Gulf of Mexico surf fishing [Archive] - The Michigan Sportsman Forums

Boardman Brookies

02-15-2009, 02:28 PM

Guys I am going to St. George Island in a few weeks to get away. I want to try some surf fishing down there. I have never do this before. I have fished piers and beaches for steelhead and salmon so I have some stuff to bring. I just have no idea what to use. Any tips are welcome. Thanks!

stinger63

02-15-2009, 02:51 PM

mrhein

02-15-2009, 04:00 PM

Just use a slip sinker set up with a live shrimp or sand flea. When I went to St. George Island in the spring a few years ago we got a lot of whiting which were like 12-18 inches and white in color, they had a really mild flavor.

Hi-Tech Redneck

02-15-2009, 05:01 PM

Whiting make great bait!

Use a length of heavy line for a leader, even the smaller fish have chompers that can really do some damage.

Hoot

02-15-2009, 05:15 PM

I always take some artificial stuff with me because I get tired of screwing around with shrimp and fleas. One of the baits that has worked well in the past for whiting and pompano is fish bites fishin' strips. You can find them at fishbites.com. Pink, orange or white are good colors on a size 1 circle hook. They also stay on the hook when you are trying to punch out an extra long cast.

Good luck, pompano and whiting are both some great eating fish.

Boardman Brookies

02-15-2009, 08:00 PM

Thanks for the tips. Mrhein we are going to St. George Island. I cannot wait to catch some salt water fish.

Sprig

02-15-2009, 08:17 PM

You need to get one of these rigs and some salt water reels :D

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/medium/IMG_02242.jpg

wally-eye

02-15-2009, 08:26 PM

My folks lived in Venice, FL for years and years and everytime I went down I had to give it a try. The best artificial is the salt water X-rap. Toss it out, rip it down and then jerk it a foot or so, let it set a few seconds then repeat.

I always used an 8ft Eagle Claw medium heavy action spinning rod loaded with braid with a 4 ft leader of 20lb mono. The rod was my salmon pier rod and worked great.......I used one of the old Mitchell 300 spinning reels. That reel worked great and I only got spooled one time by a big **** roosterfish.......jumped out of the water about a million times and no matter how tight I got the drag I couldn't slow it down.......took all my line and last I seen it it was heading towards Mexico with a couple hundred yards of line and a x-rap in its jaw........:lol:

Just love beach fishing in the gulf cus ya just never know what you'll catch........even 4 ft hammerhead sharks, that was good for pictures of me running like crazy thru the water back to shore........you can't run real fast in water, but I did.....:yikes:

Getaway

02-16-2009, 07:23 AM

Casting "gotcha" lures in the surf works great for blue fish, spanish macks, cobia, bull reds and whatever else may be lurking out there.......

A still rod with pyramid sinker with a shrimp rig casted out past the first shelf is always good for pompano, whitting, redfish etc.

Whitting make good bait, but they also make a great feast!

gooseboy

02-16-2009, 09:22 AM

chunks of mullet, whiting, squid, shrimp, sand fleas(small sand crabs, can cath those if your quick), all work great, cought a 37lb bull red fish last year at midnight on a chunk of salt water catfish. 25 minute battle on the noodle rod and 20 lb test, what a gas, headed back down to Gulf of Mexico in about 6 weeks. Careful of the gotcha plugs, the last jerk on those can come out of the water and getchya, big time....the whiting are great table fare, flunder are also prevalent, just make sure you check the regs because some species cant even be lifted out of the water for hook removal or even pictures if they are not in season...Florida may have also put the kibash on chumming the beaches/piers for sharks, so be careful on all the rules

Boardman Brookies

02-16-2009, 09:46 AM

I forgot to ask about a license. Can you get a day or weekend one? Anyone know the cost? I went to the FL DNR site but couldn't find it.

