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Oceanfront beaches:
“It’s all about white
water” -
Zeno Hromin
It must seem preposterous to suggest that something as simple as the
rising and falling of a wave can unearth the clues to the feeding
habits of striped bass. That is only if you believe that a
striper’s behavior is unpredictable. With their broad
shoulders
and powerful tails, stripers are built for short bursts of speed. They
are opportunistic feeders with tendencies to take the easiest way to
find a meal but, unpredictable? It is my opinion that they are not. You
show up a day after you hammered the fish, same tide, same plugs, and
same area. Even the wind is the same, well, almost. Instead of a
moderate southerly, now it is coming from the northwest but other than
that everything is the same. Hey, with a wind in your back you can cast
another 50 yards further. You even notice the presence of same bait
fish
in the water as you did yesterday but the fish are not responding. Now
your mind is spinning trying to come up with an answer that would
justify your curiosity.” Did the bait slingers clean out the
bar
overnight? Did the fish migrate westward or eastward? Is it possible
for a change so drastic to occur without an apparent reason?
Let’s examine the facts
Stripers are not built for speed like a tuna so chasing down a meal is
out of the question. What they are built for is short, strong bursts of
speed, propelled by their powerful, broad tails. Akin to a basketball
player who looks for an opening as he dribbles at the top of the key
and then explodes inside the paint with a burst of speed that often
surprises the defense. Now, this same player would probably be left in
the dust after 20 yards in a race with a sprinter but then again he is
not conditioned for an enduring speedy run. Neither are the stripers.
Instead of giving chase they stalk and ambush. They lay in hiding, or
cruise the beach waiting for a “perfect” moment to
strike
at prey. What is a perfect moment? A time that could be best described
as a precise time when the least amount of energy will be expanded in
order to capture a meal. Unlike us humans who cannot seem to let a Mr.
Softy truck pass by without picking up a treat, stripers feed in a more
orderly manner. They only eat enough to sustain their growth, probably
the main reason why we never see an overweight striper. So the question
becomes, under what conditions do stripers find themselves in the most
advantageous position to fill their bellies, yet expand the least
amount of energy while doing so? In my opinion, the one thing that
affords them this opportunity and is more important than moon phase,
cloud cover or even the presence of bait fish along the ocean front is
foamy, delicious white water. Seems like a pompous statement to make,
doesn’t it? Some water being tossed around by wind being more
important than the availability of food? The answer is yes! Onshore
winds puts things in motion on the bottom of the ocean and the
transformation that takes place bellow the surface is astounding even
if it’s not visible to a naked eye.
Transformation …..
Although having some bait fish present in the surf is desirable there
is
no need to fret when they are not around. Under flat water conditions
the ocean bottom is not exactly brimming with activity. The crabs, sand
worm and sand fleas bury themselves in the sand as soon as they sense
danger in close proximity, in this case a hungry fish. Stripers
themselves become inactive and move into the deeper water .In addition,
a lack of wave action becomes an issue as stripers are known to prefer
some “cover” over their heads when cruising shallow
waters.
Now add to this scenario an onshore wind and this same stretch of beach
that moments ago looked like a dead zone is suddenly teeming with life.
Onshore breezes push the water onto the shallow sandbars that usually
run parallel to the shore. This strong rush of water has nowhere to
go but up until it crests, fold into itself and rolls toward the shore
with white, milky residue forming behind the wave. This turbulence
shifts sand on the bottom exposing the crustaceans who buried
themselves to hide from predators. They become a victim of a powerful
surge of water, getting tossed around inside a rolling wave. Voila! An
easy meal for the striper who is cruising effortlessly through the same
turbulence picking at this smorgasbord at will. As you can see the
presence of bait fish is not a requirement for fish to become active if
the water conditions are right. Right about now I can hear the wheels
spinning in the heads of those who have been conditioned to
“find
bait and you’ll find fish” approach.
“Crabs,
shrimps”, they’ll say “give me sand eels,
peanuts,
mullet”. Not necessary, would be my reply. Think about it
besides
those few glorious weeks in the fall when bait is so thick you can
almost walk on water the striper’s diet consists mainly of
crustaceans like crab and sand fleas on the open beaches. In has been
my experience over the years when cleaning fish that there are at least
three times as many crustaceans in its stomach than bait fish.By now I
hopefully convinced you that white water on the open beach is akin to
the straw that shakes the drink and that large quantities of bait fish
are not a necessary requirement for success. But what does happen when
you throw little oily suckers in the mix? An absolute mayhem usually
but not in the way you might think. Just because the beach is loaded
with bait and white water is rolling does not mean that you can just
pick any stretch of a beach and start nailing fish at will. Actually,
it’s quite the opposite. Few guys positioned on a particular
piece of structure will do a bail job while most others will have to be
satisfied with a fish or two
I would hate to be a mullet….
