This is extracted from my first post on the old site, which I called "Tips for SRC Newbies (from a Newbie)". Hope it helps:
I think sometimes people who fish the beaches all the time don’t realize that a lot of the things that are second nature to them aren’t that obvious to people just starting out beach fishing. I hope as a relative newbie myself, I can emphasize a few key things that should help out fellow newbies:
It’s been strongly recommended here many times to pick a beach and learn it – I couldn’t agree more. But don’t pick just any beach. Make sure you start out at a place that is known to have cutts most of the year. Ask a friend if they’d be willing to recommend somewhere. If that’s not an option, drive around and look for people fishing and observe. If you see SRCs being caught, you’ll know to go back there and try it yourself.
Once you find your beach, fish it through a complete tide cycle (this might take a couple of outings). As people have posted often, some beaches fish best on incoming, some on outgoing. I’ve found (in my limited experience) that the same beach might fish well on both, but at different parts of the beach. Look for current, and then look for current seams (just like in a river or stream) as those are very likely places for trout to be holding.
Related to this, all tides aren’t the same. I only figured this out by being out and seeing that an hour before ebb on a big tide change can look a lot different than an hour before ebb on a small change (I hadn’t really thought about it before seeing it). So the fish might be in a different spot at that same relative time. Another way of looking at it is they may be in the same spot, but at earlier or later in the cycle. This is very important if you are trying to target seeing the same conditions on a repeat visit – pay attention to the magnitude, not just the time.
Don’t fret about bright sun. If it’s a sunny day, and the tides for your beach would fish best at noon, go fishing! I’ve caught most of my fish in the middle of bright, sunny days. That’s not to say low light wouldn’t be better, but if you’re able to get out, don’t let the amount of light discourage you from making the trip.
Pay attention to what’s going on – as highlighted above, the fish won’t always be in the same place on the beach. Look for splashes, jumping baitfish (they’re not jumping for fun), anything that signals there are feeding fish. Then focus your casts in that area. Seems obvious, but I know that my first couple of times out, I was more intent on covering a lot of water (it seems so vast!) than on spending time to look for the most productive water.
Don’t spend a lot of time changing flies. If it’s the time of year where baitfish are the prevalent prey, pick a baitfish pattern and using the tips above, work it through the most productive-looking spots, varying the retrieve technique (short/long strips, change rhythm, etc.). If it gets no interest, try adding weight. If it still gets no interest, then pick a different baitfish pattern/color and do the same thing. If you’re fishing a beach that gets pounded, then fly selection might be more important, but I’ve limited myself to one bright and one drab subsurface pattern and one light and one dark popper, and it’s worked.
I want to emphasize that all of this is intended for newbies – as you start catching fish, you’ll certainly want to develop and refine your approach to catch more or bigger fish (I can’t help you with that), but the tips above should help you start down the path.
