Howdy all!

Yeah, this is a new section of the TFF board for me; usually I reside in the fly fishing area....glad to be here. As a young adult, I grew up fishing West Bay and a little surf fishing so, not completely new to the salt life. Certainly miss it since we have been land locked in DFW for the last 16 years. Really looking forward to taking the kids back and show them where they were born and my old stomping grounds.

Anyway, making a trip with the family to Bolivar in a couple of weeks. We have a shark guide day trip booked with http://www.galvestonsharkfishing.com/ and we are very excited! We will be fishing from the surf as well for shark using surf casting rigs near the beach house we are staying in and whatever we can strum up with some old inshore rigs in the first trough while we wait on something to hit the surf rods.

I have done a lot of homework on shark fishing from the surf; you have to love YouTube and Google, LOL! I would like to do a sanity check here from guys that get to do this more regularly. Besides I am geeking out and mentally checked out for this trip.

Our surf casting rigs are:
Penn Squal Star 15 / 12' Penn Carnage II / 50# braid / 30' of 80# mono top shot
Avet 5.3 SX / 12' Okuma Longitude / 40# braid / 30' of 80# mono top shot

I have been making a bunch of 6' leaders which are 4' mono 500#, 2' 7X7 49 strand 480#, barrel swivel #225 connecting the mono and cable, with a S/S ball bearing #300 that goes to the 80# top shot line. Using a 16/0 S/S offset commercial circle hook as well. Also made a couple of 8' leaders, same hardware but 5' mono and 3' of cable. I made these leaders so the snap swivel (for the spider weight) rides between the S/S ball bearing swivel and a stop sleeve about half the distance down the mono towards the barrel swivel. The idea is to hang the hook off of one of the spider weight legs to shorten the leader length while casting. Everything I have read says the hook will disengage from the spider leg while in the air or at splash down. We will see. I have mixed emotions on the 16/0 hook size, seems like a slight over kill for surf casting the beach. Any thoughts on this?

For bait. Plan on getting fresh dead mullet or lady fish and go the cut bait route, using 3 to 5" chunks. What are the thoughts on bridling cut bait? Is it worth it? If we can catch some bait off the inshore rods, then we may even try some live bait too.

Found some great videos and a few reads on reading the surf, so hopefully the beach house isn't too far from some ideal spots.

I appreciate any feedback on our setup and thought process! Thanks.

In case anyone is curious, here are some pictures of the leaders we have made.

THE SHARK FISHING HANDBOOK

This will get you all straightened out.

http://www.tx-sharkfishing.com/shark-fishing/

Can I buy a few of those? seriously

I'm going down to Galveston the 3rd weekend of September. Started doing research like yourself on shark fishing the surf down there and came to realize that its the beginning of the bull red run. I've never fished down there so that was news to me. Sounds like the strategy is the same for the reds as it is for sharks... a huge weight, a huge circle hook and a big mullet head. You might catch as many big reds as you will sharks.

Although I was originally planning on shark fishing, I'll be happy with any kind of big fish.

Hi Spazm09! I just sent you a PM. Of course you can buy some leaders from us!

Earlier this summer my son and I went surf fishing off of Galveston.
The seas were perfectly flat and minimal tides so we could wade out one bar further than usual.
I would catch a whiting on shrimp, cut it in half and throw it out for bait. Very effective and was catching sharks around 9lb 36 inches in just a couple of minutes of casting out.
Putting a wire leader on minimized the gafftops we hooked into.
Looks like you are using much larger tackle as I was using my abu 6500 c3 with medium heavy ugly stick and a 7/0 circle hook. 9lb sharks one after another on cat rod is pretty fun.

Even caught a ladyfish which would have made great bait for my surf rod but having so much fun did not want to set it up.

From my experience this summer in the Galveston area, you will need to run baits out at least 250 Yards for sharks worthy of that gear. Casting wasn't working for me.

Couldn't agree more with your thoughts Mattewt151. Unfortunately we sold the kayaks last year! Stuck with surf fishing with what we have at least for the remainder of this season.

Buy an inflatable raft, put your rig in a bucket and paddle it out. This is what I did around Port A when the green water was just out of casting distance. Made a huge difference getting the baits out further.

Got a raft you recommend?

You can pick up one of these for $80.
https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/intex-explorer-k2-kayak

You could just rent a kayak, much easier and faster than a raft.

Wade out to the first bar and cast your surf rods off the back of it. If you cast good you can get over the second bar into the 3rd gut. Otherwise wade to the first bar and cast into the 2nd gut. Use whatever fish is in the area you can catch for bait, if there are small fish around there is always something bigger around to eat them.

Didn't have these when I was fishing Port A. This is much better than a raft.