Article by Sue Foster
“What size fishing rod such I buy for the surf?”
Anglers ask this all of the time. In the spring, I sell a lot of 12-foot rods. That’s because the annual run of stripers is coming through and the surfcasters want to cast as far as they can to reach them. They will also pick the heavier rods that will throw up to 10-ounces of weight.
In the fall, we sell the long, heavier rod again when the stripers migrate south.
In the summer months, when we have whiting, Norfolk spot, croaker, sea trout and snapper blues, a shorter, lighter weight rod will give you more action and more fun. A 9-foot rod in the 1/2 to 3 ounce or 2 to 6 ounce weight range is all you need. The water is warmer in the summer months too, so you can walk out there in your shorts and bare feet and gain some distance as well.
If you surf fish a lot, you will wind up buying more than one rod and most avid anglers take two rods out on the beach. The “fisherman” will take the heavier, longer rod and baits up with a large piece of bait such as a bunker chunk or even the whole bunker head, a whole calamari squid, or a chunk of fresh bluefish on a large hook in the 5/0 to 9/0 size range. Using a good sized pyramid, hurricane or clam weight sinker in the 4 to 10-ounce range, the “fisherman” casts out the bait, puts the rod in the sand spike, and waits. (Remember to always set your drag so a good strike doesn’t cause your rod/reel to go straight into the ocean!!!!)
Now the “angler” will take a smaller, lighter rod such as a 9-foot combination and rig it up with a kingfish rig or small bluefish rig to see what else is biting! Bait up with bloodworm, Fishbite bloodworm or Fishbite Crab flavored strips (orange color is popular in our area), little strips of squid, or filleted and stripped fresh bunker. Many anglers use combination baits on the small hooks such as Fishbites with real bloodworm, or Fishbites with a little piece of meat such as squid or fresh bunker. (I’m a believer of the combination baits!) This spring anglers were digging fresh sand fleas and putting them on the hook with the Fishbite Crab E-Z strips. Come up with your own favorite combination. You can never go wrong with bloodworm or Fishbite bloodworm with a little strip of Calamari squid. That’s the box squid, not that thick pre-cut stuff. (Sorry I just don’t like that stuff for the surf unless you want some skate bait!)
Cast out with whatever sinker will hold the bottom without using so much weight that you can’t feel the fish bite. Start with 2 or 3 ounces and only go to 4 or 5 ounces if the surf is washing the sinker back in. Keep the rod in your hand, but have a sand spike ready in case you have to put the rod in the holder and quickly grab the heavier rod if it bends over with a fish on the other end!!!
The smaller the bait, the more often you need to check it. Little crabs can chew off your bait as well, so it’s necessary to continuously check your bait. I like to cast out the lighter rod, and ever so slowly, bounce the baits in towards shore. If nothing happens in 20-minutes or so, I either put that rod in the rod holder for a while and wait, or move down the beach a few yards and try another spot.
Make sure you are not casting on top of a sand bar!!! The beach in Ocean City has been difficult since Hurricane Sandy. In many places there’s a trough and then an outer bar. At low tide, the anglers can sometimes walk out to the bar and cast into the deeper water. At high tide, this may be difficult, so you are best off fishing in the trough. Some anglers just wait for the tide to be low and get out to the bar. Other anglers just fish the high tide and stay in close. Just remember, white water is shallow water. Dark rolling water is deeper water.
Back to the rod sizes! You can buy a rod as long as 15 feet. These rods will cast far if you are a big guy or gal that can handle that length and weight. But most people just can’t handle it and do much better with a quality 11 or 12-foot surf fishing rod. If you are only going to buy one surf rod to fish with all season long, I would suggest a 10 or 11-foot model.
If you fish primarily in the spring and the fall, go a little heavier. If you fish primarily in the summer, go a little lighter. Like any other sport, the more dollars you invest in your equipment, the nicer it will be. Better quality surf rods have a higher graphite content and better quality guides that will make the rod lighter in the hand and more sensitive to the fish bites.
Kids and smaller ladies tend to deal best with a shorter rod. You will find that the 8 and 9-foot rods have a shorter butt section than the 10 through 12-foot rods. That makes it easier for us smaller, shorter people to cast. I personally fish with an 8 and a 9-foot surf rod.
Last, but not least, remember this, the lighter the line, the further you can cast. Weigh that out with the fish you are targeting and your ability to cast without hurling your rig and sinker to the great beyond! If you fish with monofilament line in the springtime when the big stripers are around, I would spool my reel with 17-pound test on the lighter end and 20-pound test on the heavier end. If you use Spectra line such as Power Pro Braid, I would go with 30-pound line on the light end and 50-pound line on the heavy end. During the summertime, you can go down to 14-pound test monofilament or 20-pound braid on the lighter end unless you are targeting sharks!!!
Hope this helps and doesn’t confuse you. The best teacher for fishing is to go fishing! It’s hard to know exactly what questions to ask before you’ve ever even gone. Once you fish a couple times, you’ll have more questions. Stop into local bait and tackle shops that specialize in surf fishing and ask away. That’s what we’re here for!
Good fishing…
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.