Reading the water, again...

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 pms 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 breakers. 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 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

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

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