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18. Find Holes in the Beach  
Finding the deeper water, the pockets that hold fish, is the key to finding fish along a beach. Some beaches are flat with just slight depressions; while others have distinct holes with severe drop-offs. In clear water and bright sun, look for the blue-green holes contrasting with the sandbars. In low light or when the water is discolored, you need to look at the shoreline and watch wave action for clues. Along some beaches, sand walls form in front of the bigger holes. They can be three to four feet high. A bowl between two points usually is a deep pocket of water, if the beach's slope is steep.

Watching wave action and how the white water moves over the beach's contour is the best way to find good water. Along flat sections of beach, which are devoid of holding water, waves break then roll all the way to the shore. In sections with sandbars and holes, the wave breaks over the bar, rolls for a distance, then disappears. Where this wall of white water disappears is the inside edge of the hole. Watch surface bubbles to determine the flow's direction. This flow moves from the corner back to the deeper water in the hole's middle, or in the case of a very large hole creates a long section of moving, fishable water. Without wave action look for a current line indicating a sandbar with a drop-off on the backside.

 

19. Brine a Bait  
critical key to all live-bait rigging is hook positioning. The bait must swim naturally but you need to be careful not to hook the fish so deep that you injure it, yet deep enough so the hook doesn't tear free. Here are four basic rigs.

A popular method for slow trolling is to nose-hook the bait (through the upper jaw, not both jaws, if you want it to live longer). However, when anchored or drifting, a nose-hooked bait will eventually want to swim back under the boat.

To encourage the bait to swim away from the boat, rig the hook in the fleshy part of the bait's shoulder, just ahead of the dorsal fin.

Rigging the hook sideways through the flesh at the front of the eye allows the bait to swim naturally at the surface or when trolled.

Finally, if you want the bait to swim away from the boat and down, hook through its meaty belly above the vent.

 

20. Gaffing  
Although there are no percentage numbers to back it up, it is fair to say the majority of fish lost during an engagement are lost at the boat just prior to or during the landing, wiring, tagging or gaffing sequence.

As the wireman or angler brings the fish to the boat, the object is to "lead" the fish into position to be gaffed, therefore the term "leader." The best gaff shot is always from the head back to the shoulders, which helps to control the fish. As the old timers would say, "where his head goes, he goes." The best fish position for a good gaff shot is alongside the boat, where the fish is sideways and a broad target, not at the transom where the fish is facing you and provides a very slim target for the gaff.

Once the fish is in position for a gaff shot, the gaff man comes in behind and alongside the wireman or angler, not in front of him. This allows for the cleanest shot. If the fish surges ahead, the wireman can move with the fish and the gaff is not in the way of the leader or in danger of breaking it.

The gaff should always be held with the hook down, not up. By keeping the hook down, the gaff shot is made over the shoulder or body of the fish toward the boat. It also plants the gaff in the solid part of the fish, rather than coming from beneath where there is soft tissue.

 

 

 

 

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