Reading the water, again...

[Rumble Fish aka Poppy]

In the time that followed the thread I wrote about Reading the water…

http://www.stripersonline.com/surftalk/showthread.php?t=417339

…I received a lot of pm’s and e-mails from readers asking questions. A lot of the questions, actually more like comments, centered around fishers not being able to see or find the surf structure that I spoke about in that thread. Specifically, the fishers wanted to understand more about the out-suck aka rip current aka hole aka riptide aka break (cut or channel) in the sandbar. Although that last thread from several years ago had a few pictures of such structure, I thought I would make another thread w/ more pictures along w/ some description.

Now, before we get to the pictures, keep in mind “reading the water” and finding that structure on an open, sandy beach w/ little incline, such as we have along the DelMarVa coast, is difficult. Difficult because things like rip currents do not readily develop in most of our surf waters. They are just not common and if they do develop, can go completely unnoticed to the untrained eye…

OK some basics again… This drawing illustrates the setup of a rip current—approaching (incoming) waves turn into Breakers at the Sand Bar…crashing over the Sand Bars the Breakers bring additional water into the Slough (trough or gut)…the water in the Slough gets funneled into Feeders that turn the water around, forcing it through a Neck (cut or channel) in the Sand Bar and back out to sea in the form of a Head.



These first 2 pictures are aerial photos…they show very clearly the turbulence and “white water” from the rip current just outside the breakers… These are magnets for fish like Striped Bass…





This next picture is a little different…clearly shows a rip current at the end of a sand bar by evidence of the breaker on one side and the head outside the breaker… But there does not appear to be a breaker on the other side of the rip current. It may be that the sand bar on the other side is lower and/or the breaker is curling (breaking) from right to left and has not reached the other side of the rip current. Nonetheless, there is clearly a break (cut or channel) in the sand bar. Again a place where fish will congregate…



Manmade structures like small rock groins and pipe out-falls in places like Ocean City and Rehoboth can produce rip currents. This drawing shows the mechanics of how a rip current is formed at a rock groin.



This next picture is a good fishing spot for tossing lures…shows a pipe out-fall and clearly a rip current by evidence of the head. Also note the second prominent rip current down from the pipe out-fall. Finally, if you look hard enough there are actually 2 smaller rip currents that I did not mark in the picture. I can smell the Striped Bass in this picture!



Here’s another picture of now 2 pipe out-falls near each other…I marked 4 rip currents… Interestingly there was no rip current forming at the upper pipe out-fall. This whole stretch of water is got Striped Bass written all over it and its a lure tosser’s dream!



This picture is classic…the sand bars are actually exposed at low tide and the breaker activity is minimal. Yet, check out that rip current w/ a very distinct break (cut or channel) between the sand bars and a head…



To be continued...

Poppy

[Rumble Fish aka Poppy]

Continued…

I know what you are thinking…what surf fisherman has an airplane to scout out rip currents? OK fair enough, so lets now look at rip currents from the surf fisherman’s perspective…

Here’s an oldie but a goody…just classic and easy to spot!



This next picture is from last May at that favorite island on our coast… It was skinny water (low tide) when I took the picture…later that evening I pulled 8 Striped Bass out of this rip current in one tide—all between 20# and 38#… Interestingly, there must have been 2-dozen fishers who went by and didn’t see this—thank you!



The next 2 pictures show rip currents that could have been easily missed…subtle in appearance!





Here’s a small and almost undetectable rip current in the making…



Lets look at the above picture up close… To be honest, it takes years of reading the water and developing a trained eye to be able to spot something like this…



OK, so now we got (hopefully) a good mental image of what these rip currents look like… Now lets briefly talk in general terms about how to surf fish them… This discussion is aimed at bait fishing, but could easily apply to the lure tosser too… This next picture shows a rip current that developed relatively close to shore…the head of the rip current is easily within casting distance and I would place bait over the breaker right into the it…



To be continued

Poppy

[Rumble Fish aka Poppy]

Continued…

If the rip current and break in the sand bar (cut or channel) are further out as shown in the next 2 pictures, I would try to launch bait to each side of the rip current neck and over the breaker if possible (where’s Critter Gitter) along w/ maybe a placement in the middle of it too…





This last picture is really interesting…it’s telling me 2 different things. The closest breaker has a cut or channel in it and a rip current has formed. The next 2 breakers further out are crashing over sand bars, but I am not sure there are rip currents.



