Landing Fish On Rocky Shores – Advice Wanted

I often shore fish a rocky area. Several times I’ve had the problem that as the fish gets very close to shore, I end up losing it. Happened again today. I had a pretty large fish about 2 feet from shore and pulled the lure out of it’s mouth. I was using a small shad rap with size 8 treble hooks. It’s happened to me once before with this lure. I’ve been meaning to swap out the hooks to size 6 trebles for maybe better penetration. My laziness may have cost me the fish today, which would have been my only one, and a nice one at that. This happens to me less often when I’m Texas Rig fishing a senko on a 2/0 or 3/0 hook. I can usually drag/lift the fish in when I get it in that close to shore.

Thinking about it afterwards, maybe I should have let it play itself out a little more when it was that close. I could have kept the rod tip way down and let it pull around for a while longer. It had already made it’s “close to shore run” so I thought it was safe to horse it a bit. Other than that, any other ideas?

Hip waiters and walk in and net it

Thanks for the suggestion but hip waders probably wouldn’t work at that particular spot. It’s an area right by a narrow channel built up with rocks. You are standing on rocks and there are rocks in the water also. I walk out to the waters edge by stepping (sometimes carefully) from rock to rock. Even just using a net would be difficult.

Get a good pair of old tennis shoes and get as close to the water. Something that allows you to grip the rocks well. Hand land it using just the line as it gets close – ie, set the rod down and just work the line by hand. Used to do this shore fishing rocky shorelines on P2.

Also, not sure the line you are using but using braid will likely get you better hooksets.

Net with a 10 foot handle

bigcrappie wrote:

Net with a 10 foot handle

This, or just a regular net. Only way to do it.

Most of my shore fishing is spring/fall, when fish become more “shoreline” located, means cold water, those rocks get treacherous in most waders and tennis shoes you’re looking for a busted ankle or knee slipping and falling.

Play the fish as best you can, drag is crucial for bigger fish, tight enough to keep them where you want them but loosed enough to not pull hooks and let themselves tire out sufficiently to land.

Big rocks are a biatch to land fish. I hate the fact every once in awhile they will whack themselves good running into them. They do hold fish tho….

I bought this net last year. It folds in half. Unfold and hit the button and it extends out another 3′. Its a great net and would work well for your circumstance

https://www.egofishing.com/s2-slider-nets/

Bob, it’s just the nature of the beast shorefishing rough terrain. If you can’t get a net under them, you’re going to lose some fish. Not much you can do about

Hoisting sizeable fish with just a small treble hook will lose plenty. Going bigger will help some, but there will be a point where the bigger you go, the more you negatively affect the bait’s action.

bigpike wrote:

I bought this net last year. It folds in half. Unfold and hit the button and it extends out another 3′. Its a great net and would work well for your circumstance

https://www.egofishing.com/s2-slider-nets/

Don’t get sand in it. Terrible shore fishing net.

As much as possible I would try and avoid treble hooks in those situations. If you want to use a crank bait with trebles consider changing the hooks out for slightly bigger ones

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bigpike wrote:</div>
I bought this net last year. It folds in half. Unfold and hit the button and it extends out another 3′. Its a great net and would work well for your circumstance

https://www.egofishing.com/s2-slider-nets/

Don’t get sand in it. Terrible shore fishing net.

I would say the same for any gear. Sand = bad for gear

bigpike wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bigpike wrote:</div>
I bought this net last year. It folds in half. Unfold and hit the button and it extends out another 3′. Its a great net and would work well for your circumstance

https://www.egofishing.com/s2-slider-nets/

Don’t get sand in it. Terrible shore fishing net.

I would say the same for any gear. Sand = bad for gear

I really liked my ego until shore fishing. That was the death of it.

I really liked my ego until shore fishing. That was the death of it.
[/quote]

Shore fishing is all I do. This is my second year after a couple of decades of not fishing. I’m getting better. Last year it took me about 3 weeks before I landed my first bass. Most days out I either caught none or one. There were a few days of twos and threes and one great day I caught five. This year getting skunked was unusual. Often I caught two or three. My top days this year were six and eight. Also I’m catching bigger fish.

I’ll never see the days of 10s and 20s that many of you boat fishermen experience. Missing one or two when you’re catching 10 is not such a big deal. But losing the only one of the day when shore fishing is kind of frustrating.

The advice I get here is quite helpful. It gives me ideas on what I could have done differently and also that sometimes stuff happens even if you’re doing everything right. Today I definitely tried to rush the fish at the end. I’ll try to be more patient next time in the same situation.

Thanks all.

Bob, one more note is you can use a trout net. I used to carry one around when I was learning to land fish from shore, helped out a ton with suckers and carp that would be unruly by the rocks.

Nets compact, easy to store, and can be just enough to get the fish into a safe place.

Update – I’ve had much more success landing fish near the rocks by using patience and being more careful before the lift. For larger bass I’ve successfully used the suggested method of crawling down and hand lifting the fish by the line.

But today I met my match with a 10+ pound northern. Hooked near shore on a senko and 3/0 hook on my medium light action rod and #8 mono. It took a long first run and several other runs before I got it close. Eventually I coaxed it into about 6 inches of water on top of rocks. It kept taking short runs with me bring it back to that spot. It started just laying there but each time I crawled down to try to grab it, it took a short run. I tried a few times to grab it, but I couldn’t. Finally I tried to lift the line and the line broke.

Moral : I need to bring a net. I could have easily pinned it down with a net and likely landed it.

I never expected to hook a fish that big. I wasn’t going to keep it but I sure would have liked to have measured it and taken a pic.

That’s best case scenario with a pike like that. The only thing that happens if you get your hands on it is you get a hook or a tooth/gill plate in your hand.

As the water cools those pike will be up shallow so you’ll probably get into more of them.

Enjoy the fight with those – from shore with light tackle is a blast!

Matt Moen wrote:

That’s best case scenario with a pike like that. The only thing that happens if you get your hands on it is you get a hook or a tooth/gill plate in your hand.

As the water cools those <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>pike will be up shallow so you’ll probably get into more of them.

Enjoy the fight with those – from shore with light tackle is a blast!

Thanks Matt. I always think that I’m somehow screwing up and should have had some “magic” technique for landing such a fish. Had it been on a gradual sloped shore, I’m pretty sure I would have landed it. But to land it where I was, I would have had to lift it about a foot to get it to the next tier of rocks, which are out of the water. As it was, I had moved it to the most advantageous spot to try to land it. It was frustrating watching it just lay there in 6 inches of water, not moving for near half a minute, while I tried to crawl down to get it. But each time I went down, it gained enough life from its rest to take a short run.

By the way, I did catch 5 bass prior to the northern. No problems in landing those.