I do many things wrong in surf fishing- and if you think you don’t as well, then you’re a delusional narcissist living in a disparate reality. All of us find our flavors of surfcasting that we love, and it biases us to do things that feel good, not necessarily optimized for the zenith of productivity.
Big words in there. The point is: we all like surf shit that’s fun for us, and we ignore (consciously or subconsciously) the surf shit that is boring, too intense, or too inconvenient. I’ve only met a few surf anglers that this does not apply to (Alberto is probably the best example- he literally did everything, everywhere, all the time), and I can assure you it’s never been me.
Anyways, one of the things I find myself doing recently is switching plugs too much when I’m on fish. Toby and I have preached that you should constantly be switching to try and optimize- you’re not just changing to cycle randomly, with a blind fold on, but instead cycling based on constant feedback. “I got a hit, that was pretty high in the water column, I think it hit on the mid swing, maybe I should put on something even lighter so it’ll be high all the way through the first part of the swing.” That kind of thing.
My issue has been on a slow pick of nice fish that stretched through a couple of tides. I *knew* they were on Slug-gos because if I stuck with them, I’d get hits every five or so minutes, and land a nice fish every 15- to 20-minutes. But I just couldn’t help myself. I’d start sampling with a whole host of plugs, only to never get a tap. It’s forgivable to do this for a half-hour or even an hour. But not for 10 hours over two nights! It wasn’t until I’m writing this- a week later- that I really thought about the futility of what I had been doing. I think every angler should be persistent and meticulous about changing plugs as the night progresses, particularly in response to condition changes. HOWEVER! At some point you- and by you, I mean me- are no longer being meticulous, you’re being sloppy. At some point, being patient and sticking with the plug for long boring stretches is meticulous.
That’s still a balance I continue to try and perfect even after these decades of fishing the surf. And I don’t think I ever will.
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Terrific piece; it shines a light on a crucial skill (lure selection) and how important it is to be mindful of not only which lure to choose, but when.
I think I’ll start making notations in my log when fish are caught with a freshly changed lure vs one used for a while. Not sure what will come of it, but at least I’d expect it to lead to more thoughtful, evidence-based lure selections.