HHI Surf Report - 8/20-21

[FishRung]

Fished 8/20 and 21 on SE Coast of HHI about 1 mile north of the inlet. 8/20: Fished down and low tide (11AM-4PM) and had 48" shark, speckled trout to 16" and small blue on surface popper and shark on cut blue on bottom rig. Tried floated finger mullet, but nothing. 8/21: Fished same times. Had many hits on surface popper and floated finger muller landing Spanish Mackerel to 18" and small blues, plus three Sting Ray on cut mullet on bottom rig. Plenty of bait for netting. And boy was it hot! Be back next w/e.

[Railroader]

Sounds like things are pickin' up...... :)

[Big Worm]

So your floating those finger mullet from the beach right? What kinda float are you using? Any weight to be able to get it out there? You fishing during the day so you can see em'? One more :) how far under do you fish them for the spanish?

[Big Worm]

Sorry I read right over the time posted. Do you that would work at night with a cricle hook and a clicker set?

Thanks.

[FishRung]

Big Worm: I tie 3' of 40lb flurocarbon leader to my 14lb mainline. The most successful float was round and lime green in color, slightly smaller than a baseball. No weight is used and the fish is set about 24" below the float. Most of the time the bait is swimming on or just under the surface. I haven't tried float fishing at night and as I rely on sight to spot the takes I don't think I will be. A 5" red and white float was far less successful.

BTW: the mullet are presented on a Gamagatsu 3/0 Circle hook and hooked about 1" from the base of the tail.

[FishRung]

Other problems with float fishing at night:
1. you can't see where the bait is taking the float and it can swim into shore
2. the clicker only works if the strike goes out to sea
3. you need a real strong lamp to keep track of the float.

[outdoorsoccer15]

Hey! All,

Anyone ever try the large lighted bobbers that you can buy for freshwater fishing? I have always wanted to try and use them for floating a minnow out there. I have used the smaller variety for crappie fishing and they work pretty well.

Good fishing to all,

ODS15

[Big Worm]

Not a half bad idea though. Lighted float. I have used them in cat fishing but never thought to use them in the salt. Not sure they make one big enough though.

Where do you get a float a bit smaller than a baseball?

If we were to try this at night might be better off just using a simple surf rig with a slip sinker and a float rigged up under the water to float the bait up from the bottom instead of floating it from the surface. Then you could depend a bit more on a drag and "feel" a bite instead of trying to eyeball the bite.

[clinder]

take your salt water cork buy the small glow sticks they make for rod tips and a small tube of super glue. glue one or two of the glow sticks which are only about an inch long and the diameter of an a large spagetti noodle. they are surprisingly bright and easily visible at night from long distance and add very little to no bulk to your cork. this is what i do and it works extremely well.hope that helps you. good luck and catch fish :)

[serialdata]

In Tampa, we used to fish at night with a float quite regularly. We put a chem-light in a ballon and tied the ballon onto the line. It worked great, if you remembered to do a few things. 1) Always tie the ballon around your line. If you tie the line aroung the ballon, the line will cut the ballon and all will be lost! 2) Make the ballon as small as possible, wind really moves a big ballon. The best thing about this set-up is that the pressure of a large fish pulling the ballon under will often pop the ballon. The empty ballon and chem-light stay attached to the line (reuse the chem-light and dicard the ballon in the trash). We found this set-up to work very well!

[serialdata]

It helps if the ballon is clear, so that you can see the chem-light better!

[Big Worm]

Sweet tip. I am going to try this one.

[Railroader]

I've used the little lightsticks on a float....Just use a little black electrician's tape....DONE!

There is a link in an old post somewhere that will get you little lightsticks for 9 bucks a hundred...in several color choices... :cool:

Search "light sticks" in the open forum, I think it was........

[sprtsracer]

Cheap Light Sticks Here (http://www.light-stick.us/store/index.php?cPath=72)

[Big Worm]

Nice. I am just going to have to try this now.