Tips for a Surf Fishing Rig

Choosing the Right Tackle

Let&039;s start with the line. Lighter line casts farther but it&039;s more likely to break if you&039;re fishing around rocks or you hook a big one. A 13- to 18-pound superbraid line works well for sandy beaches but you&039;ll need more weight for rocky ones. Superbraid is strong yet light so it casts farther and it doesn&039;t stretch as much as a nylon line. You also need the right size hook for the fish you intend to catch. Choose a circle bait-holder hook in the 1/0 to 7/0 size range. This hook will naturally set itself in the corner of the fishes mouth and its extra barbs will keep your bait from slipping off. Use a bait elastic to tie any soft baits to your hook. To minimize the chance of losing your tackle when you cast, tie a 50-pound test shock leader to your main line.

Choosing the Right Bait

Since fish eat live bait in the wild, it&039;s your best bet if you can afford it. Bunker is a good bait for bluefish, striped bass and sharks and if you use the head it will repel dogfish and rays. Bluefish also favor mullet and it can be cut into chunks or used whole, depending on your rig. Bloodworms work well for many fish but they&039;re expensive and easy to lose in the surf. Artificial Bloodworms made by FishBites are equally effective and hold up better in punishing surf. Speckled trout, pompano, whiting and sea mullet prefer sand fleas, also known as mole crabs. Keep them in moist sand until you need them. If you can get some clams, you&039;ll find that they attract striped bass but they only work when they&039;re fresh. The best bait of all is Norfolk spot but it&039;s not easy to catch. Bluefish and striped bass love it and so do most other saltwater predators.

Rigging Your Bait Properly

Bunker bait is easy to rig and you start by cutting the bunker in vertical chunks from the head to the tail. Use everything but the tail and hook the body chunks in a corner and the head by starting below the mouth and bringing the hook out above it. Your leader is attached to the hook at one end and a swivel at the other, followed by a bead and a pyramid sinker. Clams work well on a High Low Rig with circle hooks tied to dropper loops that run perpendicular to your line and are about a foot apart. This rig has a pyramid sinker at the end of your line with the dropper loops right above it and it minimizes line tangling while maximizing the length of your casts. Since bluefish have a tendency to bite off fish without taking the hook, the leader on a Mullet Rig is tied to a float that has a long wire running from it with a loop at the end. This wire is threaded through the mullet&039;s mouth and pushed through the body until it comes out the other end. A one-piece double hook with two shanks is threaded through this loop at the end of the wire. This puts your hooks at the end of the mullet where they can do their job more effectively.