New setup...now what?

[Audiochem]

Ok, I've finally put together a halfway decent surf fishing outfit (11' Emblem and Emcast 5500). I'm heading down to Panama City Beach in a couple weeks and wondered if anyone had any recommendations on bait and species. What should I target?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx

[The Crew]

I love that Emcast! The sky's the limit. You can catch just about anything with almost anything.
I'd use live bait on a 3/0 owner hook. (larger species)
Or fresh or live shrimp on a 1/0 owner hook. (smaller species).

You are gonna have fun and catch a lot.:fishing:

[bjake]

Where will you be staying?What times will you be fishing?I fish the area some but usually from the mid Sept. to mid Oct. and conditions and what fish are around change with the season.Ladyfish,lizzardfish and blues are easy to catch on artificial bait so I have fun catching bait to cut up.Squid will always catch something.Try to fish on a moving tide.The link to Halfhitch tackle is very useful to keep up with what is going on with fishing in the area.
What part of Ohio are you from?
http://www.halfhitch.com/alsdefault.asp
Jake

[Audiochem]

Thanks for the advice. I'm in the Cincy area and used to go to Gulf Shores alot, but Ivan and Katrina have pretty much wiped everything out. I'll be back once things have recoup'd.

I'll be at PCB the first week of Sept.

[bjake]

Have a good trip and be sure to give us a report when you come back.Will be headed down there myself the second or third week of Sept. myself.Hove you have good report and useful info that I can use.
Jake

[Audiochem]

Will do. I've got little ones I'll be taking with me so I probably won't get to do as much fishing as I would like, but I'll report all that I know. I'm going to set my 4 y.o. up for some whiting fishing. She'll have a blast.

Thanks for the website. Looks helpful.

[RuddeDogg]

Have a good trip. Will look forward to a report. Tight lines.