It is Summer!

The summer is a testing time for fishing the beach! the weather is never predictable, and the beach even less so. No reason to give up! Just because it is difficult is no reason to default. In fact, because it is difficult, it is more rewarding.

So let us begin. Where do you fish? "The beach," you say. Ok, which 50 yards of the 25 miles of beach between St Augustine Inlet and Mayport 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 in the low tide walk. Just watch the waves. In most cases what you see is the waves breaking a few yards out, then the foamy wave reforms and re-breaks closer to the shore. Where it first breaks is a sand bar, where it re-forms is a slough (pronounced slew}. If you walk out from the beach you would first struggle through the deeper water of the slough then climb up onto the bar.

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, and the best fishing is two hours before and two hours after high tide. So, put the two together, and 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 as to who will get your bait first, but whichever wins, it will be fun, and you will be the final winner!