Surf fishing in the Carolinas is one of the most exciting ways to get in a day of fishing fun. You’ve got the beach, the waves, the sun, and hopefully some nice fish on your line that will make a good meal. If you’re going surf fishing on the Carolina coast here is a surf fishing primer that will help you out.
Rods
Surf fishing rods should be 10 feet or more for casting bait to fish, and between 9 and 7 feet for casting artificial lures to gamefish. You can see some great fishing rod and reel surf combos in the tackle shop at Surf and Salt.Your line should generally be 12 lb to 20 lb test line.
Reading the Beach
Try to “read the beach” when surf fishing looking for sloughs (pronounced slews) which are places where the water gets white and foamy out over shallow areas like sand bars and then there is a hole before the waves reform on the beach and reach you. Fishing just past the beach waves into these slews is a great tactic. For bigger fish try to cast beyond the sandbar.
Rigs, Hooks, and Weights
The most common surf rigs used on the Carolina coast is the standard high-lo rig, which is just a swivel, two hooks, and a weight. You can buy them pre-made from any tackle shop in the Carolinas and they work fine, or you can tie your own. Hand tied rigs are usually simpler and lack the swivels, snaps and beads that come with store-bought fishing rigs. Because of this, hand tied rigs work a little better for hardware-shy fish.
For two-hook rigs match the hooks to the target fish and the weight to surf conditions. Hooks size 6 and 4 are good for panfish like spot, croaker, pompano and sea mullet while size 1/0 or higher hooks are used for bigger game like bluefish, red drum, and speckled trout. Pyramid sinkers in sizes from 2 to 8 ounces are good for surf fishing, and there are other types of sinkers that anglers prefer. Around rocks and structure rounded sinkers like bank sinkers are better.
If you are fishing live bait you might want to use a simple fishfinder rig. To make one thread a sinker (usually an egg sinker, but not always) on your line. Just thread on the weight, tie on a swivel to serve as a stopper, and tie a length of leader to the swivel. The leader can be monofilament line or fluorocarbon leader material. Then tie on the hook, again matched to the fish. Live baits like mud minnows and finger mullet are great for flounder and hooks from number 1 to 3/0 are common. Many folks like curved style Kahle hooks for flounder or use circle hooks.
Baits
Tailor your bait to what you want to catch. Cut fresh shrimp is good for about everything. Pompano love live sand fleas, and so do sea mullet. Red drum and bluefish love cut mullet, and bluefish like bloody fresh cut bait form any kind of fish.
Spot, croaker, sea mullet and drum like cut bloodworms or artificial bloodworms. Artificial bloodworms will save you a lot of money and stay on the hook longer. You can order Fishbites brand artificial bloodworms at a great price from the tackle store at Surf and Salt.
Sea mullet and croaker will hit cut squid. Flounder prefer live bait like mud minnows, finger mullet, or live shrimp.
Lures
You can fish lures from the beach. Trout love MirrOlures which have great casting weight and resemble big baitfish like finger mullet when retrieved in a twitchbait style. Metal spoons such as Kastmaster and other silver and gold spoons can be cast for Spanish mackerel, bluefish, red drum, and trout.
For more Carolina surf fishing tips check out the surf fishing page on Surf and Salt.
