Another form of fishing I enjoy is beach fishing. There’s nothing more relaxing than standing on the beach, enjoying the weather and environment waiting for a catch. A good advantage of fishing on the beach is that you can catch beach worms and pipies on the beach to use as bait.

A couple of beach worms caught by my brother, we used a fish pump to keep them live for the next day.
There are plenty of fish available from the beach: bream, snapper, tailor, flathead and as a bonus to the land-based fishos, the bigger species including jewfish, salmon and kingfish.
Beach Fishing Gear
Fishing on the beach as opposed to estuary is a whole new ball game, and it all starts with the gear you use.
- Rod: Has to be at least 10ft. Preferably a thin whippy one as well so that you can cast it a fair distance. I would recommend the Australian made Snyder Glas rods. My brother owns one and I have used it before. It casts well and handles the big fish with ease. It will set you back about $200 though. The surf rods typically have longer butt so that it can be put in to a rod holder.
- Reel: Not much preference on this, my brother uses the Penn 9500 ss (another $200 or so), but I would say get something that matches the rod with a precise drag. Make sure you have enough line if you are targeting something big, because if a shark takes it you might need a few hundred metres of line.
- Line: Again not much preference, but choose something that will match the rod and reel. If you are going the 12ft setup you may need 30lb line as a minimum. If you choose to use monofilament, save yourself the trouble and buy a more expensive brand which has less “memory” (ie. less likely to tangle) as your line will curl up soon enough in the wash.
My current set up:
A 10ft telescopic rod (from Japan, not sure if you can get these here), 6lb Fireline and Daiwa reel. As the rod would generally be a long, heavy one, a rod holder is essential. You can purchase these at bait & tackle stores or even a Big W or K Mart. Or you could get a PVC pipe and cut one yourself as I have done.