Hey guys! I am new to this forum. I just wanted to get some ideas on what would be best for fishing for reds and specs in the surf. Last weekend, (July 15th-16th) I went to Surfside beach, Freeport, TX and fished from the surf. It was my first time to surf fish. I am from East Texas so I don't make it to the coast very often. Fishing from the surf was fun. We caught Spanish Mack, blacktip shark, sand trout and speckled trout. None of us caught any red fish. We were fishing from the 2nd sand bar which was waist deep and throwing out as far as we could. We were using live shrimp on a treble hook with waited corks for a more "life-like" approach of the bait and throwing a 7ft CastAway medium-heavy rod with an Ambassadeur 5500 C3 reel-25lb test monofilament. We seemed to find a hole of specs as we caught several out of the same spot...not sure if they were just moving through chasing baitfish or what but they seemed to be concentrated there. Overall it was a blast.

I am going back to Surfside in early September to fish in the surf again. My question is what can I do to improve the experience and produce some redfish? Should I continue to use live shrimp/bait or can I do better with artificials? Is the Rod/Reel gear I am using ok for this? Is the location good? I would appreciate any tips/pointers.

Thanks!

I believe in the fall, the Redfish come in greater concentrations along the shore. It is referred to as the Bull Red Run or something like that.

I am down at Surfside his week and am doing pretty well with a 3/4 oz. Johnson gold spoon. I recommend picking up a couple of them as backup in case you run out of bait. The 1/2 oz. gold spoons work well for the small Sand Trout but can be difficult to remove from the larger Speckled Trout and Spanish Mackerel.

This week I have caught Sand Trout, Speckled Trout, Spanish Mackerel, Redfish, Menhaden and some other silver baitfish with a blue top and yellow tail fin.

I've never caught too many redfish in the suf myself, but I've actually always been told to fish right along the beach for them and not so far out. Obviously, you don't want to do this around a crowded area, but I guess the idea of it is similar to catching them in the bay. Last time I did it, I ended up catching a really nice trout in the process. I'm pretty sure they're pushing the baitfish up against the beach.