Hi all,

I am hoping to get back into occasional pier and maybe some surf fishing. Haven't done this since the early 80's at Myrtle Beach in SC so I'm not really up to speed on who makes what these days.

I still have my old Daiwa and Shimano reels from back then but haven't looked at them in years. If they are no longer serviceable I may need a new reel. I'm hoping to get something that can do double duty as I don't want to sink a lot of money into it. I don't even know much about what there is to catch here in Texas besides the Redfish I've heard so much about. In SC, I used to catch Blue fish, Spot, Whiting, Croaker, Pompano mostly with a few Black Drum thrown in.

I was looking at the Shimano GLF rod and Penn Pursuit IV reel but haven't had a chance to put my hands either yet. Spinning or Casting reels are both ok with me.

Recommendations appreciated!

PS, posted this in the Inshore sub-forum too...wasn't sure which was appropriate

Are you looking for a long casting type set up or for wade fishing in the surf?

Thanks for your question. I'll be on the beach long casting, no wading. Is there a difference as far as line?

Here is a post I wrote on another fishing message board. The original poster had ask " help on surf fishing 101" so maybe this might be the kind of information you are looking for as well. If I can answer anything else that isn't noted definitely let me know and I will do my best to steer you in the right direction.



Welcome to the dark side! It really is an absolute blast. You are likely going to get three different answers from all three of us but keep in mind there is no one right way for surf fishing, the gear or the tactics. Always use what ever is the best for you and what you feel confident in using. The below information is what works best for me:

Rods: Most rods I use are typically 10 to 12 ft, however, I do have a couple of 13 footers if I really need to reach out and get a bait out just a little bit further. For just general overall casting, my favorites are the 10 footers in 25#-50# class. I have just always felt more control with 10ft rods over anything else. A great entry level rod (and truthfully just a good overall rod) at good price point is the Okuma Longitude. That would be a great rod to go with. I believe you can pick them up at Academy. Strong backbone to use on anything from big black drum, bull reds and average sharks.

Reels: The rule of thumb that I was kind of always taught as a kid when I first started was make sure your reel is big enough to hold at least 300 yards of 30# mono. That has always been the "standard" metric. This gives you enough line capacity and strength to battle most of the fish you are going to encounter in the surf zone within casting range. Do you need 300 yards to catch big redfish? No, not at all, but when something else picks up a bait that has some REAL size to it you are going to be glad you have the line capacity. I tend to favor Avet LX reels but by no means do you have to go and spend a lot on expensive reels. One of the favorite reels of surf fisherman all up and down the coast are the Daiwa Sealine XSHA versions. They come in 20, 30, and 50 sizes and are casting machines. The 50 size is a popular choice and again at a great price point. Matched up with the Okuma longitude rod would be an outstanding setup and ready for battle. For spinning reels, if you went that route, the Daiwa BG series are great reels. I am not a spinning reel guy and only have one but the Daiwa BG's are quite popular. I have used the 8000 size for a few years and have zero complaints.

Avet LX’s with straight braid


Daiwa 50XSHA straight braid


Line: This is where you are going to get several different answers for sure. I am a straight braid guy on all my casting reels. Many people will use 50# or 65# braid backing with a mono topshot but I just run braid on the entire reel. 65# braid is a good standard to go with. It casts great with the thinner diameter and is more than strong enough to turn bigger fish. You are going to hear people say you will get cut off using braid more but I have found over the years that just isn’t true. Both braid and mono have been equally cut off for me, if not the mono just slightly more.

Leaders: As an overall standard surf casting leader, a four foot 400# leader with a 9/0 to a 13/0 circle hook will do the trick. I make mine using 4/0 barrel swivels and a 4/0 coastlock snap swivel for the weight attachment. These leaders are great for the big drum and average blacktips. Being all mono, they do get cut off from time to time by bull sharks. Chum uses his Hydromaxxx leaders which seem to work well for him. For bait leaders, I use a tripple drop rig with very small 2/0 circle hooks. For whiting, croaker and other little bait fish, the smaller hooks have an outstanding hookup ratio.

Standard bullred/drum leader for casting. 4 feet of 400# mono, 4/0 barrel swivel, 4/0 snap swivel for weight attachment, 10/0 circle hook.