toto

02-16-2009, 10:01 AM

Pretty much rig like you would for surf fishing salmon and steelhead in Michigan. As said before, use shrimp or sand fleas. Not quite sure where St. George Island is, but this time of year down here near Ft. Myers, you'd probably do okay on whiting (good eating), perhaps some pompano, snook, seatrout, or possibly redfish. Thats the neat thing about fishing in the surf down here, you never know what you might hook up with. BTW, when you get done fishing, make sure you wash all your stuff real good, inside and out. I would recommend getting a product at the store called Salt Away, or some such product, really helps to reduce the salt problem. If you don't get the salt out, it will destroy your stuff.

gooseboy

02-16-2009, 10:04 AM

you can purchase a license for a week or day, piers can be by the hour, afternoon, or all day

FlyFishingAttorney

02-16-2009, 10:52 AM

The water that far north will still be kind of cold. Target species will include sea trout (which are delicious), flounder and possibly redfish. Kinda far north for snook. A little early for cobia. There may be some redfish around. You should be able to find ladyfish as they'll always bite. Small sharks, too, but I don't like releasing those.:yikes:

I have caught countless sea trout on 1/2 oz. Rat-L traps in the chrome/blue back and chrome/black back models. Little cleos in the 1/2 oz silver/blue models have worked as well in deeper water.

If you go out in the early morning, evening and at night, you can catch anything. If you do get lucky and hook an early cobia - just hang on for dear life.

Charters are outrageously expensive but if you can find a party boat, those can be really fun and in all likelihood you will catch fish.

Enjoy. Please bring back some warm weather! Here's a recent report for the area. Looks like sea trout may be out of season, so check the regs.

www.floridasportsman.com/4cast/nw/

numberguy77

02-17-2009, 08:56 AM

We are flying down and staying in Freeport, TX in a beach house on the gulf for a week in March. I'm guessing what everyone is telling Boardman Brookies would be the same for Texas Gulf fishing. My question would be what is the best way to transport your rods and reel on a commercial flight?

Also, when I read the Texas fishing regulations it states you need a license for any public water. If I'm renting a beach house for a week on the Gulf, is that stretch of beach considered my little private beach for the week? Does that mean I wouldn't need a license?

Thanks for your replies.

Greenbush future

02-17-2009, 04:52 PM

Dang I leave on Friday and was wondering the same thing about rod transport, been a while (pre911) any ideas as my hard rod carrier is about 6 feet long. (I must have to check it, didnt last time.)
On another note I am hearing great things about gulp in the surf as well. My contacts say dont even bother messing with live bait but hey I'm open to anything.

donbtanner

02-18-2009, 11:27 AM

I am heading to Grand Isle LA Mar. 19th-24th to meet buddies w\ boat to do some offshore stuff and surf fishing can be excellent there as well. Numberguy77, yes you will need a licensce, the gulf is public TX water where it touches the TX state line up to 5 miles out. All these baits and techniques stated before work well. My suggestion is to look around for jetties (rock piers) that are erosion barriers for inlets to the main land. Fish both the inside and outside of the jettie at times when the tide is moving. Either in or out. I am taking my flyrod down this year to try for speckled trout and redfish along inlets such as these. When the tide moves, fish stack up around the jetties feasting on the bait moving in and out. Grand Isle is great for this because of the saltwater marsh that teams with baitfish, shrimp, crabs, etc. Any pier fishing rig you have will work great in this way. Oh, also go to the local baitshops, they will put you on fish and what to use. Have fun and tight lines to ya'll! (get used to that ya'll thing, you'll hear it a bunch)

FlyFishingAttorney

02-18-2009, 12:39 PM

numberguy77

02-19-2009, 08:31 AM

Flyfishingattorney,

Hmmm. a wise guy, huh? Good one. It did get a chuckle out of me.

Thanks.

FlyFishingAttorney

02-19-2009, 11:40 AM

Flyfishingattorney,

Hmmm. a wise guy, huh? Good one. It did get a chuckle out of me.