Again, rip currents are not that common along most of our coast…I can go weeks w/o seeing one. But if you spend the time and make the effort to find them, the payoff could be some very good fishing …

Poppy

[DerrickT]

That was very informative. Thank you. I now understand what I am doing wrong.

[jeepcreep]

I lost a plug a few years ago, swam out for it, and right into a rip. it took me the better part of 15 minutes to get back in, the long way. I took a break ( i was exhausted) then tossed some bait in and around it. I got one, nice fish outta there. My point being if your not sure what your looking at, but know something is going on. Toss a plug into it and watch it run with the current I.E> OVER AND OUT. helps you confirm what you think you're seeing.

I don't recommend swimming into rips, without the proper equipment. Unless it's after a $20 plug. then go for it.

[DrewStuch]

awesome write up, thank you very much I really enjoy reading these an then going out driving along trying to find some good beach.

[BassKid(SI)]

Thanks for sharing! I'll go through this once again tomorrow.

[DE Beachguy]

Another excellent analysis, Poppy! Thanks for taking the time to help us train our eyes better.

Jay

[Chasfishn]

Poppy,
Thanx so much for your wisdom & info. You could write a book & retire on the royalties.
For the last 2 years, I've fished from the towers at Dewey to 3Rs with hardly a landing. These beaches are groomed to look like the round down on an aircraft carrier as far as one can see; boring for surfers, and no structure for fish, xcept @ IRI. Mebbe I'm blond, but I haven't seen what U describe there. The waves are always perfect \\\\\\ from the South. Is Fenwick SP any Better?
Thanx a gazillion,
Charlie

[DerrickT]

Originally Posted by Chasfishn

Poppy,
Thanx so much for your wisdom & info. You could write a book & retire on the royalties.
For the last 2 years, I've fished from the towers at Dewey to 3Rs with hardly a landing. These beaches are groomed to look like the round down on an aircraft carrier as far as one can see; boring for surfers, and no structure for fish, xcept @ IRI. Mebbe I'm blond, but I haven't seen what U describe there. The waves are always perfect \\\\\\ from the South. Is Fenwick SP any Better?
Thanx a gazillion,
Charlie

I fish the same area as you and couldn't agree with you more. I have seen this only a couple of times in that area. I fished FI this past spring and didn't see anything like that, plus you have all the private condo owners bringing there children out to swim there. I will never go there again. Then you have weekends like this past saturday where there really wasn't any breakers and the dolphins where 10 yards to 30 yards from the beach. Sometimes I'll park in the parking lot at IR and hike up to the bridge and take a gander at what I can find.

[Mikeguard01]

Poppy,

Thanks for the tutorial. There's a great wealth of information in that post.

Mike

[charkbait]

I took me a while, but I'm finally getting it, thanks for getting me closer! Simply awesome.

[cbs]

Thank You Teacher!

[Plug]

Originally Posted by Rumble Fish aka Poppy

This last picture is really interesting…it’s telling me 2 different things. The closest breaker has a cut or channel in it and a rip current has formed. The next 2 breakers further out are crashing over sand bars, but I am not sure there are rip currents.

Poppy

Might not be a rip at all, might be waves breaking on a point, although it is rather sharply defined to be such. N side looks a little "bowlish" like it might be a point (perpindiclar bar) but the S side doesn't.

[SharkAtak]

Thank you for the help Poppy. Between this post and your other it has help my fishing 100%. I periodically check back on the other thread after trips to see if what I had seen was how it was. These post have been a great help.