Need Advice from folks who know

[bowriter]

What lures-hooks etc. do I need for shore fishing at GS. I'll just be casting from the shore and may fish bait a little. Last time I was there, we caught blues and other stuff on shiney spoons and larger charteuse jigs. Going in late June for a week, rented a house on the beach at Ft. Morgan.

 

[gil1]

Racking my brain to figure out what GS is. You LOL OMG types are killing me.

 

[gil1]

Racking my brain to figure out what GS is. You LOL OMG types are killing me.

[size][color:#FF0000]GULF SHORES!!![/color][/size]

:crazy:

 

[stik]

gotcha baits in various colors have always been my most productive artificials. reel them like you are trying to keep it away from the fish. you can't. those ocean fish are FAST!!!

 

[Diehard Hunter]

It really depends on what you are wanting to catch. If you will PM me your email, I will send you some pictures and tell you what you can catch on what rigs.

Pompano rigs are alot different from redfish rigs, and if the mackerel are running, that is entirely different. I have a rig for every occassion, from catching whiting in knee deep surf to catching big drum when they hit the beach at night.

It sounds like alot, but I can pare it down to a pretty simple shopping list if you can tell when what you want to catch.

BTW, depending on how close you are to the actually mouth of mobile bay, you can get into some pretty big sharks from the beach down there.

 

[bowriter]

my email is [email protected]. However, don't want me no sharks. I don't know what I want to catch cause I don't know jack about saltwater fish. I guess, just about whatever is biting. I'm not planning on eating them, just catching them. I'll be using my heavy action spinning rods. Thanks.

 

[cneale]

i need help too. going to ft. walton in may. never fished saltwater before. will be fishing from the beach or maybe the pier. i have a baitcaster, hope its stout enough. any tips would be great.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

Ok, here are a few tips. First, take a medium action bass rod with you. You can catch whiting all day long in the deeper areas close to the beach. Look for where ethe sand drops off sharply on the beach and their will be a deep hole there. You won't need to cast more than 50 feet in most instances. In some case you will catch them within 5 feet of shore.

For whiting use a fish finder rig. A 1/2 ounce egg sinker above a swivel with a leader about 18 inches long. I use a size 6 hook and shrimp tails for bait. Cast it into the deep pockets and let the surf roll it around. You can also real it in slowly. One thing about writings, if you catch one six inches long, all of them in that spot will be six inches long. They will congregate by size.

Now, for red fish, jacks, etc, you can use small whiting for live bait, of if you can get it, a chunk of cut Bonita. I fish these using a surf rig with a pyramid sinker from 2 to 4 ounces depending on him heavy the surf is and how much you can cast on your heavy rods. You will need some good line too. I use 85 pound power pro braid, but you can get by with mono. Just expect to lose bigger fish and sharks. Cast this rig as far as you can, but get into the trough between sand bars. Look especially for areas where there is a break in the sand bar leading to deeper water. Redfish, sea trout, and black drum will be in those cuts at dawn and dusk. Fish on the bottom with a tight line. Once the sinker embeds in the bottom. Real down until you have a good bow in the rod. Is use circle hooks for this rig and when they strike, the hook is set until you can get to the rod. I set them in a sand spike to hold them and fish for whiting while I am waiting.

If you want alot of just fun fighting fish, use a bright silver spoon with a chartreuse tube trailer and cast into the breaking waves for lady fish. They are a poor mans tarpon. You can catch a thousand when they are biting. They are no good to eat, but make good shark bait from what I understand.

If the pompano are running, you can catch them using a pompano rig and dead shrimp or dead/alive sand fleas. Cast to where the waves are starting to break churning up the sand and hang on. Filet and cook any legal pompano you catch, they are fantastic.

You may also catch the blues breaking.....actually I can about guarantee you will see them at that time of year. Cast that spoon to them, but make sure you have the heavy braid or a wire leader. They are a blast to catch, but have a mouth full of teeth, and are not very good to eat.

Your best bet to catch trout, reds, and black drum will be per dawn or after dark. Whiting hit all day, as do jacks. If you hook a jack you may as well palm the reel and brak him off before he takes all your line, unless you are rigged for a big fish. They show no mercy.

You will catch some sharks, fort Morgan is full of them. Full of stingrays too. Just be careful, most are small, but I have caught sharks over 6 feet and rays as big as a car hood off the beach.

If you find a place where it is really shallow and drops off into a deep trough, you may get some flounder. Drag a dead minnow though there really slowly and you might get lucky. If you catch one, there will usually be more, they congregate like the whiting.

