(Been there, done that)Īs for tackle, a double-hook bottom rig will serve you well. You'll end up sitting there for hours upon hours without so much as a nibble. "Chuck it as far as you can", at least in my opinion, won't get you anywhere. Reading a beach is difficult, and the transitional areas are subtle. This guide will describe what I'm talking about in better detail. And if they're small, they're in the breakers. Other than this, you'll catch some bluefish, but they'll be sporadic and probably small. The fish were cruising the sandbar, but they stopped biting when the school moved on. The cresting means that the waves crossed a brief shallow bar before calming down over the inner trough. I waded up to my armpits through the first set of breakers and cast a finger mullet rig so that it fell where the outer waves were cresting. The only decent bluefish I've caught from the beach with any regularity (aside from the occasional 27 incher that appeared to have been traveling alone) were caught under birds and on an outer sandbar. You probably won't find them (or reach them) from a straight stretch of beach. I've seen spanish mackerel come close enough to ride the crest of a wave, but only on one of the cape points.
For spanish, pier fishing is your best bet, but you'll pay for a day/week pass, you'll be competing with dozens and dozens of other fishing lines, and you'll probably see more fish (other species) caught close to the beach than off the deep end where the king mackerel fishermen keep their live bait rigs locked in for hours upon hours. I've fished inshore and on the beach, and inshore always puts the spanish mackerel between 30 and 40 feet of water. You'll probably catch them in bunches, and it's really difficult to figure out where to find them. On the other hand, spanish mackerel and bluefish will be in the area, but they move in schools. Like I said, unless you're near Cape Point or off Cape Lookout, you will probably be on a quiet, generally fish-less stretch of sand. They're bottom feeders, and the food is close to the beach. Third, the drum are present, but I still think you're better chasing puppy drum in the surf than you are casting out and hoping that a bull cruises by. Second, you will not catch a striper in the summer. They cruise the trough below crashing waves and feed on mole crabs that get washed off the beach. The ones I've ever caught were less than 15 feet from the beach. The rest is open water where neither baitfish nor crustaceans congregate.įirst off, from what I know about them, you will never catch a pompano behind the breakers. If you're fishing the point of a cape you'll have a confluence of currents and species and lots of boundary ecosystems, but if you're fishing a mostly dead, straight stretch of beach, the only transition area where feeding occurs is in and under the breakers. I've had significantly better luck casting directly into the breakers. All were caught in the wash by New Drum Inlet. We fished Portsmouth Island a few weeks ago and caught 10 Red Drum between 22 and 26 inches. I've surf fished in NC all my life, and the temptation is always to sling your bottom rig out into deeper water, as far as you can physically sling it and keep the bait on your hook(s). Good luck.Īlright, I'm going to counter some of the advice in other comments.
It always seemed like slow fishing but there are monsters out there. Bait your hooks with whatever the locals recommend, sling it as far as you can, set the rod in a rod tube and wait. It will help keep it from catching on the guides when you cast. I would recommend picking up some 5 minute epoxy to coat the leader knot. test so you can cast far with all the weight and not break the line. We always used the double hook rigs and you will probably want some 3-6 oz. I never use it in the gulf but you need it in the ocean. I have an Ugly Stik that wasn't terribly expensive and will get the job done. My suggestion is to take the reel off that 9 ft. You are gonna need to sling that line a long way to get past the big surf. In the outer banks the surf is a lot bigger and it gets deep fast. Growing up we used to go to Cape Hatteras every couple of years. I live in LA and fish in the gulf regularly these days. I assume you are talking outer banks of NC? Surf fishing on the Atlantic is a little different than surf fishing the gulf.
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