# newbie surf fishin ??



## groovyfluidfish (Dec 2, 2010)

well i have been here in fl over 10 years and really have only done some freshwater fishing. friend came from ny last month and woke me back up to realize how much i missed the coast/beachside. we spent a few days bank fishing the masquito/IRL lagoon (i am boatless) without much sucess. I have been back out there 4 or 5 times exploring the area from oak hill to titusville in the past three weeks with about the same result. using live shrimp on a fish find rig up,drifting,freelining. all with not good results yet. So now i think i want to try some surf fishing. I built me a pvc beach cart to walk my gear on the sand and i am going to go to wally world and get me a 10' penn rod and a decent reel, or i have a couple penn pursuit 5000 reels with 20# braid. would that work or should i get a decent reel that will take up to 50# line? the rods i have already are 7' medium and medium/heavy where i use in the river or bass fishing. both saltwater rods. also have a oceanmaster 7' heavy action rod. I plan on spending alot of time out on the sand and surf fishing and i guess my target is Big Fish! pretty set on getting the 10' rod but any advice on a reel and anything else you want to throw in about surf fishing and things to consider would be great...... Also i have been out on the jetty at ponce inlet and was wondering if you go to the dunes park if you are able to walk and get access to that corner right across from the rocks? Never see anyone fishing there.. looks like a good spot. to me it looks like you can wade out where it's shallow and hit someone on the head fishing on the jetty and from satillite pics looks like a through and sand bar right on the corner. thanks for any ideas and advice......


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## smacks fanatic (Oct 16, 2010)

7 foot rod is okay but a 9 foot plus is much better to keep the line over the swells imho. 50 pound line is defiently not needed unless you are a shark boy. some times imo 20 pound line isnt nessecarry. would also not recoomend braid because in rough surf, it tends to pull the sinker off the sand. 15 pound mono is what i usually use. i have a really nice conventional reel that holds about 250 yards of 15 pound test. spinning reels are also nice cuz you can get a nice cast with little effort imo. hope this helps dude:fishing:


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## The Crew (Jul 8, 2007)

groovyfluidfish said:


> well i have been here in fl over 10 years and really have only done some freshwater fishing. friend came from ny last month and woke me back up to realize how much i missed the coast/beachside. we spent a few days bank fishing the masquito/IRL lagoon (i am boatless) without much sucess. I have been back out there 4 or 5 times exploring the area from oak hill to titusville in the past three weeks with about the same result. using live shrimp on a fish find rig up,drifting,freelining. all with not good results yet. So now i think i want to try some surf fishing. I built me a pvc beach cart to walk my gear on the sand and i am going to go to wally world and get me a 10' penn rod and a decent reel, or i have a couple penn pursuit 5000 reels with 20# braid. would that work or should i get a decent reel that will take up to 50# line? the rods i have already are 7' medium and medium/heavy where i use in the river or bass fishing. both saltwater rods. also have a oceanmaster 7' heavy action rod. I plan on spending alot of time out on the sand and surf fishing and i guess my target is Big Fish! pretty set on getting the 10' rod but any advice on a reel and anything else you want to throw in about surf fishing and things to consider would be great...... Also i have been out on the jetty at ponce inlet and was wondering if you go to the dunes park if you are able to walk and get access to that corner right across from the rocks? Never see anyone fishing there.. looks like a good spot. to me it looks like you can wade out where it's shallow and hit someone on the head fishing on the jetty and from satillite pics looks like a through and sand bar right on the corner. thanks for any ideas and advice......


I have a 7' light action rod that gets a lot of action in the surf, which is to say a 7' rod will catch fish. But I'd have to agree 9' plus if you are going to fish surf regularly. One tactic I use is to always fish one short distance and one long. 7-9' rod short and 11'+ long.

Biggest part of surf fishing is finding the fish. 20# braid is fine. This time of year the fish are migrating south to warmer water. Your area will normally hold Snook (a great fighter and they can get big). They just despise cold water so they're going or gone. East of Titusville you have Merrit Island and Playalinda Beach. Lot one will hold Pompano pretty much through the winter but you have to be able to cast long to get to them on most days. Long rod 11-13'. I prefer a conventional reel like an Abu Garcia or Penn 525mag/Squall.

You can always catch whiting and blues but they're small 1-3lbs. Ocassionally you can get a blue up to 5lbs or more. What's best in the winter is to go inshore like you were doing. Fish for Sheepshead using fiddler crabs, black drum using big pieces of fresh shrimp or crab quarters/knuckles and trout using life shrimp under a float or an artifical jigging.

The Surf will heat up again as the spring nears. Summer in your area inshore is on fire. Flounder, Snook, Reds, just about anything. Go back to Surf in the fall.

With the kind of heavy equipment it looks like you prefer you might want to try Sharking, when they migrate north in the spring. With a shorter rod you'll have to get your bait out there and around here people use a kayak to do that. You can make a castable shark rig that would work also. I use a 12' Ocean Master and a Saltist reel.

Hope this helps.
Ed


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## groovyfluidfish (Dec 2, 2010)

Well, thanks for the replies, (the crew and smacks) apon going to a few tackle shops and other places looking for a decent reel for my new 10' rods i just decided to use my penn 5000 reels i have already and switch from the 20# braid to 15# or 17# mono and use them on my 10' rods and my penn 4000 reels on my 7' rods in the river or ML/IRL and freshwater. I guess my understanding now is the 10' rods in the surf are for longer casting abilities and not so much needing real heavy gear to fish the surf. i mean we all want the big ones but with me just starting to surf fish and all around saltwater for that matter, i'll be happy just being on the sand catching small fish along with bigger fish, as i learn more i may upgrade equipment to target a specific fish. as i am pretty much catch and release unless there is a certain fish i want to fry. The crew, you mentioned playlinda, lot one. i had an old timer tell me just a few days ago that if you go to the last lot, walk past the nudies and up about a mile there is a sunken barge. is that correct and if so is it a good spot to fish?


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## mjg3 (Feb 26, 2010)

gff yeah there is a barge up there. i would suggest you warm up your surf fishing skills before the WALK north for the barge. lot 1 south is a good start. figure out what gear works best for you, what effects different tide heights, moon phases and wind direction etc.. nothing worse then making that walk in the soft sand with a bunch of gear you wont even use. as far as your gear that should be fine for starting out. when you decide to step up in rod length wally world carries ugly sticks not the best, but best bang for the buck when your learning. also decent sunglasses pending on what time you get there you can see sand bars and drops etc.. standing on the cross walks naturally you wont see them at 630am but then just watch the waves!


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## groovyfluidfish (Dec 2, 2010)

*thanks*

thanks mjg.... yeah i went to wally world and picked up 10' ugly sticks, would have liked a penn but they didn't have any 10'ers. i have been using ugly sticks from way back in the day fishin for muskie and walleye where i'm from up north and they seem to be able to take a good beating. guess the old timer wasn't just telling me fish tales... i did make me a crude little beach cart out of pvc and put a peice of plywood on top with two rod holders and 16" wheels. i think i'll go to new smyrna, drive the beach down to the rocks on the oppisite side of ponce inlet jetty on my first time out and walk my cart over to where it curves around to see if it works and fish alittle right there. if it does i'll have to wheel it down playlinda. whats the best time to fish that area the barge is in incoming tide or outgoing? from what i gather they say it's best to fish anywhere on an incoming tide.


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