NC BEACHES SURF FISHING HELP

**BUDMEISER01** · 07-15-2012, 07:39 PM

I am thinking about heading to Carolina Beach next weekend for some night time surf fishing. I have fished the piers before and had decent luck with numbers but not size. I haven't fished saltwater very much so to say the least, I am very inexperienced. I don't know what to target, what gear I should use or the best bait to use. I have some ideas and questions, so I need some input from someone with more experience. I think shark fishing would be really cool, but I am far from prepared for that.

I have an 8'0" and a 9'0" spinning reel combo that I used on the piers with a 2 hook rig and a pyramid sinker that had 20lbs mono line on them. I switched them to some red 50lb Invicta braid for catfishing, I assume this line will be fine for surf fishing. Should I use the 2 hook rig with the pyramid sinker or is there a better set up???

I have an 8'0" R2 WAR ROD mated with an Omoto 7000 AB3 Jungle that is spooled with Hi-vis yellow 65lb Suffix 832 braid. I assume this setup is ok for surf fishing, but again I don't know.

So my questions are as follows.....

Will my gear work for this application???

What bait should I use???

What leader / rig should I use???

How do I locate the best spot on the beach for catching, LOL, not fishing???

Best time to fish??? High tide or low tide???

How far should I cast out???

I guess I need all of the information that I can get, LOL!!! Thanks in advance!!!

**Poppa** · 07-15-2012, 11:09 PM

Bud you probably know more about salt water fishing than I do. I have not been but a few
times. You were asking about leader so I will tell you of my last expereance fishing oil rigs.
Now it could be that the fish had been hit very hard for weeks and it was the last few days of
snapper season.
I carried my catfishing bag and my pre-tied hooks. I had rigs tied in 40# cajun red and others
tied in blue 40# big game. I was fishing with 2oz no-rolls, a bead, barrel swievel, and last a
18" to 24" leader with two snelled 5/0 kahle eagle claws.
I could not buy a bite. My partner was getting bit fairly quickly.
The difference was he was useing floracabron leader. I cut off my rigs and retied with floracarbon
and started getting bit. I could not believe that those fish were so line shy in 65' of water. To
experiment I would go back to my catfish rigs from time to time when I would have to retie.
Same thing as before nothing. It made a believer out of me.
Get some floracarbon leader for your trip.

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**Tool958** · 07-16-2012, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Poppa

Bud you probably know more about salt water fishing than I do. I have not been but a few
times. You were asking about leader so I will tell you of my last expereance fishing oil rigs.
Now it could be that the fish had been hit very hard for weeks and it was the last few days of
snapper season.
I carried my catfishing bag and my pre-tied hooks. I had rigs tied in 40# cajun red and others
tied in blue 40# big game. I was fishing with 2oz no-rolls, a bead, barrel swievel, and last a
18" to 24" leader with two snelled 5/0 kahle eagle claws.
I could not buy a bite. My partner was getting bit fairly quickly.
The difference was he was useing floracabron leader. I cut off my rigs and retied with floracarbon
and started getting bit. I could not believe that those fish were so line shy in 65' of water. To
experiment I would go back to my catfish rigs from time to time when I would have to retie.
Same thing as before nothing. It made a believer out of me.
Get some floracarbon leader for your trip.

We had the same expirience fishing for bluegill this spring. We were fishing Pickwick Lake this spring with a friend. He was in his boat fishing the same rig, bait and all. The only difference was we were using 6# fluorocarbon and he was fishing 6# mono. We were catching at least two to one of what they were catching. I learned the hard way to not try to pull on it and break it by hand. It'll cut you like a knife. It's a lot tougher than mono.

**Mark J** · 07-16-2012, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by BUDMEISER01

I am thinking about heading to Carolina Beach next weekend for some night time surf fishing. I have fished the piers before and had decent luck with numbers but not size. I haven't fished saltwater very much so to say the least, I am very inexperienced. I don't know what to target, what gear I should use or the best bait to use. I have some ideas and questions, so I need some input from someone with more experience. I think shark fishing would be really cool, but I am far from prepared for that.

I have an 8'0" and a 9'0" spinning reel combo that I used on the piers with a 2 hook rig and a pyramid sinker that had 20lbs mono line on them. I switched them to some red 50lb Invicta braid for catfishing, I assume this line will be fine for surf fishing. Should I use the 2 hook rig with the pyramid sinker or is there a better set up???

