Structure

[FarmingdalesFinest]

Just getting back into surf fishing now that I am an empty nester. Never been super serious about surf fishing even though I live a mile to Sandy Hook.  Most of my fishing ironically has been fly fishing for trout. 
 

So l have been watching some * videos and am curious if I am reading the water the right way. Attached is a aerial photo from OnX maps that I have used until today for deer and elk hunting. 

 

I am curious what you experienced surf anglers would target in the photo to throw your lures. I see the jetty. I also see a flat spot which I would assume is a deeper hole between the white water of the waves breaking over the sandbar.  
 

My thoughts are fishing along the jetty as well as the edge of the hole where you have  the deeper water so the bass can ambush the bait. 
 

Looking forward to what you guys say. 

Edited November 29, 2022 by TimS
channel name removed - we don’t promote channels here

[TimS]

1 hour ago, FarmingdalesFinest said:

Most of my fishing ironically has been fly fishing for trout

If you are successful at fly fishing for trout, you already know more than most beach guys about fish, current, structure and ambush predators  Stripers are just big, sometimes schooling trout. They feed the same way unless they are blitzing but then you don’t need to do anything but cast and reel. Normally, they’ll use structure to give them protection from the moving water in a position where they can ambush baitfish that are disoriented by waves or current or even changes in light like a bridge or dock and a shadow line. The primary difference is, when a wave rolls into a beach - it creates very temporary currents all over the place. 
 

In your photo, let’s look at one, tiny piece because it’s noteworthy - the south side of that pile of rocks that used to be a jetty. The waves are coming from the south - they are coming over the bar breaking white and foamy. If you are making your way up the beach, blind casting, I’d stop right about where that little blotch of white appears south of the deeper water and cast towards where the incoming waves is just starting the break. That will drag your lure, like an injured critter, from the shallow breaking whitewater over the bar towards the deeper water - where bass would be waiting and watching that foamy whitewater for something that got disoriented. Next I’d cast almost parallel to the beach towards the rocks and let the receding wave drag my lure out through the deeper pocket. 
If that doesn’t work, get closer to the jetty and do basically the same thing - fish the breaking waves where they come over the north end of that bar - then cast out towards the end of the rocks and crawl the lure back through the deep water. 

 

Pretend they are trout and the breaking wave is making different currents - you’ll figure it out pretty quickly

 

TimS

[Surf bomber]

If your walking the beach and see a jetty cast to it … most of the time the fish are on the north side of it …butt don’t disregard the south side you never know … fluke will hang on the south side if there’s a north east wind … stripers where ever they can get out of the current … then there are the troughs , most likely the exit of where the water is flowing out of… most important thing is to have fun even if you don’t catch anything … enjoy the beech ,waves and occasional keeper if you catch one … 

[EBHarvey]

to add to the above....having often watched bass from an elevated position on a certain rhode island beach many years ago, I can tell you that they will follow that breaking wave in, staying under the whitewater as if the foam were a cloud protecting them from the sun, dart around in the shallows as long as the foam remains, and when it dissipates, quickly move back out to follow in the next wave, picking up distressed or disorientated bait in the turbulent wash behind the wave.

[Stryper Snyper]

Scroll down to the Delmarva forum.  Search for two threads by Rumblefish aka Poppy.    Reading the beach.   Lots of good stuff.