r/saltwaterfishing

I've recently gotten started surf fishing while taking my family to the beach on the weekends. We don't make it to the beach until 9am, after optimal fishing time. I've started mostly targeting whiting because they don't care what time of day it is, they're eating. They also are great tasting, mild fish with no limits so what's not to love?

My current setup is pretty heavy overkill for them though (back when I thought I'd be catching redfish every trip). It's a 6500 spinfisher on a 10' big water surf. Total weight is 44 oz.

I'm looking to cut weight and go to a 12' Okuma Rockaway MH rod and this cheap 4000 series reel off Amazon: https://a.co/d/0iomaw1z
Total weight would then be right about 22 oz, so half the weight of my current setup. At most I'd want to target a slot red/black drum, but mostly I'd be tossing fishbites on a hi-lo rig looking for whiting.

What do y'all think of a setup like this for surf fishing targeting mostly whiting and maybe slot drum? Would 10' medium heavy be better? Would I feel undergunned with a 4000 series reel? What do people think of the Okuma Rockaway rods?

Is there anyone else in this community that king fishes in SC? Wanting to hear your different ways of targeting them and welcome any tips.

Hi! I’ve been living in Houston for a while and I’m making a trip to Galveston and possibly Texas City to fish. I got a 7 foot and 10 foot rod but looking for some advice as I never fished here before - what kind of fish are popping this time of year and best rigs and setups to use in my rods? Planning on brining live shrimp, maybe some popping corks for my smaller rod and Caroline my other.

I was thinking of going to the Texas city dike but heard it’s not that great - what are some main spots around Galveston area?

Really appreciate yall and I’m looking forward to learning as I go!!!

I'm just getting to get into kayak fishing in the flats/mangroves.

I normally either fish with light tackle for freshwater bass/trout, from piers or boats with short rods for grouper, or from the beach with 8 foot surf rods.

I just realized I have a decent size gap in my tackle. I haven't bought tackle in 9 ish years now and feel a little out of the game.

I'm looking for a versatile rod/reel. Would be doing fishing in the flats for trout/reds, mangrove fishing for reds and snook, and bridge/piling fishing for sheepshead.

I will be using both life and artificial bait.

Was thinking of a 7' medium heavy fast action with a 4000.

I normally go towards high quality gear. Most of the salt water reels are penn battle 2 or penn spinnfisher 5 live liners. My ride are all the old good ugly sticks from 20 years ago lol.

I'm just overwhelmed with how many choices there are on Amazon for everything and really don't know much about them.

Was thinking of making a trip to bass pro shops to look at and compare everything. But want to have a game plan going in, cause going into that store not knowing what you want is not safe for my wallet.

Don't know if I wanna spend $200+ on a spinnfisher quality reel.

Not 100% sure if I want to split the funds I have between 2 combos, to have a secondary rod on the kayak to switch back and forth on, or if I wanna spend it all on one combo.

Any recommendations would be amazing.

I’m at the pier every week, still haven’t caught anything sizeable!! I’m hitting my limit on spot & croaker, cut bait and live bait can’t catch any big fish!!! I’ve changed piers and learned how to fish my entire area l. I’m targeting ribbon fish, mackerel, blues, when I do go big fishing with homemade large sabikis and I’m thinking how am I not catching! Many people have suggested lures with glow rigs for night time what’s your favorite kind to throw & what are you catching with it?