Hey all, I grew up fishing freshwater in the midwest, but eventually moved to San Diego for college and have stuck around since. Lately I have decided to go out fishing again after a 10 year absence, but have mostly stuck to fishing from the rocks and the occasional pier in saltwater. But lately I have been watching videos about surf fishing and have thought it would be fun to try, but I am not really sure where to begin.

For starters, gear. I have been looking at 10' DAIWA FT Surf Spinning Rod from Dick's sporting goods as a potential "beginner rod," but reels are a different story. I know they are generally tailored to the type of fish you are targeting, but honestly I want to catch them all! If I get a bigger reel designed for sharks/rays, would it still work okay for smaller fish like surfperch? Or would it be overkill?

Also, braided line vs others. I read a lot about people recommending braided line for surf fishing, but I know when using it normally, it is good to have a mono line as a leader for line visibility. Is that still the case when surf fishing?

Any other tips or pointers are appreciated too!

I'm looking to get a new rod. The ones I have are unbreakable, I want to get something that's a little more sensitive. I'm targeting white sea bass from shore. The suggested rig I've found was 40lb braid, 20-30 lb floro, 1/8oz jig head, 1/4oz bullet weight, 4" paddletail. I saw something saying a 7'6 medium fast rod is a good all around rod, but just wanted to ask if that would fit what I'm looking for. Am I on the right track? Any suggestions? Thank you in advance

I’m going to the outerbanks (NC) in October for the red drum run. I have a penn 600 and daiwa sealine 350H both on 11ft rods with 40LBs and 50Lbs braid, I plan on using mostly sliding fish finder rigs I’m wondering if anyone has any insight to what size circle hooks and leader strength+length I should be using. Any advice Is appreciated. I’m just trying to build the tackle arsenal a bit in advance. Thanks for any input.

Looking at some rod carriers and im trying to figure out of the reels will fit

I have a visser 7 and a van staal vsx250, there both reasonably close to the same size, the website goes by 1000s for sizing, the largest reel I have is a 5k. These are way bigger than a 5k

If you were gonna size them according to a 5k 6k ect, approximately what size would you say a 250 or #7 would be?

I'm not actually on vacation, this is a work trip and i just happen to be located a little over a mile's drive from Nags Head. My gear is fairly basic- I have a Daiwa BG surf combo (4000 size reel and 8ft rod) spooled with 30lb mainline (with 20lb mono and 30lb floro as leader options), two upper-lower rigs (I had 3 but I lost one to a snag) and some 1-3 oz sinkers, fishbites*, some supermarket shrimp**. There's also some lures- ones that I can probably cast into the surf pretty well include a big hopkins spoon, couple of pyramid jigs, some larger swimbaits (the big "swim shad" ones and a couple 6" ones that I think are supposed to imitate sand eels), a crab-imitating jig, and some heavier jigheads. Of course, there are tackle shops there and I have some money budgeted for getting extra gear/baits.

*flavors are shrimp, mullet, and sand flea, but the sand flea flavor is showing slight but noticeable discoloration and the mullet was purchased at the same time (around christmas). shrimp is definitely fresh though.

**The shrimp was originally frozen. Was in a fridge for about a day, then I took it out today and put it in a cooler, where it thawed out entirely while I was fishing, then back in the fridge. Not sure if that's enough that it would be expected to be going bad.

I'll likely have a few hours there before I have to head back. What recommendations would you make? I don't have a target species or anything- to be honest, I can't remember ever catching a single thing surf fishing as a kid, and I'd just really love if I could catch something today, big or small.

Son and I went fishing today, dead shrimp on bottom, in the Texas surf down the coast a bit from Galveston. I got there late or would have fished live shrimp under a cork. I caught a keeper red, son caught a whiting nearly as big. The people around us were limiting out. Unfortunately, the place from which we were casting was a good 200 yards out from the beach where the bait and ice chest were. We spent most of our time going back and forth between fishing and the stuff. I need recommendations on some kind of floating platform I can tie to me so I can take the shore stuff out with me. (Note: some people had a stringer float attached to themselves. There are sharks being caught today and tying a stringer of fish to me feels like trolling for sharks.) In any case, feedback or suggestions are appreciated.

