Cool, thanks! So the beach I'm looking at for tomorrow morning ... it's going to have wind coming from behind, blowing from the land out. So hopefully that should aid my casting. I was just not sure if the fish will be gone hiding. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. The forecast swell is about 1m so that's not bad.

Yes, it will help with casting. In fact the main reason you want the wind coming from behind is for casting.

With a 1m swell things should be fairly calm. If the beach has decent sand dunes you should have a fairly good flat water before the chop. If it is one of those high blowing winds all good. If it turns out to be a low blowing wind you might want to move along the beach to find a spot where you are not getting sand blasted.

If you can spot a gutter even better. You could try using a small balloon or bobby float and let the wind take it out through the gutter. That wont work for a parallel gutter of course because there will be a shallow sand bank on the other side. However, you can cast onto that sand bank then slowly bring the bait back into the gutter. Don't worry if your bait is only a foot or 2 from the shore...90% of people cast right over the fish they are trying to catch !!

The chop line might be hard to see. But you should be able to see where the wind is hitting the water and causing a line. It is the point where the water is just deep enough for the wind to not be able to flatten it. The chop might only be a few cm. If you can see that line and cast to it, you just might get a nice catch. Predators like tailor, salmon, snapper and dew will be cruising that chop line.

Thank you so much for that gem of wisdom. I hope I can recognize those features once I'm at the beach. Will try.

Things got in my way and I ended up couldn't go. But will keep your valuable tips in mind for sure for next time when there's westerly wind like that.