Good luck. I will try to send you a picture of the different rigs when I get some time in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

I meant to add.....if you start catching catfish, you may as well call it a day. They are no good to eat, and they sting. They will also tear up every rig you have.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

A suggestion to anyone going down......leave your good reels at home and buy a cheap combo outfit at Walmart when you get there. You can get a surf combo of around $50. When I say surf combo I mean a rod 10-13' long and a big reel with good line capacity. Then fill it with power pro line and cast out for the big boys. If you go to the pier, do not try to over hand cast. Hang it over the side and cast it under hand straight out from the pier. Get a spot along the pier on the ocean side of the second sand bar and catch all the fish you want.

Also, buy fresh bait shrimp, not frozen. I get 5 pounds ate a time, and use half a container of salt to salt them. Then I freeze them in ziplock bags, flat so they don't freeze together. The salting makes them stay on the hook better, and you come out cheaper in the long run. The cups of dead shrimp you buy will spoil before you use half of them on the beach, and they are very hard to get the shrimp out of without thawing the whole cup out.

 

[cneale]

thanks for the advice. it helps a lot since i've never fished saltwater.i cant wait to try it out!
is fishing better at high tide, or does it matter?

 

[jb3]

I use my boys walmart zebco and we catch catfish. He has a blast.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

The tide has a great influence. What you want is a changing tide. Coming in or going out. If you have a neap tide (no change) the fishing is horrible. I prefer an outgoing tide when I am fishing from the beach. All the predators are storming the beach getting what is being washed out, especially at the mouths of bays, inlets, etc. With the tide coming in, you end up not being able to reach the deeper pockets without doing a little swimming. However, with a falling tide you often get good fish trapped in the deep cuts between the first sand bar and the beach. Also, with the falling tide, you can wade out farther and farther eventually getting to the deepest water beyond the second sand bar. That is where the big boys are.

 

[SES]

I've always had good luck with Rapala Xraps in the surf. The 3" model in silver and black. Also, like to use shrimp to catch small pinfish. Cut a slit or two on each side of the live pinfish and chunk it out on a good size circle hook. Don't stray too far away from your rod or you'll see it skipping across the beach never to be seen again.

 

[NICHOLS3]

Ok, here are a few tips. First, take a medium action bass rod with you. You can catch whiting all day long in the deeper areas close to the beach. Look for where ethe sand drops off sharply on the beach and their will be a deep hole there. You won't need to cast more than 50 feet in most instances. In some case you will catch them within 5 feet of shore.

For whiting use a fish finder rig. A 1/2 ounce egg sinker above a swivel with a leader about 18 inches long. I use a size 6 hook and shrimp tails for bait. Cast it into the deep pockets and let the surf roll it around. You can also real it in slowly. One thing about writings, if you catch one six inches long, all of them in that spot will be six inches long. They will congregate by size.

Now, for red fish, jacks, etc, you can use small whiting for live bait, of if you can get it, a chunk of cut Bonita. I fish these using a surf rig with a pyramid sinker from 2 to 4 ounces depending on him heavy the surf is and how much you can cast on your heavy rods. You will need some good line too. I use 85 pound power pro braid, but you can get by with mono. Just expect to lose bigger fish and sharks. Cast this rig as far as you can, but get into the trough between sand bars. Look especially for areas where there is a break in the sand bar leading to deeper water. Redfish, sea trout, and black drum will be in those cuts at dawn and dusk. Fish on the bottom with a tight line. Once the sinker embeds in the bottom. Real down until you have a good bow in the rod. Is use circle hooks for this rig and when they strike, the hook is set until you can get to the rod. I set them in a sand spike to hold them and fish for whiting while I am waiting.

If you want alot of just fun fighting fish, use a bright silver spoon with a chartreuse tube trailer and cast into the breaking waves for lady fish. They are a poor mans tarpon. You can catch a thousand when they are biting. They are no good to eat, but make good shark bait from what I understand.

If the pompano are running, you can catch them using a pompano rig and dead shrimp or dead/alive sand fleas. Cast to where the waves are starting to break churning up the sand and hang on. Filet and cook any legal pompano you catch, they are fantastic.

You may also catch the blues breaking.....actually I can about guarantee you will see them at that time of year. Cast that spoon to them, but make sure you have the heavy braid or a wire leader. They are a blast to catch, but have a mouth full of teeth, and are not very good to eat.

Your best bet to catch trout, reds, and black drum will be per dawn or after dark. Whiting hit all day, as do jacks. If you hook a jack you may as well palm the reel and brak him off before he takes all your line, unless you are rigged for a big fish. They show no mercy.

You will catch some sharks, fort Morgan is full of them. Full of stingrays too. Just be careful, most are small, but I have caught sharks over 6 feet and rays as big as a car hood off the beach.

If you find a place where it is really shallow and drops off into a deep trough, you may get some flounder. Drag a dead minnow though there really slowly and you might get lucky. If you catch one, there will usually be more, they congregate like the whiting.

