try fishing on the sand adjacent to reef - ive had best sucess with mono off the beach cos it has a bit more stretch in it - if using gang hooks sharpen the hooks on a stone first then gang them (limericks are the best)

some spots i fish here in gero you dont need to cast far out at all 10m or so the tailor and mulloway hunt in close. a mate uses a bit of cork at his gangs so when the baits gone the hooks float. dont use star sinkers cause you'll get caught every time use one with no edges that can get caught like a spoon or really small snapper lead. hope i could help

cheers flagpole

thanks that helps how can you tell if your casting onto reef?  i cant see any reef or any thing

snags are a good indication. where are you fishing. if you can get a good view of the area on a good day you should be able to pick the reef and sand gutters out. you should fish the gutters for tailor and mulloway

Where have you been fishing?
Is it dark when you arrive,if so turn up on a calm day,low tide and have a good look for dark patches that may indicate any reef.

ive been fishing grant street in cottesloe and also swanbourne areas and it is not dark when i arrive  i do look for dark patches etc to make sure im not casting into reef maybe its just the areas that im fishing?

makes a huge difference by cutting out the glare.

You can see straight through the water. You should be able to tell the difference between weed, holes and gutters and reef. You can see bait schools working around an everything. Very important for that sort of fishing

righto might hav to get a pair do the cheap ones go okay or should i spend a bit of money?

Spend a bit of money, i got a cheap pair and a mate of mine has a good pair the difference is huge.

ok, the basic principle is that it cuts out all the horizontally polarised light, read http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-polarized-lenses.htm for more info.  Basically servo bought ones technically should have the same vision effect but more $$$ = better lense = scratch proof clearer optics blahblah. $20 buck ones will show you the principal.  For a demo of the polarizing effect, find two pairs, hold one vertical and the other horizonal and align lenses and look through.  Very dark.

thing is, oakley charge an obscene amount for polarized versions of their glasses, i have had: mako, liive, rayban, and servo bought x 10.  only difference is comfort and longevity.

there's no reef north of swanbourne reef for a long way you may be casting out too far or in the wrong spot

Where you are fishing there should be no snags?? And certainly not repetitive snags. Apart from the lost braid I would double check terminal knots because something does not match up.

If there is a lot of weed you can sometimes snag up but that should be obvious.

Cheers

Neels

Braid is not a good option for bottom fishing.

I read a book a long time back that dealt with wise tips on beach fishing. The number 1 tip was to study your ground. I use polarised glasses as suggested earlier and they are fantastic. Also, find a high point to assess the situation.

As mentioned in my S-Bends post, I use a long patanoster rig on lumpy ground with small spoon sinkers. The sponnies will plane on retrieve and a long rig with a champaine cork fixed to the gang trace will give some boyancy to the gang and bait. Regardless of all this however, you should always be prepared to lose rigs while bottom fishing on lumpy ground.