Thanks.

Glad you saw the humor I was trying to convey.:)

I've never been to Texas but you should have a blast. You should be able to catch all sorts of fish and the weather no doubt will be better than here in Muskegon. Driving to the office through a mini blizzard this morning was a treat.:lol:

As to transporting rods - check with your airline AND the FAA. They usually will give you different answers, however. On a recent trip, the did allow me to carry on a small 36" travel fly rod and reel in a travel case. There were a bunch of bigger fishing rods that had to be checked. It seemed like any rod tubes longer than 4 feet were checked, but that's just based on what I saw on a recent flight that connected through Nassau.

Enjoy your trip and please post some pics when you get back.

UltimateOutdoorsman

02-20-2009, 12:29 PM

It seemed like any rod tubes longer than 4 feet were checked, but that's just based on what I saw on a recent flight that connected through Nassau.

Enjoy your trip and please post some pics when you get back.

Nassau = the world's worst airport!
I've always just carried on my rod tubes. On larger commercial flights you can toss them in the overhead compartment. Smaller flights just put it in the carry-on/checked area or give it to the flight attendant. Sometimes they'll put it in a closet for ya.

toto

02-20-2009, 01:14 PM

Number guy, the best way is to buy one of the rod tubes, I own one by Plano. Its big, like 5" around, so I can pack 4 or 5 rods in there. What I did was, went to Dunhams sports, they have those Gun Socks that work well for putting your rods in. The main idea is make sure they are protected from each other, and not banging around. This particular rod tube is adjustable so you can get rods of all sizes in there. Realize that most airlines have a limit on length, about 64" I think, but you can check on line. If you can, depending on the airport, you may be able to have TSA check the rods while you are standing there, do so if you can. Chances are they will check them at some point, and if so they'll put a sticker on your rod tube. I normally use a lock of somesort on the tube, if they'll let you, sometimes they don't. Just make sure the rods are packed in there tightly and they should be fine.

BTW, the rod tube I have is called an "airliner", hope that helps.

FlyFishingAttorney

02-20-2009, 01:30 PM

Nassau = the world's worst airport!
I've always just carried on my rod tubes. On larger commercial flights you can toss them in the overhead compartment. Smaller flights just put it in the carry-on/checked area or give it to the flight attendant. Sometimes they'll put it in a closet for ya.

NASSAU = THE WORLDS'S WORST AIRPORT...

That is the truth!

Between the 2 security checkpoints which back up for hour plus long waits with no real rhyme or reason to the lines, to the horrible cafeteria type restaurant with the very surly girls who openly steal at the cash register (It's $4.01 - I don't have change for that $5 bill:dizzy:) to the HORRIBLE, loud & obnoxious people from all over the NE coast (Jerzee & Lohhhhhhhhng Aye land) who are hung over and returning from cruises, to the absolute lack of anyplace decent to sit down unless you want to pay $8.00 for a Kalik, that airport is a dump.

However, San Juan is far worse in my opinion because it is all of the above (well, nobody tried to steal from us at a cash register in San Juan) with even dirtier facilities.

Frogfish101

02-21-2009, 01:19 AM

Get a hard rod carrier tube! I use those and have never had problems.

The best bet for surf fishing would be shrimp or clam on a chicken righ with a 4 or 6 oz pyramid sinker. Just pin them at different distances out, and you'll get whiting, pompano, and the occasional flounder or seatrout (which are out of season). Honestly though, you are seriously undergunned for cobia or sharks. I fish for cobes on an Accurate reels and rods made specifically for casting 4-8oz banks and pyramids. The sharks require even more heavy duty gear. I own a 9/0 and 12/0 senator. If you are seriously chasing sharks, i wouldn't go with anything smaller than a 9/0.

Also, remember to wash your rods and reels after every use in freshwater. Oh, and buy the PVC sand spikes...