Finding The Cuts

One of the most difficult things to locate is a good cut in the Delaware surf. They are usually subtle,and there are several distinct cuts that many know the location.  The “cut” is the area where water that is pushed across two sandbars drains back into the ocean.  Between the sandbars.

When large storms carve up the beach you can find the cuts easier.  They will form up higher on the beach profile and eventually fill back in, but before they do their location is easier to find.  This one in the picture is shot with a drone by Matt Adams.  It is the perfect example.  You can see where the sandbars are located, and the distinct “cut” where the water drains back into the sea.  The other picture is a cut that was formed up higher on the beach during a nor’easter.  Now it is a swale on the beach that will fill in,but the cut is still there just out front and not as dramatic.

The cut is where you want to fish.  Put a line on each side of the cut and at the top. Fish will gather around these cuts, like rips and wait for food to wash out with the faster moving water.  From land they are the area that is full of washed out sand you see between waves.  It looks like a large plume of stirred up sand, kind of like the top of a mushroom.  The larger the sand plume the heavier the cut flows water.  When the tide is running you fish the tide, on the outgoing tide fish the right hand side of the cut, and the left hand side on the incoming tide.  FIs them like you would fish a rip from a boat.

Large pronounced cuts are where the rip currents form.  These are great to fish as well, just stay out of them and no swimming.  Water in rip currents moves very fast and will pull a lot of food out of the sand bar system.  The best time to find cuts is after a heavy storm at low tide. Where the storm “cut” the new beach profile is roughly the location of the cuts under the water out in front of you.

Fish On!
Rich King