# Fort Walton Beach redfish and sharks



## justafisher (Feb 2, 2011)

Just returned from a week stay at Fort Walton Beach. Managed 7 sharks and couple decent redfish from the surf.


----------



## SloppyTilapia (Oct 4, 2013)

Cool. Thanks for the report and pics. What were you using for bait? I got a trip planned at St. George Island for a week at the end of this month. Hopefully can hook up with some of them big reds and sharks as well.


----------



## justafisher (Feb 2, 2011)

I was using a large chunked whiting on that night , that I caught earlier in the day. Later in the week I started going to the destin marina and picked up kingfish heads from the charter fleet . Great bait and free.


----------



## SloppyTilapia (Oct 4, 2013)

Heck yeah! Free bait. Can't beat it! Last trip to SGI, I used a sabiki rig and tipped the hooks with the tiniest bit of shrimp I could muster. Casted it out maybe 20-30 ft and I caught more 6-9" whiting than I could use for bait. Whiting heads are worth their weight in gold when it comes to the surf  I need to jump on the mullet bandwagon and compare.....thoughts??


----------



## justafisher (Feb 2, 2011)

I do exactly the same thing with the whiting. I caught tons right on the edge of the surf. I've never used mullet. The king mackeral heads worked great. I like how they sit on a circle hook. They are also very oily, they never say long without action, much better than the whiting for sharks


----------



## SloppyTilapia (Oct 4, 2013)

Thanks for the info. Maybe smack heads would be about the same, if I could catch a few of them....the sabiki trick would have saved me a lot of heartache and time if I had known 5 years ago  did u fish mostly at night? SGI has the no flashlight rule from May-October, due to sea turtle nests. Not sure how strict they enforce it....I think u can use red filtered lights with no problem though.


----------



## justafisher (Feb 2, 2011)

I didn't use sabiki this time. I just tied up some up some double drop rigs with tiny red salmon egg hooks. I used shrimp for a few days then started using tiny strips of shrimp flavored fishbites. It worked great and I have up on the hassle and nastiness of shrimp. Fort walton beach was packed with beach goers . So early morning and dusk and night were the only times I could get bigger baits in the water. Lots of people on the beach with flashlights at night. I had a blast, the surf is a constantly changing game. Sometimes it's easy, and sometimes it kicks your but.


----------



## SloppyTilapia (Oct 4, 2013)

Did ya get any measurements on them fish? Or best guesstimates? My few big reds off the beach have come in the spring and fall. Anywhere from 35-44". Sharks, I need to do better with getting the tape out on them


----------



## justafisher (Feb 2, 2011)

Wish I had a tape measurement. I would say in the 40 in range . The first one was just huge , I couldn't believe how big it was. You could fit a softball in it's mouth. At least 40 lbs, the 2nd was in the 25 -30 lb range.


----------