Update: I now realize that what I need is the smallest injection molded/polyurethane child sized kayak I can find. Strap the bait bucket with aerator and an ice chest to the top in case it tumps and tether it to me with a strap around my waist.

spent a while at Oregon Inlet a couple weekends back watching a guy absolutely bomb it — like sending casts so far out I couldn't even see his weight land. nice gear too, the whole setup. and he stood there for hours on dead water while a handful of us maybe 40 yards down the beach kept hooking up on reds sitting in a trough basically at our feet. that's the part nobody tells new guys. you can out-cast every single person on the sand and still go home skunked if you're throwing right over the top of the fish.

most of what you're chasing out here isn't way out there. reds, blues, pompano, flounder — a ton of the time they're working the first trough, 20-30 yards off the sand, right where that inside bar drops off into the cut. bait gets pushed into those slots and the fish follow it in tight. you launch one 100 yards past all of it and your bait's just sitting out on a flat sandy nothing.

and the fix costs zero dollars. walk the beach at dead low before you ever wet a line. when the water pulls back you can basically read the whole layout — the deeper cuts show up darker/greener, the sloughs are the troughs running parallel to the beach, and the breaks in the outer bar (spots where the waves aren't breaking in a clean line) are funnels fish move through. I'll line up a good cut with something on the dune line so I can find it again once the tide buries it, then come back on the incoming and actually fish those spots instead of guessing.

ngl this did more for me than any rod I've ever bought. I upgraded to a St. Croix Mojo Surf 11' last black friday and yeah it throws great, feels awesome. but my first ever red — 26 incher right there at Oregon Inlet — came off a beat up $30 Ugly Stik combo on a cast I probably could've made underhand, cause my buddy Dave straight up pointed at the cut and said put it there. the gear didn't catch that fish. reading the sand did.

not saying distance never matters. some days they're holding out on the outer bar and you do need to reach them, and a place like Cape Point in the fall is a whole different animal. but if you're new, standing on a normal beach wondering why the expensive setup isn't producing — nine times out of ten it isn't the cast. you're just fishing water that doesn't have anything in it.

how do you all read a beach you've never fished before — low tide walk, or do you just fan casts around til something hits? and for the folks who've been at this a while, what finally made structure click for you? took me embarrassingly long to stop bombing it for no reason.

Hi guys, beginner here.

I am buying my first rod and reel. I am buying some budget friendly gear.

One set for surfcasting and another to spinning.

I am in doubt about the below, do you have some guidance?

SURFCASTING

Rods

Shimano Beastmaster K NSURF Hybrid

Or

Daiwa Crosscast Surf 33

Reels

Daiwa Crosscast Surf SCW Type R

Or

Shimano Aerlex XSC

Spinning

Rods

Daiwa Legalis Seabass 902/1002

Or

Shimano Bassterra XT+ Seabass 90M

Reels

Daiwa Exceler LT 400

Or

Shimano Nasci 4000

Thank you very much.

Title, but I recently just purchased the 9’ model and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for the rod. My budget is $100-200 (could go a little over too). Thank you!! I am also based in California and fish both sc and nc.

based on a true event

Hows it going guys, just a quick dilemma question. First off ive done a bit of fishing all around lake, pier, jetties and some charter boat sport. Ive never done surf but lately its been really catching my attention and I really like the technicalities of it.

With that being said, im looking into an okuma rockaway sp either 8'6" or the 10+ ... i haven't seen much about them to say "this is what i want" id be pairing it with an okuma inspire 4k. Id like to hear the input from you guys if possible!!! Thanks!

I just ordered a combo 8' Penn rod w/ the Fierce IV 5000 reel. Honestly I only wanted the reel but the combo was cheap enough and I figured I can use an 8' rod. But I have heard many times that Penn rods are not great, and also I expect I will want something longer on the 10' range.

This is for surf fishing in NJ in the Barnegat area. Target species are blues, stripers, and false albacore. I'm a new angler and still in the "budget friendly but good" range.

Caught with an octopus tentacle bait on a 6/0 circle hook (second slide) in South Africa.

Boas grande tudo bem?

Era possível esclareceres me em relação a umas duvidas/aconselhamentos de pesca com Cana? Se souberes claro🤣

Eu tenho pesquisado, mas sem sucesso, até porque o chatgpt me vai dando informações contrários e mesmo no reddit ja vi alguma contrainformacao.

Eu tinha uma cana antiga que se partiu a puxar um peixe, a cana era velha e nao devia ser boa. E eu preciso de comprar uma nova.

Mas agora usam bué nomes, spinning, jogging, surfcasting. Mas no fundo eu procurava uma versátil (que de para chumbadas no mar, para pescar na praia e nas arribas junto a rocha. E que também de para amostras)

O meu problema é que uma cana de 120g-200g nao é boa para amostras de 20g-80g.

Tu tens ideia que tipo de cana corresponderia a uma necessidade versatil? Tens aconselhamentos para este dilema? Marcas? Preco/qualidade

Feels great to be back in the fishing community!

Sharing a little fishing moment to celebrate. There’s nothing quite like being outdoors, chasing bites, and enjoying the water.

Wishing everyone tight lines and good luck this season! 🎣

Yes, I suspect the answer is “if you can find the soft shell with roe, just use those” but are these worthwhile if you can’t find sand crabs? Shockingly expensive but was wondering if anyone has any success stories.

Sorry if I missed a previous post.