Article by Sue Foster
Lessons Learned and Re-Learned
I was off on Tuesday and realized I hadn’t been surf fishing this year! I absolutely love to surf fish because it is so relaxing and nice to be on the beach. I’m one of those people that can’t just sit on the beach to sunbathe. I have to be doing something. And surf fishing is definitely that!
So off I went into my shed and got out my tackle bucket full of surf rigs and sinkers. It was an assortment of kingfish rigs, snapper blue rigs and mullet rigs I had gathered together to go surf fishing one other day before something else came up. There was way more tackle than I needed for one day, so I just looked through it to make sure I had a few of my favorite kingfish rigs since that’s what’s been biting. I had a couple Sea Striker kingfish rigs with the little balls and the size 6 Kahye hooks. I had an Assateague Surf Kingfish Rig with small Gami Octopus hooks and a Magnum Kingfish Rig made with a slightly larger Gami hook. I like this rig because it’s small enough for kingfish, yet large enough to catch a snapper blue or whatever else comes along (or so I thought!).
I looked at the bottom of the bucket and saw I had some 2, 3, 4 and 5–ounce pyramid or hurricane sinkers. For kingfish, I like to use “just enough” weight without using too much, so the sinker barely holds the bottom. When I hold the rod, I like it to move inward a little at a time, and I can reel in the slack. For me, I think kingfish get excited when it moves just a little!
I threw in a bait knife, needle nose pliers, and scissors to cut my 20 and 30 pound test braid line (6 and 8 pound test diameter.) The thinner the line, the less resistance there is in the water so the less sinker weight it takes to hold bottom. Braid line is also more sensitive, so you can feel the tiny bites. (And tiny some of them were!)
I grabbed two surf combos. One was a 9-foot medium action; the other was a lighter 8 ½ foot St. Croix that is sweet to catch kingfish with. It is very sensitive, but not much for throwing more than 4 ounces of lead. I double checked the bottom of my tackle bucket to make sure there were a couple sputnik sinkers in the bottom, which there were (2 oz. & 4 oz.). These sinkers are great when there is a lot of side current (current going down the beach.) They have retractable wires coming out of them, so they stick in the sand really well, and then retract if they get stuck. I can use a 2-ounce sinker on the light rod, rather than having to go to a 4 or 5-ounce pyramid or hurricane sinker. The 4-ounce will hold as well as an 8-ounce pyramid. I don’t use them unless I have to because you lose some sensitivity to the bites. But I did need them for a while on Tuesday.
I grabbed two short sand spikes, one for each rod. In retrospect, I wish I had grabbed the longer ones. When the current is strong or the waves are tall, the longer ones put your surf rods up higher so the waves don’t wash your sinkers back in. I had to hold the rod to keep the line out of the waves.
Even though the tackle bucket had too much tackle, I threw it in the truck. I did drag the whole bucket down to the beach, but in retrospect, I should have taken the time to sort out just what I needed and left the rest at home or in the truck! I didn’t forget anything; I just took a little too much. I had an old beach cart in the shed, and loaded it up with a cooler with ice, an extra bucket and a rag. I had suntan lotion, a sandwich, something to drink, bug spray, plenty of bait (bloodworms, fresh bunker, finger mullet and fish bite bloodworms.) I was going to spend ALL DAY on the beach and I was prepared. Or, so I thought.
I had looked at the radar before I left home, and the little rain storm was coming to an end and I only saw a few green spots coming later. It was hot and figured if it sprinkles a little it will feel good. IN FACT, kingfish like a little cloud cover, and bite much better if the day is partly cloudy rather than sunny. The wind was mostly south but was going to be southeast at least part of the day. Southeast would have been fantastic. East winds make kingfish bite much better. I had checked the tide schedule and saw high tide was at 9:30 A.M. Good, I could catch a morning tide at a good time of day.
I drove up to 3 R’s Road. (I like 3 R’s for the incoming tide and Conquest Road for the outgoing tide.) I had gotten my Delaware Fishing License online last week for $21.50 for the rest of the year. I had also gotten my FIN number and written it on my license. I paid $8 out of state to get in the park. I got to the beach, dragged all my stuff up and realized the cart had a stuck wheel, so I dragged it all up anyway, figuring I’d be there all day. Well, the rain poured down and I sure wish I had taken that rain coat. But I saw no lightning, so I stayed and rigged up. I started with the Magnum Kingfish rig baited with bloodworm with a little chunk of fresh bunker. The fish kept cleaning me, so I put on the smaller kingfish rig and realized they were sand perch and small baby sand sharks. I fished one rod in the hand, bumping it in, and finally caught a couple nice kingfish.
When I was baiting up the third time, I left the cooler open just for 30 seconds, and a sea gull came up and pulled my bait right out of my cooler! You have to watch sea gulls like a hawk! They WILL steal your bait!
THEN, when I was baiting up one rod, I saw something that has never happened to me before! My rod with the Magnum Kingfish Rig took my sand spike down and was heading to the ocean! (Yes, I had my drag too tight!) I grabbed the rod, something took off half my line fast, crashed the surface (I couldn’t make out what it was) and was gone. When I reeled in, the Gami hook had bent out. If I had my drag set lighter, I might have gotten the fish in, or at least maybe saw it! Lesson learned. (And I know that lesson!)
A couple more kingfish caught… then I looked at the sky and saw lightning, and I know you do not stand on the beach with a graphite rod in a lightning storm! So I hauled all my stuff to the truck, wishing I had been a little more selective about how much stuff I had taken to the beach, and headed for the barn. I could have bought a beach tag to drive on the beach, or I could have bought a decent beach cart!
There was one more lesson learned that I knew, but did it anyway. Even though the day was partly cloudy and party rainy, the sun did come out a couple times. I put suntan lotion everywhere but the tops of my feet! Ouch! Lobster feet! The other lesson learned. Don’t put Fish Bites in your pocket and get caught in a rain storm. It turned into a pink sticky glue gob!
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.
