Any advice for surf fishing will help

Hi I'm totally new to the forum. I came down last June and stayed at Royal Palms Condo. It was good because it was the last one next to the park and pier. I bought a cheap Shakespeare salt kit at walmart and started fishing. It was my first time surf fishing. I caught several (then spent a lot of time googling what they were) and my 12 year old daughter caught about a 3 foot ladyfish. After that we were both hooked. The evening after she caught that first one. She went to walmart with her mother and then came walking down the beach with her own pole. We had all our luck on fish finder rigs and frozen shrimp. I tried whole frozen mullet but didn't have any luck with them. I'm coming back for a few days in June again this year. I want to come prepared this year and not just be throwing my bait indiscriminately into the Atlantic. I walked the pier but it really felt too crowded for me. I preferred my space on the beach. So if anyone can give me any advice at all I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance

Fishfinder rigs are fine, but you can make your own and have a better version. Several videos on how to tie them on Youtube. Or, a simple Carolina rig is very effective in the surf, especially if you are only fishing one rod and like to keep it in your hand. I would have a small selection of spoons (ladyfish and bluefish), small hair jigs or loony jigs with teaser (pompano, whiting, flounder), a couple of topwater lures (Rapala Skitterwalk with some pink in it is a good choice) for the calm early mornings, and finally, make sure you have some Fish Bites bait strips in your kit (pink and orange are great colors). Also, for natural bait, you will be better off to go to a local seafood market or to Fresh Market and buy some very fresh dead shrimp for use on your bait rigs. cut off about 3/4 of an inch and remove the shell and use that on your fishfinder or Carolina rigs. Everything in the gulf eats shrimp, and fresh dead will get you more bites than frozen.

Get you an aerator and a couple dozen live shrimp. My experience in the surf has been that live shrimp seem to get us the bigger fish overall, and the cats either leave them alone or the bigger inshore species get to them first. We have caught every desirable surf species on live shrimp: pomps, reds, specks, big whiting, flounder. Also look into buying or building a ghost shrimp pump (see the sticky post about it). Sand fleas are also a good bait if there are some you can locate. You don't need a sand flea rake although it can make things easier. I don't like hauling it around so I try and find the fleas and then use a metal framed dip net to dig em up. Takes a little longer but doesn't bother me. Fresh dead shrimp and fishbites also work very well.

There's too much information to relate to you in a single response. There's hook size, which bait for which species, rigging, knots, time of day, time of year, presentation, accessories (what else you need like pliers) and caring for your catch. You'll want to use the SEARCH feature to find out everything you need to know, because everything you need has been discussed in detail. Good reading/Good Fishing!

Welcome to the Forum, pmillard. Listen to what eym-sirius said and use the Search feature on the top and check out some you tube videos. Long nosed pliers, for sure; do not lay your reels in the sand, and give them a light rinse with fresh water each day after fishing; do not buy frozen bait to surf fish ( especially don't use squid ); #2 or # 4 kahle type hooks; #10 mono good all purpose line for the surf, adjust the drag on the reel; pyramid weights in different sizes; don't buy double drop rigs, you can tie your own that are much more productive (youtube); and the list goes on and on, like eym said. Good luck, June is a great time for the surf. And one more thing, the fewer the swimmers, the better for the fishing, imho.

I got a kick out of your fish ID technique.

The internet didn't exist when we first started catching fish on the jetties (PCB) and it was routine for us to catch a fish, then holler out to the old-salts:

HEY what is it?! Can we eat it? Is it legal?

They were quite helpful. And that's when I learned to foil-wrap and "bake" over the fire. :D

I don't know if I'm posting this right so forgive me if I screw up. This is my first forum. I've already gotten from yall that fresh bait is obviously the way to go. I assume I can by shrimp by the pound at a baitshop. What are we looking at on price for it? bodebum, when you say #10 is that the poundage on the line?

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Originally Posted by bodebum

Welcome to the Forum, pmillard. Listen to what eym-sirius said and use the Search feature on the top and check out some you tube videos. Long nosed pliers, for sure; do not lay your reels in the sand, and give them a light rinse with fresh water each day after fishing; do not buy frozen bait to surf fish ( especially don't use squid ); #2 or # 4 kahle type hooks; #10 mono good all purpose line for the surf, adjust the drag on the reel; pyramid weights in different sizes; don't buy double drop rigs, you can tie your own that are much more productive (youtube); and the list goes on and on, like eym said. Good luck, June is a great time for the surf. And one more thing, the fewer the swimmers, the better for the fishing, imho.

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Yes, 10 lb. test is a good all round size mono. With the drag set right, with a good knot, we have caught and landed Black and Red drum over twenty pounds. Carolyn uses 8# mono; one of my rigs for flounder and pompano is 6# mono. My big surf rig has !0# mono. We usually buy fresh bait shrimp at 1/4 lb. or 1/2 lb. at a time, keep them in the cooler on ice. Peel the shrimp and use 1/2" pieces, for that is enough to interest the fish and cover the business part of the hook. As Haywire is fond of pointing out "This isn't rocket surgery". We have 30" lengths of 2' PVC pipe to shove in the sand to hold the rods up while we soak bait, and keep the reels out of the sand. Fish early to avoid the swimmers, because a lot of folks in the water with sun block and coconut oil tend push the fish elsewhere. You have time to learn the Search function, and bone up. The Search feature knows the answer to all your questions. Local tackle shops are great resources, and we like J&M Bait and Tackle ( for 30 years ). Their staff are fisher people. If you would be so kind, please post about yalls trip, and show us some pictures, so we who are not there can enjoy and be jealous at the same time.

I want to say thanks again. Yall have helped a lot so far and I hope others keep giving me pointers. Every little bit helps. I've been looking through the search feature but most of the time I don't know what to search for. That's why I started this. Now I know 10 # and live shrimp are orhodox. What about leaders? Am I going to have to worry about "toothy" fishes? I ran into some sharks last year. Is there anything special I need to know about leaders for them?

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Originally Posted by bodebum

Welcome to the Forum, pmillard. Listen to what eym-sirius said and use the Search feature on the top and check out some you tube videos. Long nosed pliers, for sure; do not lay your reels in the sand, and give them a light rinse with fresh water each day after fishing; do not buy frozen bait to surf fish ( especially don't use squid ); #2 or # 4 kahle type hooks; #10 mono good all purpose line for the surf, adjust the drag on the reel; pyramid weights in different sizes; don't buy double drop rigs, you can tie your own that are much more productive (youtube); and the list goes on and on, like eym said. Good luck, June is a great time for the surf. And one more thing, the fewer the swimmers, the better for the fishing, imho.

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Be prepared for toothy. I bring some wire as well as heavier mono and some fluoro now, but for years used wire or mono...fluoro is nice to have but not essential and if on a budget mono and some wire works. If the blues or Spanish are heavy then you will def need them

For bait fishing with Carolina rigs or drop rigs, we use 10# floro, we tie the rigs as we need them. Our target species is whiting, flounder, and pompano, and heavy leaders from the store reduces our catch, it seems like. There are definitely mouths with teeth, and razor sharp gill plates, but we are not usually after those and will occasionally get cut - off by bluefish, or Spanish, we still like light leaders. Pick one or two target species, Search those, and make notes. Just be ready for targeting one kind of fish and catching two or three other kind.