Beach fish

A beach is never flat. Currents cut gutters, bowls and channels that low tide reveals and high tide turns into a larder: food is trapped there, and fish move in with the flood. Walking the strand at low water to find those depressions is worth more than any advice about rigs.

Fishing is usually at range, but not as far out as most people assume. Many species work the first bar, a few tens of metres from dry sand, especially after dark and in a sea with some movement in it. Coloured, rolling water brings them close; a flat, clear sea keeps them out.

Wind and swell decide the rest. An offshore wind flattens the sea and makes for hard work; a sea that is working without being wild lifts food back into the water and opens the best window, usually around dawn and dusk.