What is the best tackle for surf casting? (The Complete Guide)
The best tackle for surf casting is a 10 foot medium heavy rod coupled with a 5000 series spinning reel spooled with a 30 pound mono filament line or 30 pound braided line. This tackle combo will allow you to catch whiting and pompano all the way up to larger tarpon and even sharks off the beaches.
What is the best tackle for surf casting depends upon what fish species that you are targeting. There are many amazing species of fish that you can catch just off of the beaches.
We will cover the best tackle and tips and techniques to catch some of the most popular species of fish that you can catch around the beaches of Florida.
We will cover the best tackle, tips and techniques to catch pompano, snook, whiting, tarpon, sharks, bluefish and mackerel or whatever else that you want to catch the next time that you are surf casting.
I am an INSHORE FISHING GUIDE and I have been fishing the beaches and grass flats all over Florida for more than 40 years. The article below will teach you simple tips and techniques to help you catch more fish. Let's get started.
Watch the video below and catch more fish surf casting.
The best tackle for surf casting is a 10 foot medium heavy rod coupled with a 5000 series spinning reel spooled with a 30 pound mono filament line or 30 pound braided line. This tackle combo will allow you to catch whiting and pompano all the way up to larger tarpon and even sharks off the beaches.
What is the best tackle for surf casting depends upon what fish species that you are targeting. There are many amazing species of fish that you can catch just off of the beaches.
We will cover the best tackle and tips and techniques to catch some of the most popular species of fish that you can catch around the beaches of Florida.
We will cover the best tackle, tips and techniques to catch pompano, snook, whiting, tarpon, sharks, bluefish and mackerel or whatever else that you want to catch the next time that you are surf casting.
I am an INSHORE FISHING GUIDE and I have been fishing the beaches and grass flats all over Florida for more than 40 years. The article below will teach you simple tips and techniques to help you catch more fish. Let's get started.
Watch the video below and catch more fish surf casting.
Best tackle for surf casting for pompano
Pompano are one of those fish that cause fishermen to go insane. When the pompano are running the beaches around Florida in the Winter and Spring the surf fishermen will call in sick to work; break up with their girl friends and just about anything else to ensure that they can get to the beach to catch pompano.
Pompano are delicious. They are one of the only fish that I bother to keep these days. They are in the jack family and are excellent fighters too. Okay let's talk about the best tackle to use to catch pompano.
I do things a little differently than most pompano fishermen. I like to use light tackle to catch them. My set up usually consists of a 4000 series spinning reel filled with 20 pound braid and 7 to 8 ft. medium/heavy action rod.
I like this set up because very rarely am I casting out as far as I can. You don't have to cast out a mile either if you will just wait for the higher part of the tide to fish for pompano. Most of the pompano that I catch are within 30 or 40 feet from shore. Sometimes the pompano are in the trough that is 3 feet from the sand during high tide.
I wrote another article on this website that covers in great detail how to catch a pompano. You can read that article by clicking right here.
If you want to fish the lower parts of the tide too, then you will have to get yourself a surf casting rod that is at least 10 feet long. Many surf casters have even longer rods around 13 to 15 feet long. A medium/heavy rod is probably your best bet.
You can still get away with the 4000 or a 5000 series reel with these rods but the extra length is necessary to get your line out to the first sand bar when the tide is low.
Best baits for pompano:
I like to use shrimp or sand fleas (when they are around). You will go to the bait shop and get yourself a pompano rig. A pompano rig is just a line with 2 dropper loops coming off of it. The dropper loops will have a 1/0 hook; a colorful float; and a few plastic beads.
The 1/0 hook is necessary because pompanos have small mouths. The floats will keep your bait off of the sand. The plastic beads will clank together and make noise to attract the pompanos to your bait.
You can use clam strips and even fiddler crabs to catch pompano but shrimp and sand fleas are the best natural baits for them.
The best artificial baits for pompanos are banana styled jigs. These jigs are great for catching pompano. They come in pink, orange, yellow, green and lots of other colors. I like pink, orange and yellow ones the best.
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Watch the video below and catch more pompano with jigs.
Best tackle for surf casting for snook
Snook are another one of those fun fish to catch off of the beach. You won't need your surf casting rod to catch a snook because they are usually within 30 or 40 feet of the beach. Sometimes they are just 2 or 3 feet from the beach.
Snook like to hunt the shoreline and the trough that the wave action digs out for whiting, croakers and any other small fish that are hugging the beach for safety.
Snook do not bite once the water temperature gets in the low 70s because they are a warm water fish. The beaches often stay warmer than inland waters in the Winter because of the wave action so you can find them in many parts of Florida all year along the beaches.
Best baits and tackle for snook:
The best live bait for beach snook is croakers. Croakers are the undisputed live bait champions of the snook catching world. Mullet, sardines, pogeys, pilchards, and just about any other white baits will work just fine too.
