What To Keep Rigged Offshore

Wondering if anyone can give me a rundown of what I need. My friend has a boat the 22nd and I’m coming down to Myrtle Beach for my birthday. We’ll be going out of Little River and fishing the 3 mile wreck that’s about 7.5 miles from the inlet.

I think I have the bottom fishing covered, targeting seabass, snapper and grouper with squid and cigar minnows/sardines, spadefish with the jellyballs, if we fish the jetty if it’s rough then we’ll target sheepshead, flounder, and black and red drum.

We don’t have planer boards, is there any way I can troll the Spanish rigs (or anything for Spanish?).

Should I keep a bucktail rigged and ready to cast?

How should I rig for kings? Live bait hooks or trebles?

Anything else I should have ready to go?

Thanks.

You can troll for spanish. They respond readily to small bahoo, etc. The question is why. Spanish are more fun sight fishing the bait and birds. Kings are still around and both species can be targeted the same way, just keep the baits somewhat small. I would keep a rod or 2 ready with a pitch bait set-up (rod, barrel swivell, long leader, circle hook). The squid or cigar minnows will work well (live bait would be better). The nice thing about this set up is the it can be let to drift on a balloon or naked while you bottom fish. I would use really heavy flourocarbon or thin wire as my leader, probably wire.

ColumbiaDawgfan
Sea Hunt Triton 220

I ALWAYS keep a pitch bait rod ready for the errant cobia, dolphin, shark, sailfish or whatever happens to swim by that I want to catch. I use a 7ft 15-25 Star Rod a Penn Battle 5000 and 30 lb Momoi Diamond Blue Braid with astraight 5-7 ft. 60 lb clear mono leader and a 6/0 circle ready to sling a whole ballyhoo or live bait.

yella bote
black motor

Thanks. I was thinking about trolling while it was hot wiith the bimini top up. How fast should we start if we troll? Of course if we see bait busting or birds diving we’ll check it out. If we run into that are spoons or something worth throwing or is live or dead bait better?

Now where the heck did I put my wire…I know I have 30 something lb and 60 something lb Malin wire…

Live or dead for pitching is almost always best. If you want a lure, throw a “mack catcher”. It looks like a small metal plug. It has 2 trebles on it and works well retrieved fast. As to trolling speed, 4-6 knots depending on conditions and your boat. My boat trolls best at 1250 rpms. The machine harmonics seem to work best for my boat here.

ColumbiaDawgfan
Sea Hunt Triton 220

quote:
Originally posted by ColumbiaDawgfan

You can troll for spanish. They respond readily to small bahoo, etc. The question is why. Spanish are more fun sight fishing the bait and birds. Kings are still around and both species can be targeted the same way, just keep the baits somewhat small. I would keep a rod or 2 ready with a pitch bait set-up (rod, barrel swivell, long leader, circle hook). The squid or cigar minnows will work well (live bait would be better). The nice thing about this set up is the it can be let to drift on a balloon or naked while you bottom fish. I would use really heavy flourocarbon or thin wire as my leader, probably wire.

ColumbiaDawgfan
Sea Hunt Triton 220

Sight fishing for Spanish is great fun. I like the bigger Clark spoons without hardware as they are pron to not hitting with heavy leader etc. The bigger Clariks keep the Spanish from cutting the line. If you use leader use uni to uni without a swilv.

Keep a bigger rod rigged for cobie. There are sone plastic ells on the market this year which you use a big jig head for a hook.


big dog

Thanks guys. Let’s hope for good weather!