“And don’t forget, Thursday is dollar mystery beer night at such and such tavern!”
You used to hear it advertised on the radio all the time. Basically you handed the bar tender a dollar, he reached into the bottom of a cooler and whatever brand beer he grabbed you got! You may get a high dollar bottled import, a good domestic, or you may end up with something so nasty tasting that it would make a Billy Goat puke.
If you ask me the mystery is one of the best aspects to summertime surf fishing in the Carolinas. You just never know what flavor you may tie into. While large Redfish are usually my personal favorite target in the surf, there is always some fun by catch to keep you entertained. Tarpon frequent the same waters in the summertime as well as both Spanish and King Mackerel, all types of sharks, Bluefish, Whiting, Trout, and Flounder. Perhaps the less favorable flavors would be Sail Cats, rays, and tiny sharks.
Since my target species is usually big Reds my favorite bait is cut mullet by far. I usually start steaking the mullet from right behind the gills on down to the tail cutting 1 ½ to 2-inch thick steaks. I usually discard the tail and put the head and the rest of the steaks in a nail apron that I wear to hold the bait while fishing. (Note: You may want to use caution wearing the nail apron when wading past your knees, nothing quite like a chum bag around your waste for the sharks.) An obvious advantage to using cut mullet is you do not have to keep them alive and they also stay on a hook well, an important aspect when you consider the fact the bait is being wiped through the air by a 12-foot surf rod to ultimately land in and be washed around in the breakers.
My second favorite bait for surf fishing are finger mullet. When these baits are hooked through the eyes they stay alive and stay on the hook fairly well. We usually attach a flow troll bucket with a short piece of rope to a sand spike in the surf to keep the finger mullet alive. The down side of using fin