Articles Archive:

Beach Break
by Ken Abrames

The surf is a fascinating place to fish for many fishermen. It is a raw place, an unforgiving place, a place where nature's power is not hidden or disguised. It has many faces and they change. The surf has many personalities, and the very best surf fishermen accept this and would not have it any other way. It is as Hemmingway said; "A Movable Feast", all are invited, all are welcome, but there is no red carpet leading to a banquet table. There are times when the fishing is easy, when the red carpet is unfurled, and the table is visible to everyone and everyone who comes is filled to overflowing. This passes quickly and those who know only this face and celebrate it to the exclusion of all the others never taste the sweetness of discovering the full and hidden tables. Only those who choose to be the very best surf fishermen even ponder where they may be.

There are some obvious facts about surf fishing that are never written about in fly fishing magazines.
The first of which is that certain surf fishermen who fish with conventional tackle catch a lot of big fish.
The question not to ask is "Why"? For the simple reason that the question "Why"? never leads to a certainty of action. It just leads to more and more qualification. It is a circle that leads back to inaction and more questions. What did he do to catch that particular fish? That is a question that has an answer. How did he catch that particular fish? There is an answer to that one, too. Where did he catch that fish? And, when did he catch it. How, what, where, when and who are answerable questions. The person who has these answers is the person you must find. You can locate him by becoming aware of the difference between those who catch big fish and those who do not. They are found in different places.

Those who do not catch big fish are often found in parking lots and where blitzes are occurring. They are found where there are small fish to be caught in large numbers. They are the folks who tell you that they caught 253 bass in two hours or one every 28.45 seconds, but there are not any big fish around anymore because everybody knows that.
They are the people who drop famous people's names to give credibility to what they say. They mean well and they are always there in the parking lots and where the blitzes occur and they always will be. They are the ninety percent of the fishermen who catch the little stripers 100% of the time. They fish for little fish in little fish places with tackle designed for little fish and little fish flies with little fish tactics and listen to other little fish fishermen complain about the lack of big fish and hope for big ones but never change their way of fishing. You won't find the big fish guy you are looking for here. You may see his vehicle every once in a while in a parking lot but that won't mean anything to you, and he may be at a blitz or two if the fish are big, but you won't be able to recognize him until you change your fishing routines from those which coincide with the little fish fishermen to something totally different. If you want to learn what he knows you must meet him. It is that simple.

More than likely he won't be an exclusive fly fisherman. If you have a problem with that then you have the problem. He doesn't care how you fish. He just cares about how he fishes, and that is what you want to learn. Life is too short to be pretentious. Good fishermen like to share what they have learned. The older they get, the more they want to be able to pass on what they have worked so hard to learn. Don't be concerned about him not wanting to share. He will want to, but he will only share if he believes that you are serious. His time is too valuable to him to waste on your curiosity alone. You are going to have to prove yourself. This is old-fashioned man culture, not modern do your own thing culture. He catches big fish. You don't. You do what he tells you. You do, too. Do your own thing. You don't. It's pretty straightforward.

He might smoke; he might not talk a lot. He might remind you of everything you don't like about your father and you won't know why. The little fish fishermen are always there to fall back on. It's a choice, comfort or self-control, magazine article fiction or the real thing.
He may know a lot about fly- fishing, but he might not let you know that he does right away. He might talk with you for a year, then show up where you are fishing, ask how you are doing and then leave. Develop patience and there will come a day when he tells you to meet him someplace at a certain time. Be there and don't try to impress him. You already have. Is it worth it? Not for most; perhaps it is for you.

If you are fortunate enough to get to know a fisherman like this make the most of your time with him. Leave your theories at home and learn his. You can always go home and pick yours up later. If he is a spin fisherman, your casting stroke won't impress him in the least; often he won't cast half as far as you do. Sometimes he will cast three times as far as you can and you will then realize that casting with a fly rod has limitations. If you want to fly fish when you are with him, he will show you how he fishes close. You will be surprised by how slow and precisely he fishes. How few casts he makes and how often he changes sizes and colors on certain days and nights, and how few changes he makes on others.

He won't teach you, he will fish with you. That should be enough. You will have to take care of the learning part. He will be interested in your flies and how you fish them. He will fish in places that your tackle is not suited for. The next time you fish with him, there it will be. That is how you will learn.
He will tell you stories about particular fish from time to time. When he does, listen without interrupting.
If he tells you the same story again at a different time and place, he has a reason. It is up to you to hold and ponder what it could be. He will show you how he fishes a little spot with a swimming plug to catch a particular fish, and then he will ask you how you would fish that spot with your fly rod to catch that same fish. By the time you leave you will know. It's is a slow process. It builds upon itself. You won't realize how much you are learning because it is not learned through the mind alone. It is much more primal than the mind.

You will become familiar with his ways and movements. You will anticipate what he is going to do. When that happens he will change his routines. You will have learned the fundamentals before this happens.
You will know how to read a beach. To tell the difference between a bar that might hold fish on a particular wind and a bar that that will hold fish with no wind. You will see the rip currents and be drawn to them without confusion or thought. You will notice baitfish like a seagull because you will look for them where they must be. You will use your fly rod like a fencing sword instead of a shotgun. You will no longer disregard the beach break to cast as far as you can because you know that it should not be overlooked. You will seldom find yourself fishing where the crowds are and you will know why they always fish where they do. You may walk away from a blitz. You will have become a journeyman surf fisherman who understands the fundamentals of beaches and rocks and fishes with a fly rod by choice.

The only surf fishermen who catch big fish with any regularity are the fishermen who are willing to make the effort to learn these things. Some do. It takes a lot of focus and will to acquire the fundamental understandings necessary to be able to seek them out and find them. That is all it takes to be successful.
If you listen to the voices that say there are no big fish to be caught you will never leave the parking lot.
They are wrong. They want to catch them but prefer to attribute their lack of success to a lack of fish.
They want the pond stocked. The good old days were good, but even then most surf fishermen never caught big fish with any regularity. Some did and they were of this breed. The rest did not. Nothing changes in the natural order of why some men catch more fish than others do. The politics shift around, but fishing is not politics. Get out of the parking lot and you may find that fisherman who you need to meet. He will have a twinkle in his eye.

© 2001