# Reading the ocean



## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

Like reading water in a river or creek the same experience is essential for the coastal water fishing. I want to help with the learning curve a little bit cause double hauling 300-500 grain full sinking lines all day is a major pain in the a$$.


This illustration is a GUT. See where the water has two different surface types? This is depression or a gut in the sand bottom of this huge bay. In this type of structure is where 50% of my stripers came from and the other came from rock ledges or kelp lines

This gut is defined only on its edge, but some are defined by thier width. The current is breaking up the surface water to show that ocean in this area in the bottom topography is different. I use this same information on the Great Lakes when fishing it.


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

ArthurMAltizer said:


> Interesting.. I don't have any ideas about how to read ocean.


It can be very intimidating, but one needs to break it up into pieces. We always want to fish everywhere n everything. We can can't all at once. We need to break it down into pieces. For instance I will this weekend pick a random location and give more examples. All fish like structure and finding where the bait will be will most likely be around any structure. 

I will break it down and mark up some photos to give examples. I'm not professing i know everything, but I know what works for me.


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

The tides one fishes makes all the difference in the world also


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

I can not stress enough when tidal fishing if you do not know what your doing you can die period!

Well with that out of the way lol This is a well known point out in Maine. Alot of ppl fish it at low tide for obvious reasons, but the yellow gut can fish well at high tide.

Your not going to fish that sand bar at high tide only at low tide. Lets say low tide is at 3 pm you want to be there well in Maine 2-3 hours before low tide so you can fish through the tide.

For this discussion 3 pm is aka dead low or ebb tide. The bait is not fighting the current anymore and conversely the stripers in these waters will not be around anymore because the water is not moving the bait around.

The pink arrows is the direction the photo is showing. This exposed sand bar can me amazing, but again very dangerous if your not paying attention when the tides come back in and how fast they come back in.


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

apparently I am going to the Far East End of the pond tommorow ..lol..



MODIS Imagery: t1.21267.1603.LakeErie.143.250m.jpg


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

Their are several options here to look at satellite imagery online. For instance in using the time line option in Google Earth you normally can see how much the water changes from high tide to low tide. You can use this for the entire world. This is how I have reconed all of my salt water areas. It's been am amazing tool. Now with that said obviously I only had part of the information and needed to actually fish it still to see how it would pan out.


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## privateer (Apr 26, 2012)

Sonder said:


> This gut is defined only on its edge, but some are defined by thier width. The current is breaking up the surface water to show that ocean in this area in the bottom topography is different. I use this same information on the Great Lakes when fishing it.


i see this condition (what you call a GUT) on Erie central basin frequently offshore on calmer days. it is not caused by a change in bottom topography there as there is no bottom change - it is all flat like a factory concrete floor once you get a couple miles out... but is instead caused by local atmosphere conditions. basically a wind shift or a downward draft of air will cause a difference in surface conditions.

i guess you could see something different in shallower water - perhaps in western basin of Erie where they do have a varying bottom and shallower waters. but not in the central basin when fishing 40-70' depths with the flat bottom.


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

privateer said:


> i see this condition (what you call a GUT) on Erie central basin frequently offshore on calmer days. it is not caused by a change in bottom topography there as there is no bottom change - it is all flat like a factory concrete floor once you get a couple miles out... but is instead caused by local atmosphere conditions. basically a wind shift or a downward draft of air will cause a difference in surface conditions.
> 
> i guess you could see something different in shallower water - perhaps in western basin of Erie where they do have a varying bottom and shallower waters. but not in the central basin when fishing 40-70' depths with the flat bottom.



The ocean in this case becasue of the tidal changes and the elevation change aroud the gut will show up in tidal moving water. You know Erie better than I since I am wade fisherman. That makes sense in what your saying, but here is a photo of a gut out from the breakwall I fished this AM.

Your right about those weather conditions creating those types of surfaces on the Great Lakes,

I also think the depth and size of the gut would have alot to do with how well defined it it at the waters surface for example this shot from behind the breakwall.

Yes for fly fishing if your trying to get down 40-70' your trying to hard ..lol...

Here is another example of a gut


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

All Coastal States have different elevations of tides. Florida here has a high tide of for example of a max 2 feet and Maine has in this area ones that are 10 feet! I have attached photos to illustrate my point.


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## garshark (Aug 23, 2011)

I like short aggressive shooting heads. Find the birds and bait. Also wearing a stripping basket helps you manage your line


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## Sonder (May 9, 2020)

Yea i have been using the LL Bean basket since 2005 and it's still looks new. Also to shoot line more it's better to have a few inches of water in the basket. the waters I fish in Maine are to deep for that set up. Not all birds mean bait and sure it can be both but not always. Your fly also needs to match the bait they are eating. The size n color of the fly is very important. 

Did you eat that fish and the reason I ask that question is because its laying on the sun baked sand and its drying out!


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