Thread: Surfcasting lessons

After reading the post about sharks off the beach, I went and bought a surfcaster. It turns out it's not as easy as it looks..

Few lessons learned so far that may or may not help others getting into it:
1- don't start in the dark at a place you don't know. I was casting into nothing for 2 hours before dawn a few days ago, no bites.
2- don't bother fishing outgoing tide in BOP unless you know what you're looking for. I spent a full outgoing tide chasing the water down the beach as every time I got past the breakers then they would be on my line 15-20 minutes later.
3-Dont ask me where it's good. I hut a spot for 3 hours on the incoming tide today trying a few different spits along a formless beach but couldn't seem to reach the gutters. I did however find lots of crabs. And then I used the kids crab pot to track the current and found it going along the beach and then out through what looked like a sand bar but must have been an outlet. And then it was time to get back so I didn't get any bites there either.
4-river mouths are easy but shallow. A lot if wading needed to get out to deeper water unless you can cast 100m.

Nice to try something different anyway, even if I suck at it. Looking forward to winter to try for bigger species at night.

A great list of advice

But your fishing so it’s way better than being home mowing lawns, or doing other chores…every trip teachs you something ..sometimes just patience!

Look up slide baiting for sharks

I know of a chap who used to pick up roadkill rabbits etc and tie them under balloons and chuck them out and didnt start fishing untill balloons started to pop...burley burley burley..the bloodier the better.

Dont put too much muscel into your casting,let the rod and the wind behind you do the work to get some distance.Good luck.

We are starting out as well. Burley helps we still trying to figure out what bait is best for our area.

Thanks, it's definitely an art to get good at. I was using squid as it worked well off boats in Welllington but didn't catch anything here. Moved to salted fish and got some kahawai by river mouths. Now I have some crabs to try for the weekend. I guess I'm just trying to learn the gear and how to read currents and structure from the beach for now so I can hit the main target over winter when it's more dark. I used to see a lot of them in the water around the change of light and seven gillers loved getting friendly if I shot an octopus after dark, one followed me right into the shallows beding my spear and getting really toey in amongst the rocks.

I used to make up tennis-ball sized balls of fish-food (bread, sardines, fish sauce, oats, whatever was on hand) formed round a stone, then frozen. I'd hurf them out where I was fishing off Miramar Peninsula. Who fucking knows if they ever did anything, I caught fuck all worth keeping... but the idea seemed sound. Figured I fed them enough bait, so may as well feed them some other goodness while I was at it.

Also pulley/break away clips/shields def made me feel like I was casting further. Again, who knows.

Good luck!

Yip best bet is to fish the beach during the day so you can see the holes, bars etc. Form a plan if you want to fish in the dark.
Low/incoming is more productive for me.
I dont recommend burley or you'll just attract sharks and rays.
Anchovies/pillies wrapped on good with cotton is a sure bet if they are there. Tuatuas is my favorite, head to the beach at low tide, fill a bucket with tuatuas, salt them up and your away. I normally chuck an anchovy and tuatua on at same time
I fish BOP area

A most basic cast that works quite well is to let out enough line so that with the rod horizontal over your shoulder behind you the sinker can sit on the beach mabey only a meter behind your feet.
So that if you imagine looking at yourself from the side your rod is horizontal or close to then the line comes back at an angle to the sinker which is closer to your feet than the tip of the rod.
Then when you start the cast the sinker will first start to move away from your feet back up the beach starting a pendulum action that helps load the rod and catapult the sinker and bait out.

If not already doing this give it a try, a bit of experimentation with length of line out to suit your rod and sinker should see decent improvement in range and accuracy compared to just lobbing it out.

Cast straight out in front of you with this technique.
If right handed start with right arm locked and pull down hard with left arm then follow threw.

It's way harder than it looks to get a decent cast. At least in my limited experience.

Practice with just a sinker down at the local park made a massive difference. I reckon I put an easy extra 30-40 mtrs on after some practice.

Originally Posted by Proudkiwi

It's way harder than it looks to get a decent cast. At least in my limited experience.

Practice with just a sinker down at the local park made a massive difference. I reckon I put an easy extra 30-40 mtrs on after some practice.

Al lot of it comes down to how one is setting the cast up too imo. My bro in law that I have boat fished with for years freaked me out when we went surf casting, he was unaware of what I consider the basics. Line roller at the back near rod, finger takes the slack - not holding it against the rod, these two things alone can take a cast from ok to all good Stance is the biggest thing when you get decent at it, like swinging a bat

Originally Posted by Gibo

Al lot of it comes down to how one is setting the cast up too imo. My bro in law that I have boat fished with for years freaked me out when we went surf casting, he was unaware of what I consider the basics. Line roller at the back near rod, finger takes the slack - not holding it against the rod, these two things alone can take a cast from ok to all good Stance is the biggest thing when you get decent at it, like swinging a bat

Sounds like I need you to give me some pointers next time I’m over at the mount

Years ago i wrote to a surf fishing club up in the North Island for their compitition results.Their best distances in a casting compitition were around 150 to 160 mtrs.Casting several ounces of lead.

what length rods are you guys using?