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Date: May 19, 2006 at 12:34:33
From: ken, [pool-64-223-52-18.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Re: Another surf fishing myth, the big lie. I am making a ... |
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I can tell you this. Surf fishing with a fly rod is in the surf not out beyond it. You are going to hear lots of talk in fly rod circles about casting beyond the waves. That is because of a lack of understanding about what the surf zone is and a fixation on casting long distance. They think that you have to fish beyond the surf. First of all if you do you are not surf fishing. Second you can't cast beyond it most of the time even with a fly cast that reaches 100' or 200'. Third if long casts were the answer to catching fish all the time in the surf then spinning rod fishermen would be always catching fish just because they can cast two to three times further than a fly guy can cast and they don't.
Waves, rip currents, longshore current and the beach break are the first four elements that you have to study because they are the basic dynamic components of the surf.
If you want to be a good surf fly fisherman you must focus on what you can reach and fish with a fly rod. If you are fixated on what is happening outside your fly rod range then you cannot ever learn about fishing that water that you can reach.
With a cast and strip approach you only have one option and that is to cast and retrieve and so it follows that you will naturally want to cast further and further so you can strip longer and longer.
If you fish with a sinking line distance casting is the only option you have.
To compare it and the flies most often used with this approach to conventional fishing using the same type of lure in size and function it would play out like this.
The spinning rod fisherman would be limited in his fishing to casting 80' to 100'. He would be using small light weight jigs about 2" to 4" long and he would be restricted to casting them out and slowly reeling them in. He could let them drop down to the bottom and either slowly retrieve them (fly rod hand over hand retrieve speed) or hop them along the bottom or retrieve them at mid depth. The lures would be very light so he would have to use a small light rod that could cast such small lures and the diameter of 8 lb test mono would be necessary for him to cast 80 to 100'. Now if he were to use a heavier jig but kept it within the weight range of a fly rod type of heavy fly he would still be using a small light weight jig but a bit longer. So his options would be very restricted in casting in working his lures (he would not be able to pop them up with his rod tip, he could not speed them up, he could not race them up to the top or hold them and let them work the back of a wave or a crashing breaker because he could not use his rod once he made his cast. (Fishing a spinning rod with fly rod cast and strip with a sinking line technique)
What become clear in this comparison of the two styles of fishing the surf with the same techniques with two different types of tackle is that the cast and strip approach with a fly rod is a gigantic handicap even when it is used with a spinning rod.
It is so restrictive and limited in options that it is absurd to fish that way.
It works when there are fish feeding in the surf and because of this sporadic success rate people continue to fish that way because they do not know about any other approach. The spinning rod scenario would also work fished in this way and it too would have similar success. I ask you would you only fish a spinning rod with these restrictions on lures and presentations if you had other choices?
Common sense says that you would not.
Unfortunately fly rod fishermen have been indoctrinated to accept that small jigs and sinking lines and cast and strip methods work in the surf and are the best overall approach to fishing there.
They have been told that the reason they do not have success is not the idiocy of the approach but the distance they can cast.
The whole method is an ignorant construct based on dysfunction as the ideal. It is so limiting and restrictive on the fly fisherman that it is a wonder that he catches anything at all. Can a fly fisherman catch anything this way?
Yes he can and that is what keeps him fishing and blaming his casting for his lack of success.
Some days the fish are in the beach break or in close to the shore and feeding and are very active.
Those times are when he catches and even though his fish are caught right at his feet or a few feet away he does not not recognize that he caught them close because they were in close and not out beyond the breakers.
It is a self fulfilling trance and so he continues to not observe but only remembers that on a morning he did catch fish with his little jigs right at his feet and so therefore he must be doing it right.
It is hard to stop chasing your tail especially when every person you meet with a fly rod in hand tells you that chasing your tail is the only game in town.
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