Hey everyone, i’m pretty new to town (and the site) and am very new to surf fishing though i am pretty good inland. I’ve started fishing off the beach on Sullivans and am constantly getting my bait (frozen shrimp) stolen, sometimes incredibly quickly. Am i right to assume crabs are the issue? Any solutions/local tricks? Anything else to help me get started is welcome
I have tried varying the depth and amount of weight used, need to get some smaller hooks to rule out smaller fish as the hook i am using are similar in size or just smaller to hooks id use for largemouth bass. Maybe whiting and other small fish are nibbling off my too big shrimp off my too big hook?
Owner 2 or 2/0 wire circle hooks are what I use and believe me, I catch some small fish. Try using smaller pieces of shrimp too. Just enough to hide the hook. If you leave the whole shrimp out there the little guys will pull it right off.
Just a few things that will help. Fresh shrimp stay on the hook better. It is a great all around bait and catches most everything. Frozen come off very easily. A small nub will do. Double drop rigs with small hooks. On days that have high winds and currents fish bites will stay on and literally have to be cut off with scissors to change baits. They don’t come off. Squid stays on pretty good as well. Once you catch smaller fish like whiting and blues you then can cut them up in chunks and throw them out on a little heavier set ups with a mono liter around 50 lb. Use like a 5/0 circle on heavier set ups for bull reds. You should use a very short liter around 6 inches and a fixed weight not a sliding one. Long liters and sliding weights will produce some fish getting gut hooked in the surf when spiking a rod. If you use the short liter with a fixed weight it will pretty much reduce the chances of gut hooking to 0. Very few if any. 3-4 OZ pyramid weights suffice for most days. Sometimes more is needed on strong currents. When you catch fresh whiting or blues cut in smallish chunks, they stay on the hooks really good as well. I’m partial to a 9-10 mh rod with 5-6000 size reel. 30 lb braid that has a 30ld mono top shot. Good luck and welcome to Charleston Fishing.
quote:
Originally posted by runbabyrun
Just a few things that will help. Fresh shrimp stay on the hook better. It is a great all around bait and catches most everything. Frozen come off very easily. A small nub will do. Double drop rigs with small hooks. On days that have high winds and currents fish bites will stay on and literally have to be cut off with scissors to change baits. They don’t come off. Squid stays on pretty good as well. Once you catch smaller fish like whiting and blues you then can cut them up in chunks and throw them out on a little heavier set ups with a mono liter around 50 lb. Use like a 5/0 circle on heavier set ups for bull reds. You should use a very short liter around 6 inches and a fixed weight not a sliding one. Long liters and sliding weights will produce some fish getting gut hooked in the surf when spiking a rod. If you use the short liter with a fixed weight it will pretty much reduce the chances of gut hooking to 0. Very few if any. 3-4 OZ pyramid weights suffice for most days. Sometimes more is needed on strong currents. When you catch fresh whiting or blues cut in smallish chunks, they stay on the hooks really good as well. I’m partial to a 9-10 mh rod with 5-6000 size reel. 30 lb braid that has a 30ld mono top shot. Good luck and welcome to Charleston Fishing.
RBR catches way more fish than me but the only thing I’ll suggest is to take the smaller fish and rather then cut them into chunks (which I understand to be like salmon steaks), try to filet the croaker/whiting/blues/ladyfish then cut the filets into finger sized strips. I think this helps the bait track straight in the current rather than helicopter like a bait steak does. I hook it once in the front of the bait (smooth scales vs rough scales) and leave a good bit of the hook exposed.
FROZEN SHRIMP[:0] 
!!! Leave that frozen crap for our tourist to waist money on!
Probably the number one thing is smaller hooks. Smaller hooks “catch” more fish…and yes even big fish. Fresh medium shrimp, shell on, cut in half. I use double drop rigs, a half on each hook.
For weight? 3-4 oz as runbabyrun said, I throw 4oz almost all the time, never less in the surf, sometimes more. As a trough fisherman, I find a big moon falling tide can easily pull a 3oz weight. And if you ever fish in a rip, they can pull 6oz+.
You got any Bream/Crappie hooks?..use them next trip:wink:.
You can’t go wrong with the advice you just received from several of the best surf fishermen around !!!
George McDonald
US Navy Seabees,Retired,
MAD, Charleston Chapter
[http://www.militaryappreciationday.org
When you see “Old Glory” waving in the breeze, know that it is the dying breaths of our fallen hero’s that makes it wave.
author unknown
And now bookmarked…
“No… it’s okay, I know the way out…”
I have been fishing the mt pleasant pier lately since the surf fishing is too rough on me now. Worth a shot use carolina rigs with 1/2oz to oz with 1/0 circle or kail hooks. About a foot to 2ft flouro leader. Drag a live minnow on bottom or dangle over the rail halfway in the water column.