🌊 Reading the Sea

Good anglers catch fish because they read water. Before you cast, spend ten minutes reading the sea.

Water colour: clean, slightly green or 'off-clear' water usually fishes best. Dirty brown water after a big sea or heavy rain shuts many species down, though kob and grunter will feed in it. Gin-clear water can make fish spooky — fish low light or longer traces.

Current and foam lines: watch how the foam and floating weed move. Foam lines and colour changes mark where currents meet and concentrate bait — predators patrol these edges. A rip pulling seaward (see our rip channels guide) is both a danger and a fish highway.

Structure in the waves: where waves break differently — flattening over a deep gutter, standing up over a sandbank, or churning over reef — you're seeing structure. Fish the deeper, calmer gutters and the edges of the white water.

Bird activity: diving terns and working gulls mean baitfish are being pushed up — often by predators below. Put these clues together and you'll fish the productive 10% of the beach instead of the empty 90%.