Triple drop bait leader. The one pictured has 6/0 hooks on it because I was targeting slot reds but I would use the same one with the 2/0 hooks for catching bait.



Weights: 8oz has always been the standard size that the majority of people use. I am sure you have heard the term "8 and bait" thrown around a few times. How bad the current is and how big of bait I am using will dictate what size weight I will use. I use all sizes from 2oz on the small bait rods, the standard 6-8oz on the majority of casting rods to 24oz weights for our kayak deployed shark weights (that is a different topic though). One thing to remember is it is not the actual weight of the weight that gets it to hold, it is the thickness of the legs. On an average day with average conditions and current, a weight with 1/16th legs will work just fine. On days where the current is really strong I will bump it up to weights with 3/32 legs. On days where there is virtually no current and calm conditions, you can get away with using standard pyramid sinkers and storm pyramid sinkers instead of spider style weights. 9 times out of 10 though I am using spider weights so I can make sure my bait is locked in and stays exactly where I intended to put it.

8oz weights with 3/32 legs.


Various sizes from 1oz to 4oz with 1/16 legs


Simple surf rod holders. 10ft PVC cut into 5ft sections.


I will try to get some pics taken here in a bit and update the post with pictures. Maybe that would help even more. Also, if you want to PM me your address I would be more than happy to send you some leaders and weights to get you started. And like Sgrem said, any one of us would absolutely enjoy having you out there on the water with us if you'd like to go and see how to really put all of that into action and make it successful!

Hope this helps a bit and always feel free to PM me and ask anything else that I might be able to answer for you.

I used to fish the beach, the piers, the bridges, and party boats of south florida.. didn't have a fishing rig for each situation but had one that worked well enough for all. 7 foot rods... too much longer and they wouldn't fit in car or were too long for party boats if sitting under canopy. Had Shimano 4500 baitrunner reels for freelining baits, It wasn't great for casting along the beach (very heavy) but worked well enough with 30 lb braid. Have caught 50 lb tarpon from seawalls, 20 lb snook in the surf, and big grouper from the party boats. If I had to do it again..

If I still fished that way today, I'd have a 7' Star Stellar Lite Spinning Rod, Med Heavy Power 12/20 or Heavy (your preference). Best Rod for the money I've ever found and made in the U.S. .. just bought one last year in lighter weight for kayaking in the salt. I rarely set my rod down, prefer to keep it in my hands whether fishing straight down or out. Would rather have rig that can handle 90% of the the fish I'll come across than something that allows me to land moby dick.

https://www.starfishingtackle.com/

Back in the 90's the Shimano Baitrunners were the bomb for freelining live bait. They were very heavy reels and you surely wouldn't want to use it for casting plugs all day, but they did everything else well.. drag smoothness and held up to the salt. Today several companies have copied the bait runner feature and Shimano came out with a much lighter weight model, Thunnus. Get the best you can afford and you'll be set for all types of fishing the salt.

https://www.tackledirect.com/shimano-baitrunner-oc-spinning-reels.html

Check out video below picture above... 4000 size is what I'd be looking at.

Good Luck!

I'm sure that your older reels can be made serviceable. What are they and what's wrong with them?

I don't have the model numbers handy because they're in storage. One is a Daiwa and one is a Shimano. Bought both in 1981 when I lived in Myrtle Beach, SC. One has the rear drag knob and one has a lever you can pull up with your finger that opens the bail. When I get the model numbers this weekend, I'll post them here. As far as whether they are serviceable, I have no idea what shape they are in except to say they were working when I put them away. I also have an old late '70's Lew's Speed Spool baitcaster in there as well.

I grew up in SA and fished the salt as much as I could. Bought almost all my gear discounted at pawn shops between SA and Corpus. Got plenty of Calcutta's for really cheap along with Penn's and ABU Garcia. Watch FB marketplace and Craigslist too. Lots of gear to be found cheap.

TPOTTS has some fantastic set ups that will work perfectly. If you are savvy enough to make those. I never was. So I bought most of my rigs as Roys Bait & Tackle in Corpus.

When I was younger I fished mostly for shark. I was lucky enough to have someone at Roy's teach me how to build a simple wire rig for the surf and/or Bob Hall Pier. Those were the only rigs I made, but not as pretty as TPOTTS, LOL.