You will not need your 10 ft. plus surf casting rod to catch snook off of the beach. Your 7 to 8 ft. medium/heavy action rod will work great. You will want to have your 4000 series reel filled up with 20 to 30 lb. braided line.
Many fishermen cast too far away from the snook to catch them. They are often right at your feet in the trough along the beach. In other words, you can cast underhand to them because they are that close.
The snook will be hugging the bottom so your bait presentation should be on the bottom or within 3 feet of the bottom. That is the snook's strike zone.
If you are using a croaker for bait then you will not need to use a sinker because they will hug the bottom. If you are using a mullet, then you will probably need a sinker because they like to swim in the upper part of the water column.
The best artificial baits for snook are any mullet imitation lure. A Mirrolure suspending mullet is a great choice for snook fishing off of the beach. You will want to cast this lure parallel to the beach and work it back to you as close to the trough as possible.
You can also use a top water lure if the water is 3 feet deep or less. A Zara Super Spook is my favorite for top water snook off of the beach. You will want to cast parallel to the beach and walk-the-dog back to you for best results. The early morning and right before sunset are your best times to use top water lures.
Another great choice is a flair hawk styled jig. You will want to work this lure parallel to the beach and bounce it back to you slowly as close to or into the trough if possible. Lures work best when the water is cloudy from wave action because snook have excellent eye sight.
I wrote another article all about how to use the flair hawk style of snook jig. This is an excellent lure for surf fishing for snook. You can see that article by clicking right here.
Watch the video below and catch huge snook off of the beach.
Best tackle for surf casting for whiting
Whitings are another one of those delicious fish that you can catch right off of the beach most of the time around Florida waters. Whitings, pompano, croakers, permit and many other sand flea and crab eaters will cruise the beaches looking for something to eat.
All of the fish mentioned above are good to eat. I think that is because of their mainly invertebrate diet plans. Their meat is very white and non fishy tasting.
The great thing about fishing for whiting is that you might mistakenly catch a pompano when fishing for them. Pompano are definitely better tasting but whiting are worth keeping too.
The best tackle for surf casting for whiting is the long surf casting rod and reel combo if they are out by the sand bars around low tide. When the tide is low they will often be out pretty far from the beach and your big rod will be necessary to get at them.
Your rod and reel combo is the same as the pompano set up mentioned above. You will want a 10 ft. plus medium/heavy rod and a 4000 series reel filled with 20 pound braided line.
If the tide is high then you can get away with your 7 to 8 ft. medium/heavy rod and your 4000 series reel filled with 20 pound braided line. It all depends upon where they are and that is usually tide dependent. They are often right in the trough during high tide. In fact, most of the whiting that I catch are within 30 feet from shore.
Best baits for whiting:
The best baits for whiting are shrimp, sand fleas and clam strips. You will need to go to the bait shop and get some pompano rigs with small 1/0 hooks. Whiting have small mouths just like pompano do.
The rig will be set up the same as the pompano rig. It will have floats and beads to help the whiting find your bait. Whiting are much less fussy eaters than pompano. Pompano can be finicky at times but whiting always seem willing to bite.
Whiting will also hit the banana styled jigs. You will just work it slowly along the sandy bottom and wait for the hit. They will also hit small silver spoons and small scented imitation shrimp jigs. Berkeley Gulp shrimps work very well for whiting and pompano. I like the white ones with a 1/8 ounce red jig head.
Watch the video below and catch more whiting in the surf.
Best tackle for surf casting for sharks
Sharks are another fun fish to catch surf casting the beaches around Florida. Many shark species are migratory and move from North Florida to South Florida in the Winter and then back up North in the Summer months.
The most numerous species of these sharks are the black tip sharks. They make up the majority of the sharks that are migrating down the coasts of Florida each season. There are also spinner sharks in the schools.
The great hammerhead sharks follow the schools of migrating sharks to feed upon them. Hammerhead sharks are cannibalistic and feed upon the smaller black tips and spinner sharks.
You will need some beefed up tackle to surf cast for sharks. I don't ever target large sharks like hammerhead sharks that can be 1,000 pounds but I do like to target black tip and spinner sharks along the beaches. These sharks get to maybe 6 feet in length and can weigh around 150 pounds.
The tackle that I use for black tip fishing off of the beach is a 10 feet medium/heavy action rod that enables me to cast the top water lures that I use very far. The reel that I have matched up with this rod is a 5500 series Penn Spinfisher V filled with 50 pound braided line.
I wrote another article that covers in much more detail how to catch a shark. You can read that article by clicking right here.
The 5500 series reel will hold enough braided line to handle the long runs that black tips and spinners will make once they figure out that they are hooked.
The best time to surf cast for sharks is the early morning, late afternoon and night. Many beaches around Florida will not allow you to fish off of the beach at night. There are also many beaches that will not allow you to catch sharks using any sort of dead or live bait because it attracts sharks to areas with swimmers.
