether these are steep, gravelly beaches (no wading required) or hard, flat beaches (wading required), this tends to be tiring work. So it makes sense to avoid any unnecessary effort – after all, you are there to fish, not take part in a cross-fit class. Consequently, with this in mind, set up as close to the water’s edge as is safely possible. I love nothing better than surfcasting in calm seas with the water lapping at the shore – not only does this usually mean clean water and good fishing, but much less work as well!

Set up at 45° to your rods

I position myself with a good view of my rods, which is best achieved at about 45° from my sitting position.

This enables me to see the profile of my rods – notably the bend, which has been set against the breakout sinker. By comparison, sitting directly behind the rods means they appear more or less in a vertical position, regardless of what’s going on at the business end. And whilst our eyes do become well trained at spotting a rod with slack line, it still pays to make life as easy as possible – especially considering how quickly a fish can strike and reject a bait.

I vividly remember watching a fellow surfcaster in the Wairarapa standing directly behind his rod whilst a kahawai took his bait and then jumped around enthusiastically on the end of slack line. But he had no idea what was going on, because from where he was standing his rod had not obviously moved.

Make it easy on your eyes

A lot of my surfcasting is done in the dark or during low-light periods.

I tape the top one-third of my rods with white ‘lumo tape’ that lights up like a Christmas tree under my headlamp’s beam, even at long distances. I augment this with disposable ‘lumo tubes’ clipped onto my rod tip. With these things I probably have a better idea of what’s going on in the pitch black than I do in broad daylight!

Before dark, particularly in hazy or fading light conditions, I position myself where I can get the best view of my rod’s profiles, taking care to keep the sun out of my eyes and to view them against a helpful background (e.g. against a light-filled horizon rather than a dark-green forest).

Stay close to your rods

Once you have detected a bite, it makes sense to get to your rod as quickly as possible.

That said, I don’t generally sit directly underneath my rods because it can become quite uncomfortable craning my neck all night looking up at my 4.3m (14’) surf rod’s tip. Rather, I set myself up about 10-15m away, where I can work away baiting traces and comfortably glance up at the rods. Most serious surfcasters I know do the same, and if 10m sprints were introduced as an Olympic sport, I reckon a Kiwi surfcaster would win the first gold medal. It’s amazing how fast they can grab their rods when the fish are biting!

Staying close to your rods, again, is easier to do when the conditions are calm. Whilst it always makes sense to keep your rod spikes close to the water, even in the wash, your sitting position needs to be high, dry and safe at all times. If fishing from the back of a vehicle, as I often do, it stands to reason that you need to keep it clear of the water, too. Because of the extra comfort and convenience offered by fishing from a vehicle, especially during extended or overnight sessions, this is the one time when I will compromise a little and fish further away from my rods (up to 30m or so), though always with a good view of their profile.

Keep your rod spikes close together

Whenever possible, it also makes sense to keep your rod spikes close together.

Over the course of a fishing session you spend a lot of time mucking around the general position of your rod spikes – clipping on new traces, setting rods, casting and retrieving etc – so it is preferable to be within spitting distance of both rods should one go off unexpectedly. Many times I have been retrieving or resetting one rod, only for a fish to strike the other.

Keeping your rod spikes close together is much easier in calm conditions, when there is little current and minimal chance of lines tangling. When it is calm, it’s possible to cast out at different angles without fear of your line dragging in the surf. By contrast, heavy seas may require you to fish the two rods 20m or more apart to prevent tangling and ensure your lines are presented at 90° to the oncoming waves.

As a final point, I recommend clearing the path between your sitting position and rod spikes of any debris such as drift wood and seaweed – this is a much beaten track over the course of a session, and it is very easy to trip over something in the rush to get to a bending rod.

These are things that matter to me when setting myself up for a serious surfcasting session. Some of them may seem pedantic, but a saying amongst my serious surfcasting mates is to ‘value the bite’. What we mean by this is that fish can be hard won when fishing from the shore, so you should do everything in your power to take the chances presented. Serious surfcasters are expert at completing basic tasks (cottoning baits, tying knots) with their eyes trained on their rod tips, and over many hours of fishing they don’t let their eyes leave their rod tips for more than a few moments at a time. After weekend-long surfcasting trips, I have often fallen into a deep slumber broken only by dreams of my surf rod bending over at right angles, causing me to spring bolt upright in bed!

Setting up on the beach so you can properly observe your rods and get to them quickly is amongst the most important things you can do. It’s all very well travelling to far-flung locations and using the freshest bait, but sometimes if you don’t strike at the right time you may as well be at the wharf using dirty old squid from the local garage. This is particularly the case when seeking species such as moki and snapper, which are expert at throwing the hook if given half a chance.