 If
until yesterday your fishing was restricted to small trout streams standing
in a sandy beach and looking at the sea in front of you can be a little
confusing. The uniformity of such vast expanse is intimidating because
of the lack of reference points to orient the fishing action. Maybe you
can think that the only thing to do is to cover with your casts all the
possible water and this can work too but the thing you really need is to
find something that exit from this uniformity and that give you a key to
begin solving this enigma. One of the basic rules to find productive structures
along a beach and productive moments to fish there is to consider where
a situation end and another begins. The borders between two different shapes
in the sea bottom or those between different light conditions are two good
examples. The best places to locate gamefish are the borders where different
conditions meet.
There is a lot to say about borders but
some basic knowledge is easy to learn and very useful to fish different
environments.
 Most
times you can find that observing the sea from the shore you can recognize
something different from still water on a flat bottom. You can individuate
a submerged structure like a large rock or a sandbar or you can recognize
a line of current water, you can see a hole in the surf foam or a point
protruding from the shore line.
All this fetures are very important to
find fish but when you approach them you must be careful and first retrieve
your fly along the borders of the structure. Sometimes fish stay in the
center of a strong current but most often they like to hunt right on the
sides saving energies and hunting best. The same happens on the donwcurrent
side of all structures.
The shoreline is the main border we need
to consider. Going to the water and casting 20 meters of line you can lose
some of the best, and sometimes the only, catching opportunities. Small
fish can't fight the water strenght and when thretened they look for shallow
water and structures to have some defense from predators. In average a
small thing that breaks a large uniformity can be best than a situation
rich with different features. This means that if a fish is around in a
relatively uniform situation it can be more easy to find it on the few
structures that break this uniformity.
Fly fishing rocky coasts or concrete harbor
structures you must concentarte on the borders of the structures. Fish
are near the rocks not some ten meters away. Always try to keep your fly
in the water near structures giving some action. Cast parallel to the shore
or just in the foam to allow the surf to bring the fly deep near the rocks
or to the border of a hole or in a cut in the sandbar. Approaching a good
spot make the first cast staying away from the shoreline because you could
frighten fish instead of catching it.
Dawn and dusk are the borders of the light
and are prime fishing time. The lighted water around a dock light have
the best casting targets where light and dark meet. Fish often stay in
ambush or roam near to this border to catch baitfish.
A school of breaking fish can be afraid
if you cast in the middle of the action. The best thing is to cast on the
sides. Often fish can focus better on sigle preys here and the action can
go on while you fight a catch.
Everytime you see something interesting
take care of the borders first and think the approach strategy consequently:
you will be rewarded.
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