Sand fleas

[dlwedd]

This is another chapter in my surf fishing education. I have never fished with sand fleas before and just bought my first sand flea rake. Like I said in a previous post I am heading to Oak Island this Saturday and plan on doing some surf fishing. My main targets are whiting/sea mullet and Pomps with the fleas. I need the 411 on how this works from catching the fleas to hook size and the best way to hook the fleas.:fishing:
Keep in mind I am green to fishing with fleas so any info will be apreciated.:confused:
Thanks in advance for any advice.:cool:

[redneckfisherman]

all you do is look for small "v's" in the sand where the waves have receded and dig on em... it can be frustrating if your just digging clams the whole time though :mad: If i can't see any then i just dig in random spots above and below the waterline... once you see em and come up with a rake full then you know what to look for. ;)

[dlwedd]

I guess I missed school that week (LOL) but thanks for the info. That was some good stuff. This has to be the best place to learn diffrent ways to fish. There are so many people who have either done it or remember reading how to do it. I have pier fished most of my 41 years and have just now taken an interest in surf fishing. I registered here a little over a year ago and have just recently started to read and respond regularly.

[dlwedd]

LOL, LOL

Me no know me so strong.

[F I LetsGoFishin]

I just got a sand flea rake recently too, and one thing i learned is that it can be hard to get it to sink down into the sand. My solution to this was to have two people and to have the second guy step on the head of the rake to help push it deeper. Well.... it may have been a good idea if my friend was not such a brute, but to make a long story short, aluminum is not that strong. Now I gotta figure out how to weld aluminum so I can fix the thing!

Two things that I have found to work are;

If you can see fleas then just place the rake on the bottom and as the waves go out just shuffle your feet in the sand as they will scurry out with the wave.

when you can not see them, look for slight ledges just at the bottom of the wash or feel for softer sand in ankle to knee deep water then holding the handle low to the ground to dig in.

If you safty wire the handle good and tight to the mesh the welds hold much longer they were not realy ment for digging.

[dha123]

I have "The saltwater fishermans bible" from the 60's, got it for 50 cent at the used book sale at the library. anyways a technique that it says for pompano when using sand fleas is to use a pyramid sinker and cast at angle and reel in then again on the other side forming an "X" then lastly cast and leave ur flea directly on the criss-cross and wait. this supposed will attract them since the trail of the pyramid sinker and the scent form ur bait will let the fish follow the tracks right to ur bait.

sounds interesting....if u give it a try let me know how it goes.

[HellRhaY]

what happens if u use fishbites together with ur sand fleas? the scent of tbe fishbites goes everywhere...

but ur crisscross sounds interesting...

[The Crew]

I have "The saltwater fishermans bible" from the 60's, got it for 50 cent at the used book sale at the library. anyways a technique that it says for pompano when using sand fleas is to use a pyramid sinker and cast at angle and reel in then again on the other side forming an "X" then lastly cast and leave ur flea directly on the criss-cross and wait. this supposed will attract them since the trail of the pyramid sinker and the scent form ur bait will let the fish follow the tracks right to ur bait.

sounds interesting....if u give it a try let me know how it goes.


When I go down to the Treasure Coast I will definitely give that a try as well as with the fishbites. Sounds interesting.

[POMPINOLOVER]

well dha , that might sound good in theory, but you overlooking the fact that as the next wave that comes in like maybe 10 seconds, the tracks you made with a sinker are wiped out ...I think that they missed the point that pompano are sight feeders, they have a terirble sense of smell, so just throwing out and bumping your sinker when the wave rolls in works best and thats where that came from ....d

[f210]

what happens if u use fishbites together with ur sand fleas? the scent of tbe fishbites goes everywhere...

but ur crisscross sounds interesting...

A couple of years ago in the Avalon Pier, our group caught well over a hundred big pompanos just using shrimp tipped with orange colored (clam flavored) fishbites. The reason for this is that they mistake the orange color for the belly of a sand flea when it is ripe with eggs. Sometimes, the orange FB worked just as well even without the shrimp.

[J-E-T-S]

Great tip F210, thanks, will try tonight...