I have an 8'0" R2 WAR ROD mated with an Omoto 7000 AB3 Jungle that is spooled with Hi-vis yellow 65lb Suffix 832 braid. I assume this setup is ok for surf fishing, but again I don't know.

So my questions are as follows.....

Will my gear work for this application???

What bait should I use???

What leader / rig should I use???

How do I locate the best spot on the beach for catching, LOL, not fishing???

Best time to fish??? High tide or low tide???

How far should I cast out???

I guess I need all of the information that I can get, LOL!!! Thanks in advance!!!

The 50 will work depending on surf conditions and wind. If either are high much at all, that line will be a problem.
Typically I use 30 pound braid on the surf.
Shark setup I use 50 pound Invicta. Good line but can be noisy as hell in the surf sometimes. Shark leaders are home made with 400 pound lb test components. 49 strand stainless steel camo color wire rated at 400 pounds.

Where I would fish? Fort Fisher. Strip of beach to the left of the beach side parking lot. At night starting 2 hours before dead low tide and atleast 2 hours of the rising tide.

Bait. Frozen finger mullet, cut mullet, and squid.
It's not uncommon to hang into sharks that you'll have absolutely nothing for at Fort Fisher or even in Snow's Cut.

How far do you have to cast? Get to past the breakers where it lie still. The further you get it, the less shark bait is screwed with by everything else that the sharks are eating.
A good ol small croaker live is a good shark bait.

**BUDMEISER01** · 07-16-2012, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by Mark J

The 50 will work depending on surf conditions and wind. If either are high much at all, that line will be a problem.
Typically I use 30 pound braid on the surf.
Shark setup I use 50 pound Invicta. Good line but can be noisy as hell in the surf sometimes. Shark leaders are home made with 400 pound lb test components. 49 strand stainless steel camo color wire rated at 400 pounds.

Where I would fish? Fort Fisher. Strip of beach to the left of the beach side parking lot. At night starting 2 hours before dead low tide and atleast 2 hours of the rising tide.

Bait. Frozen finger mullet, cut mullet, and squid.
It's not uncommon to hang into sharks that you'll have absolutely nothing for at Fort Fisher or even in Snow's Cut.

How far do you have to cast? Get to past the breakers where it lie still. The further you get it, the less shark bait is screwed with by everything else that the sharks are eating.
A good ol small croaker live is a good shark bait.

To the left of Battle Acre Rd. if you are facing the ocean???

I can see the differences in water color there on google maps, so I am assuming the depths change there???

**Mark J** · 07-16-2012, 11:32 AM

Yes, that beach is about 75 yards long. I fish about 3/4's of the way down to the coquina rock formation.
Drops off pretty steady.

You got more of those gun emplacements right in front of you then there is on dry land.
That is the history lesson for today.

A nice fish producing ledge is about a mile off in front of you. That is why you see boats out there almost around the clock.
Alot of rock in the ocean down that way.

**Mark J** · 07-16-2012, 11:43 AM

I've never hung up on that beach ever.
If you can cast far enough though you'll cast over a ledge. Feels like you are hung but pulling straight back with the rod you can pull your rig through the lip of the ledge. It's a sand ledge.
I can hit it no problem at low tide. High tide.....depends on how good I feel and how good my back feels.

**BUDMEISER01** · 07-16-2012, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by Mark J

Yes, that beach is about 75 yards long. I fish about 3/4's of the way down to the coquina rock formation.
Drops off pretty steady.

You got more of those gun emplacements right in front of you then there is on dry land.
That is the history lesson for today.

A nice fish producing ledge is about a mile off in front of you. That is why you see boats out there almost around the clock.
Alot of rock in the ocean down that way.

Thanks, If my plans don't fall apart, I may try it this weekend.

**Dobroplayer** · 07-16-2012, 11:44 AM

Good advice from Mark.....you can also fish there with standard spinning outfit and 3 oz sinkers, use small hooks, for croaker/mullet/black drum, occasional trout and most likely redfish.
I use small picecs of cut bait, sand flees are a must for the mullet as well as small pices of cut fresh shrimp. You don't have to throw out far for these fish, typically in the breakers....as mark said two hours on incoming, two on outgoing is best..........low tide........go drink beer.................