I have been wanting to get down to the coast for a while and the kids want to go to the beach. I know a lot of you have been down and used some of your existing gear. I am looking for some general tips on rigs and methods to use my existing gear for some saltwater land based fishing.

I know Deerstrangler uses quite a bit of his cat gear on the coast, hopefully he will chime in and give you some of the information that you are looking for, or give him a pm.

I fished the coast for the first time ever a few months ago. Only fished the surf once and only caught a few 1-2 lbs trash catfish. Fished the bay mostly and caught a few nice redfish and a bunch more trash fish. I used my freshwater gear with no issues.

I did have one of my reels lock up from the salt water... the only one that I didn't clean out. I would make sure you clean all the salt water out of all your reels.

Never, never lay your gear down in the sand unless you like the sound of grinding. Rinse, rinse, rinse your gear with freshwater after use or your reels may be a seizing. Don't underestimate the corrosive ability of salt water

Couple of years ago I used my big cat gear and caught trout on the east end of Galveston using live shrimp at daybreak. Caught some nice fish, biggest was 23 3/4" speckled trout. Causome small black tip shark and couple sheepshead. Put you on a popping cork and let it rip out as far as you can and wade out chest deep, keep the feet shuffling though and use a loonngg stringer.

Buy cheep spin cast reels for the kids that way if they drop them no big deal.1st and second guts should have plenty of whiting to catch use a 1/2 to 3/4 jig head tiped with fresh dead shrimp or squid.You can for the most part use Carolina rig there is no real need for 3 way or santee c.rig only other thing you may want to pick up is spider weights if there is a strong current.May want to get with Charlie from MT POCKETS he is very good with saltwater set ups , and will take care of you on price if you need some terminal tackle for down south.Can not stress enough to run fresh water over reels and equipment after saltwater use.

What is a long stinger?

My kids are 3 and 5, so I imagine they will be playing on the beach with my wife somewhere close by.

I have 3 SaltStriker spinning reels, maybe those will hold up better than the ABU's.

I have caught literally more reds and black drum than I can count on my 10ft PA's and abu 6500's the last perfectly fine just done let sand in the reels and wash them off GOOD after every use

He's referring to a wading stringer. Usually 15 or 20 feet with a float on the end.

The loonngg part means it's better to have bleeding/thrashing fish away from your body in case a shark goes after them.

I would use the saltstrikers in salt water thats what there made for if I had them , why take a chance a have to rebuld abus because of salt and sand damage, just my 2 cents

Get surf leaders. Wade out to the 3rd sand bar. Cast and make sure the spider weight bites into the sand. Walk back to the beach. Keep tension on the line as you let it out as you walk back to the beach. Don't grab a shark by the tail. Watch out for sharp gill plates on croaker whiting and reds. Don't get stuck by the fins of a hard head catfish. Watch out for Portuguese man-of-war. Good luck!

I use my salt strikers in the surf every summer. Carolina rig, with a wire leader. Cast net some mullet, wade as far as you can and bomb them out there for bull reds or sharks. Croaker under a popping cork has produced some trout for me also.

Most quality rods and reels will work great in salt water. I use bass tackle (Curados, Ambassadors, etc) and have for years to fish for redfish, flounder, and trout. Here's the deal though. The minute you get home, you need to take everything straight from the car, out into the yard and get the garden hose and rinse it thoroughly. I wash everything, buckets, nets, R&R's, sand spikes, aerators, lures, leaders, weights, hooks, etc. Anything that touched the salt water. Take extra care to wash the guides on your rods as salt water can be very sticky and builds up on these. I leave everything in the sun to dry except the reels. I bring them into the kitchen for round two. I take them to the kitchen sink and use the hand sprayer to flush all traces of salt out of the reels, especially the spool containing all of the line. After a couple of minutes of "flooding" the reel with fresh water, I take the side plate off and remove the spool and place all of the reels on a towel to dry for a day or two. I don't usually find that I need to spray directly into the gears etc as the flooding gets the job done. When I reassemble the reels , I check them and lubricate as needed. A family friend taught me this ritual when I was a kid and it has served me well over the years.