Top surf flies include Bob's Banger popper, Deceiver, Clouser Minnow and Popovics Surf Candy.
line and lure. To hesitate will result in the lure being pushed by the wave, and although you may be reeling and gaining line, you often don’t have control of the lure. If the wave pushes, as in a heavy sea, reel faster. If a receding wave pulls, slow down, always keeping a taut line. As the lure approaches the beach, say 50 feet out, begin lowering your rodtip, as you want the lure to continue working and literally swim right up onto the sand. Often a striper will follow the lure, and if you’re keeping your rodtip too high it’ll draw the lure to the surface and have it tumbled about by a wave, and the fish will veer off. With the tip low the lure appears to be seeking the sanctuary of the thin water and a striper will strike it quickly, often a second or two before it reaches the sand.
When you’re fishing the troughs inside a bar pay careful attention to the direction the current is moving. The waves will crash onto the bar at high water, with foaming white water traveling toward the beach. As it begins to recede it seeks the path of least resistance, and the water will go to the left or right, and then out the deep cut between the bars. This gives much the same effect as fishing a stream with current moving to left or right. Always cast upcurrent, and permit the lure to swing past you as you execute your retrieve.
You’ll find that when fishing opposite a break in the bars the current will be pulling your lure seaward, and a slow, methodical retrieve, say with a wooden surface swimming plug, will bring exciting strikes from the fish holding in the current waiting for a meal to be swept their way.
Walk and cast, and avoid the crowds is my credo. Granted, everybody gangs up when there’s a blitz. More often than not, however, there are stripers moving all along the beach, searching for a meal. Probing good water will bring you the strikes, and you can enjoy every moment unencumbered by crowds casting over your head or across your line.
Fishing the surf is more than just catching stripers and other gamefish. It’s those gorgeous sunrises, with no two alike. It’s a seal poking its head from the Montauk surf while foraging on the same herring as the stripers. It’s a fox sitting behind you on a Jersey beach at first light, curious as to what you’re doing in its domain. It’s the heat on a hot summer night as the moon pokes above the horizon and lights up the sky on a desolate Cape Henlopen beach, and the numb hands just months later as the same moon rises, while the northeast wind showers you with spray as you slide a stubborn striper onto the Hatteras beach. Ah yes, this is what fishing from the surf for one of America’s favorite gamefish is all about, a lifelong challenge second to none.
