Article by Skylar Snead and Chris Taylor
Once spring begins to end, a lot of the better surf fishing that most of us love ends with it. The run of migrating black drum and striped bass in the surf by the end of May is slowing down, and by June it’s over. By then, you would have noticed all the little tiny fish stealing your bait that have started to invade, along with stingrays and the more toothy critters like sharks and bluefish. Targeting these fish can be even more challenging than the black drum and striper run. You either have to beef your gear up and go for the bigger sharks and stingrays, or you can move things down quite a few sizes and target the smaller fish.
We’ve talked about the sharks, so I’m not going to get very in-depth with that. Heavy mono shock leaders as rub leaders and steel at the hook will catch sharks and rays. But know your limits and don’t go targeting sharks with rods, reels, or line too light to land it in a timely manner. An extended fight on tackle too light can lead to a dead shark, even if it’s not gut hooked. So please know the limits of your gear and have the proper tools for targeting sharks, and always have a plan for landing one before you go out.
Now to downsizing… A lot of people enjoy this time of year because it’s a little more fast-paced than the spring run, and you can use much lighter tackle. Some days, if it’s calm enough, you’ll find us out there with 4’6” ultralight, fast action, Ugly Sticks with 10 lbs. braid, casting 1 oz. sinkers with #10 hooks for kingfish and spot. (I know 1 oz. is heavy for that light of a rod, but this is where knowing the limits of your tackle comes into play and knowing how to cast it properly.) If you find the right hole at the right tide, it can be non-stop action until they move with the tides—and on light tackle, it is a blast! Just like with all surf fishing, they can be hard to find at first and even hard to hook. That’s why going as light as possible helps us sometimes, along with us just plain enjoying fishing with light tackle. We don’t put a rod that small in a rod holder; this is something you’d see us holding in our hands, walking the beach with. Sometimes this is the easiest way to find the fish—just parking in an area and walking up and down it, casting a very, very light, small rod. Getting close to the water with it basically at your toes gives you a better perspective of the structure. You can find points on the beach you wouldn’t see from where you drive. So parking and walking 75–100 yards away from your vehicle and back can help you find structure while casting smaller tackle that won’t wear out your arms. That time walking back and forth also gives the swells time to do their sets and will give you a better idea of the structure of that area with the breaking waves. Just driving by a spot only gives you a brief look at the structure. You don’t know what the next set of waves could do.
For the kingfish, spot, and croaker, while using rods in a sand spike, we use anywhere from 8–12’ rods—but not the same ones we’d use for the drum, sharks, and rockfish. These are lighter power rods, usually fast action, and using lighter lines. Which means they’re more sensitive and rated to cast much less weight than the ones we’d use in the spring/fall run. The rods we put in a sand spike normally have a little bit bigger hook than the very light tackle approach. They’ll swallow the hook much easier if the rod is in the spike, so going to a #2 hook in the spike can be helpful. If I took out my drum rods to catch kingfish, I would miss a lot of hits. So having different setups for different applications helps greatly.
Finding these small fish can be difficult at times because they can be so concentrated in an area, and if the sharks or bluefish move through, they can scatter. Finding places where the outer bar is very close to shore with a deeper trough between can be a good place to start. Deep doesn’t have to be 10’or more. I’ve found these fish in holes where my rig would go just out of view. A couple of feet is all they need, but a good pinch point with a hole is always a place we like to start looking. Casting directly on the outer bar can also be a good place to try to locate them. They love the whitewater being churned up or where the whitewater stops and the deep begins—it makes for easy feeding; they don’t have to dig around. Don’t be afraid to cast close sometimes. A couple of feet off the beach can be the hot spot some days. With these small fish, think small: baits, water, rigs, rods. They can be found in deep, deep holes and big water too.
The key here is to downsize. Don’t be afraid to downsize even the water you’d normally fish if all you want is a little tug on the line, which the end of spring and beginning of summer can be a great time to get.