During past mullet runs (which usually occur in mid September after a
first strong cold front) I often observed stripers slashing through the
schools along the open beach and then regroup. A scattering of mullet
that went airborne trying to escape the predators are taking the same
route as they too regroup into dense schools looking for safety in
numbers. You could follow these schools westward down the beach and
hope that you pick a few fish along the way or you could use the ambush
approach the stripers are fond of to using to ambush them. Talking
about turning tables! Even though the mullet schools can be dense and
large in size; the striper still has to chase them down to eat them.
These are not crippled or sickly bait fish but healthy specimens hoping
for a long journey down the coast to their wintering grounds. Mullet
travel along the beach front in the trough between beach and a sandbar,
usually reachable with a short cast. What I like to do is to find a
sandbar that curves toward the beach and in the best possible scenario,
runs into the beach.
While the mullet (or any other bait fish) often travel unmolested to
this point once they hit the turbulent white water on the shallow
sandbar all hell breaks loose. Stripers who let the bait fish swim to
this point unencumbered are slashing through the turbulent white water
with ease while the mullets are getting tossed around like socks in the
dryer. If an onshore breeze does not exist, there is no white water. If
there is no white water, the bait fish moves over the shallow sandbar
undisturbed, and the stripers? They go feed in a different location, a
place were a current will bring them a meal like behind a bridge
abutment or an inlet jetty rip. So white water is the key that brings
it all together, the prey and the predators. Bait fish cannot navigate
these turbulent, churning waters without some difficulties and at some
point during the wave rolling sequence it will find itself helplessly
at the mercy of predators. At which point the stripers will move in for
the kill. What? You thought just because you have white water you can
now cast at will and as far as you want you will catch fish? Oh no! The
ability to cast and place a lure at certain places during a wave
sequence is what this is all about. This is the most important part,
the essence of white water fishing.
We are not done…..yet
So now we place ourselves in the prime location, we got bait rolling in
the wash and an onshore breeze is creating some nice rollers. Now comes
the hard part. To put yourself in the right position you did not need
any skill, just your eyes to find the opportunity that is now presented
in front of you. Now you will need to put it all together in order to
increase your success rate exponentially and please do not think I am
making this statement lightly. Once the “white water
“light
went on inside my head it never went off. It has affected everything
I’ve done since that day; the way I look at water in front of
me
to the way I work a lure. Any lure!
Some ground rules…..
First
rule of
fishing
white water is to never, ever cast your lure or a leadhead in front of
a folding wave. This is considered a cardinal sin for two reasons. If
you place your offering in front of the wave, the rushing water will
collapse on the lure and you will momentarily loose contact with your
lure. The second reason is that all the action is taking place on the
“backside” of the wave. I often observe stripers
fins
cruising in the milky white residue left in a wake of a folding wave.
Stripers are fond of trailing the wave and when it collapses they move
in with precision. They cruise the foam for a few seconds looking for
any crustaceans that were lifted off the bottom or any bait fish that
was tossed by the force of white water and is now momentary stunned in
the foam. This extremely coordinated feeding lasts a very short time.
Perhaps, twenty seconds at most in each wave sequence. So in order to
cash in your lure must be placed in the right location with precision.
When using a metal lip, popping plug or another top water lure I will
time my cast so that my lure will land behind the wave as it folds.
If you wait until the wave crashes and then you make a cast your plug
will land in the prime real estate too late as the foam will already
start to dissipate.
Day or night…..
This kind of fishing produces equally well in daytime or in the hours
of darkness. The difference is that during low light conditions we must
rely on our rod to telegraph what our lure is doing instead of visual
contact. This is not as hard as it seems especially with bucktails
and
needlefish.
Metal
lips (by the way, my favorite lure for this type of
fishing)
are a bit trickier until you get a “feel” for what
the lure
is doing “out there” but they can be mastered
fairly
quickly.
Casting experience not required
When I say white water I don’t mean that foaming wave three
casts
away rolling off the offshore sandbar. I am talking about that last
stretch of foamy water before it hits the lip of the beach. I know it
seems kind of ludicrous to make a cast of 30 yards when we all have
this gear that can cast a 100 yards but that’s were the
action
is. Making the longest cast possible, when fishing white water, is
counter productive as you are wasting valuable time and your rotator
cuff. Precision counts more than distance so what you want to do is
make an accurate cast and then use your index finger to
“break” the cast so it lands in the desired part of
the
wave.
If a googan like me can exploit this very rewarding patch of foam, I am
sure some of you with better analytical skills, when it comes to
reading the water, will be able to make great catches. In any case,
find good beach structure, pray for onshore winds and work the white
water. It might take a little time to get this concept to take but I
will guarantee you that once it takes hold you will never be able to
look at rolling waves towards the shore the same way again.
And that’s a good thing………
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