Surf Fishing Gear - Need Recommendations!

We have been fishing from our boat for years in Delaware and Maryland, but never tried surf fishing. This year I'd like to try surf fishing when the spring trophy striper season comes around in April. I just need a little advice on a good surf rod and reel setup. It doesnt have to be the most expensive - just looking for something of average price that will hold up. What is a good length and make of reel, pound test, etc? Thanks!

Re: Surf Fishing Gear - Need Recommendations!

Let's start with where you'll be fishing. Very few places to fish with very little action from the beach during Spring trophy season. There are some nice beach bites pre-season but not much during the season.

Re: Surf Fishing Gear - Need Recommendations!

Also, bait or artifical.

Re: Surf Fishing Gear - Need Recommendations!

wimpy 69 said:

Also, bait or artifical.

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Staying home to mow the lawn would be more productive than artificial around here. 95% of the surf fishing here is bait.

Re: Surf Fishing Gear - Need Recommendations!

Ok, let's narrow it down one more-Ocean Front or Bay Side-

Re: Surf Fishing Gear - Need Recommendations!

Walmart has a good selection of Medium weight open face spinning rod/reel combinations in the $20 to $40 range, most come with 15 to 20 LB. test line, which for the surf should be sufficient. Make you some beach rod holders out of 3' or 4' sections of 3" PVC pipe, sharpen one end, stick it in the sand, then you can keep several lines in the water at once. Small cast net is pretty handy for catching some fresh bait(mud minnows, shrimp, crabs) out of surf, creeks, inlets. We're heading to Florida next week for several days of fresh/salt water fishing, including some surf fishing...pretty hard to beat! Good Luck!

Re: Surf Fishing Gear - Need Recommendations!

wimpy 69 said:

Ok, let's narrow it down one more-Ocean Front or Bay Side-

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Location doesn?t matter. The conditions at both locations are identical. There is no structure to speak of at either location. Nothing but shifting sands and beach goers.

Maryland has only 30 miles of beach out front. Of those 30 miles, 17 miles of it is ORV only with very limited, permit access only. The remaining 12 miles are the beaches of Ocean City, Maryland which doesn't allow fishing during the day. Doesn't matter, you can count the number of good fish caught off that beach in a season on one hand. AI (17 miles of restricted beach) has a good run of Stripers in the Spring but you?re looking at a 5-7 day event and it's done.

Re: Surf Fishing Gear - Need Recommendations!

The Maryland portion of the Bay has two locations which you can surf fish. Both are bathing beaches in season (hint). Fishing can be good at both locations from early March into April. Blood worms are the ticket. Get there very early. Product spots are very limited and most are taken well before daylight. It?s not unusual to see guys start arriving to claim their spots by 4 am.

Equipment:
You need to good 11-6" - 13' rod capable of throwing, not lobbing, 4-6 oz of lead plus bait.

A good inexpensive starter combo would be a Penn 525Mag or a Saltist 20 teamed up with a 11ft. 4-7oz Diawa Emblem surf rod. Load them up with #14-17 line and your good to go. If you want to go with spinning tackle, a Okuma bait runner is pretty hard to beat.

Do yourself a favor; there is nothing at Walmart or in the discount bin that is going to do what you need for this type of fishing. Cutting yourself short to save a couple of dollars is going to cost you dearly over time.

Good luck and be cautious with your new pastime. It gets additive. Look what happened to me. And those are the rods I used on this particular trip to the beach. Normally I have the roof rack full as well..