Weed, and what to do when it is running

The description says weed is predictable. This is the actual prediction, made from sources anybody can read the night before, which is worth more than any technique for coping once you are standing on the beach.

LOOK AT THE SWELL HISTORY, NOT THE FORECAST. Almost every angler checks tomorrow's wind and almost nobody checks the last three days' swell. Weed is torn off by energy that has already passed. So the question is not "will it be rough tomorrow" but "has it been rough this week" — and the dangerous answer is a big sea that has since dropped away, because that is a calm forecast sitting on top of a sea full of kelp.

THE RULE OF THUMB THAT EXPERIENCED SHORE ANGLERS USE. A serious blow puts weed in the water for the following two to four days on an affected coast, sometimes longer if the swell keeps working the reef. The first calm day after a gale is the classic wasted trip. The third or fourth is often superb, because the same sea has coloured the water and moved food without the weed still being suspended.

THEN ASK WHERE IT WILL BE PUT. Floating weed travels with wind and surface drift, so a wind that has been blowing onto a coast for a day has been delivering weed to it for a day. The corollary is the useful one: on the same day, the coast facing the other way is often clean. Where a region has coasts of several aspects, weed is a reason to change coast rather than to stay home.

AND CHECK WHAT IS UPTIDE OF THE MARK. This is local knowledge and it is the most valuable kind. A beach with a kelp reef half a mile uptide collects everything that reef sheds; a beach with clean sand uptide can be fishable on the same day in the same conditions. Anglers who fish an area for a season learn which of their marks are weed traps, and that knowledge is worth more than any rig.

WHAT NONE OF THIS TELLS YOU is whether any specific mark is safe or accessible on a given day. Weed prediction is about whether fishing is worthwhile, not about whether going is wise, and those are separate judgements.

The description is right that moving is the best answer. Sometimes there is nowhere to move to — a shore mark reached on foot, a booked session, one beach within range. This is what is left.

UNDERSTAND WHERE IN THE WATER COLUMN IT IS, because that decides everything else. FLOATING WEED travels in the top foot or two and is beaten by getting the line out of the water: a long tripod, the rod near vertical, and a tight line. MID-WATER AND BOTTOM WEED — heavier kelp being rolled along the seabed — ignores rod angle entirely and is beaten only by a streamlined rig or by not being there. Ten minutes of watching what comes back on the line tells you which you have, and the two problems have almost opposite answers.

STREAMLINE EVERYTHING THAT STICKS OUT. Every bead, every swivel standing proud, every extra hook is a collector. A single-hook clipped-down rig with the hook snood held against the rig body until it lands passes through weed far better than a three-hook flapper, and the difference is not marginal. Choose a plain streamlined lead rather than a gripped one where you can, because grip wires are weed rakes.

RETRIEVE DIFFERENTLY. A slow retrieve drags the rig through the weed layer for the whole distance. A fast retrieve with the rod held high skims it over the top of much of it and is far more likely to bring the rig back fishable. Wind fast and high from the moment you decide to reel.

RECAST ON A CLOCK, NOT ON A BITE. On a weedy tide the rig is usually fishing for a fraction of the time it is out there. Assume it is fouled after ten minutes and act on that assumption rather than waiting for evidence.

AND THE TACTICAL SWITCH NOBODY MAKES. Weed running along the bottom does not stop a float, a lure or a fly. If a mark is unfishable for bottom-fished bait it may be perfectly fishable for something in mid-water, and changing method is often the difference between a blank and a session. A weedy tide is a reason to fish differently rather than a reason to fish worse.