Good luck. I will try to send you a picture of the different rigs when I get some time in the next couple of weeks.

wth sharks over 6 ft..thats why I dont go out to deep unless Im looking for sand dollars but now you have me re-thinking the sand dollars lol.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

That close to mobile bay is full of big bull sharks. I catch alot of the smaller bonnet heads and Atlantic sharp nose, but have had some big sharks caught in really close to the beach, especially at night. That is why I use a kayak to take my baits out to the deep water. My brother inlaw however will wade out chin deep to cast, even after dark.

A couple of years ago some guys caught a huge mako in the pass in orange beach. It towed their 17 foot boat several miles out to sea before they landed it. They had to call for a tow back in. I will see if I can find the link and post it here.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

http://www.orangebeach.ws/2007/News/200 ... _Pass.html

 

[CBU93]

BW,
If you complain about landlocked stripers, do you really want to try your hand with salt water?

 

[ClubHead]

I went to Biloxi right before Katrina hit which isnt that far from there.I had may Hillbilly beetle spin and was catching some skip jack trout looking things in waist deep water LoL

 

[bowriter]

BW,
If you complain about landlocked stripers, do you really want to try your hand with salt water?

Not my call. My son wants to catch fish and I won't be using 4# line. I know my wrists can't handle much. My man SCN has me covered. He is just going to oan me his tackle box and a big rod.

If I still dranl, I could get by with a case of beer a day and agood book. Now, I guess I'll have to find something to do. However, I have found, a man with a camera can most always find a target in that country.

 

[WMAn]

DieHardHunter,

Can you explain the sand bars? First, second?

I was in Gulf Shores, about three miles east of Fort Morgan and Mobile Bay, last October. My father-in-law and I fished from the beach using bucktail jigs and pompano rigs with shrimp/squid. We caught lady fish on the jigs and one pompano, stingrays, and remoras on the live bait. One day, we went to a marina on the bay side where we were buying our bait. They let us fish the end of their pier where a boat channel had been dredged. We caught a bunch of croakers, a few nice white trout, and a catfish there.

When we were there, there was about 50 yards of waist to chest deep water (depending on the tide) coming off the beach and then a sand bar that was about 50 yards wide before dropping off into water too deep to wade. I waded the sand bar for a mile or more one day looking for a cut and could never find one.

You are right about the sharks. While we were there, the mullet (?) were running in big schools over the far edge of the sand bar. Periodically, you would see the mullet go nuts and the birds go crazy. My in-laws were walking the beach at sunset and saw a middle aged man carrying a big surf rod take off sprinting down the beach. He ran a distance and cast into a place where the water had erupted. He immediately hooked into a 6 foot shark that broke off in the surf.

The other crazy thing about wading that sand bar is electric rays. They are kind of like peeing on an electric fence while standing in a creek. Ouch!

 

[CBU93]

Not my call. My son wants to catch fish and I won't be using 4# line.



Now, I guess I'll have to find something to do. However, I have found, a man with a camera can most always find a target in that country.

Gotta spend time with the young uns for sure. And there should be plenty of photogenic targets of opportunity I would imagine.

 

[Diehard Hunter]

Wmaman,

The sand bar you describe walking on is the first one. Then there will be a trough too deep to wade, but it will come back up to another sand bar, then it will drop into really deep water. We usually swin across the first deep section to the second bar if we don't have the yak with us.

In the future, if you want to find a cut, look at th beach. There will be a steep drop off on the beach anywhere there is a cut. you don't have to walk the sand bar, just look at the beach.

Learning to read the beach is half the battle in surf fishing.

 

[Crosshairy]

I'll be down in Gulf Shores the week of June 18th. I've done a little bit better every year while fishing on my own, but I always seem to be short of time alone (or at the right times) to do everything I want.

The thing I never really understood is how people fish the big pier when they are so far above the water. Do they really just have to crank those fish all the way up and over the rail? I usually see a lot of fish while there, but I've always just gone on walks with my wife and never actually fished there.

Last time I fished in the pass at Little Lagoon and the big one at Orange Beach, since that gave better access to deeper water. I haven't dropped money on any long surf-casting rods yet (the longest I have is 8 feet, the rest are just my 7-foot spinning rods).

Thanks for posting so much advice DH!

I assume that bringing my baitcaster is just a bad idea all around unless I want to trash it with saltwater?

 

[stik]

I assume that bringing my baitcaster is just a bad idea all around unless I want to trash it with saltwater?

rinse it out good and it will be fine. rinse ALL your reels and rods immediately after fishing in saltwater.


http://www.gulfshorespierfishing.com/index.php

they're wearing them out right now.

 

[rsimms]

What lures-hooks etc. do I need for shore fishing at GS. I'll just be casting from the shore and may fish bait a little. Last time I was there, we caught blues and other stuff on shiney spoons and larger charteuse jigs. Going in late June for a week, rented a house on the beach at Ft. Morgan.

I can't help with the shore fishing at GS... but I am shocked that bowriter has admitted (in print no less), that there is something he doesn't know!