You are allowed to target sharks with lures at the time of this article's writing but that may change soon. I like to use an 8 inch pencil popper lure for catching black tips.
Black tip shark fishing from the beach tips and techniques.
Best tackle for surf casting for bluefish
Bluefish are another common fish that you can catch from Florida to Maine surf casting off of the beach. They are voracious predators and will eat just about anything that moves when they are in a feeding frenzy. They will also hit a cut bait of just about any kind of fish too.
Best baits for bluefish:
The best baits for bluefish are any chunk of fish rigged up with a sinker to keep it near the bottom. You can use store bought frozen sardines or mullet. You can also use your cast net and use just about anything that you catch for bluefish bait. They are not a finicky fish when it comes to a meal.
My favorite way to catch bluefish in the surf around the beaches is with silver spoons. I like this lure because you can cast them very far and cover a lot of water. The bluefish definitely like a fast retrieve when it comes to lures. They are a very fast moving fish and can swim down most of the small fish prey items near shore.
There are lots of good silver spoons on the market but you have to buy then with a barrel swivel attached to them. If they don't already have one, then you will need to add one. Your line will get twisted up without one and then it will not cast very well.
The tackle that I use for surf casting bluefish is a 4000 series reel filled with 20 lb. braided line. I like to couple that with a 7 to 8 feet long medium/heavy action rod. Most of the bluefish around Florida are under 5 pounds. They are much bigger in the Northeastern parts of the United States.
You are also going to want to have some light metal leader attached to the swivel on your spoon. Bluefish have extremely sharp teeth and can cut through mono filament and fluorocarbon fishing lines with ease.
Best tackle for surf casting for mackerel
The mackerel and the bluefish are often caught together. These fish are competitors and feed on many of the same species of bait fish. The mackerel do seem to like the minnow types of prey items the best.
There is a red minnow run that happens in the Summer along the East Coast of Florida. Millions of minnows migrate up the beaches and the Spanish mackerel and Cero Mackerel are there to meet them.
The best lures for mackerel are silver spoons and a tube like lure called a gotcha. It is basically a silver cylindrical lure that mimics a minnow. Think cigarette with two treble hooks on it. That is what you are looking for in the bait shop.
I wrote another article on this website that gives you tips and techniques for catching king mackerel, Spanish mackerel and cero mackerel. You can read that article by clicking right here.
My favorite is the silver spoon that I use for the bluefish mentioned above. Spoons catch just about every fish in the sea and mackerel are no exception. King mackerel will sometimes come in close enough to catch while surf casting but it is very infrequent. The Cero Mackerel and the Spanish Mackerel can sometimes be caught within 10 feet of the shoreline.
The best tackle for surf casting for mackerel is a 4000 series reel filled with 20 lb. braided line. A medium/heavy 7 to 8 foot rod will work great for casting to near shore mackerel. You will also need to have some light metal leader attached to your swivel or you will lose all of your lures. Mackerel have extremely sharp teeth like a blue fish.
Watch the video below and catch more mackerel off of the beach.
Best tackle for surf casting for tarpon
Tarpon might be my favorite fish to catch. They are not good to eat but they are pound for pound some of the most amazing fighters in the sea. They will follow the migrating bait fish up and down the beaches around Florida.
The best time to catch them is around first light in the morning and an hour of so before sunset. My favorite way to fish for tarpon off of the beach is with the 8 inch pencil popper lures that were mentioned in the shark fishing section above.
Lure fishing for tarpon, off of the beach definitely is better during the higher tides. The bigger fish just can't get in close enough without deeper water to swim in. My favorite scenario is a high tide during sunrise with lots of bait in the surf. That is a great time to catch tarpon with lures.
Silver spoons and 5 inch soft plastic baits with a paddle tail and a jig head are also great lures for catching tarpon. The key is finding lures that you can cast out very far to cover a lot of water.
I wrote another article on this website that covers in detail the best tips and techniques to catch a tarpon. You can read that article by clicking right here.
I use a 10 ft. medium/heavy rod combined with a 5500 series reel loaded with 50 lb. braided line. This set up allows me to get a long cast and have enough line on the reel not to get spooled with a decent sized tarpon hooked up.
You are not allowed to take a tarpon out of the water in Florida without a tarpon stamp. You can take smaller fish that are 40 inches or smaller out of the water but not the big boys. So when you catch one off of the beach you will have to get wet to take them off of the hook and get a photo.
Watch the video below and learn the best tackle when surf fishing for tarpon.
Conclusion:
The best tackle for surf casting depends upon the species of fish that you are targeting and the tide that you are fishing. Some fish like pompano and whiting are small and can be targeted easily with a small rod and reel set up if you are fishing during the higher parts of the tide.
Other fish like tarpon and sharks will require you to beef up your tackle or you will never have a chance of getting them in regardless of the tide height. It is all about matching your tackle to the fish that you are trying to catch.
I hope that this article helps you catch a lot more fish the next time you go to the beach to catch some fish out of the surf.
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