im new to surf fishing and have been out 6 times. so far i have only caught 1 tripletail, 1 gafftopsail, and 10,092,833 hardheads. i think i may need to get the bait out farther so would getting say a 10' rod help? right now im using 6'6" med-heavy rods and can only make it out to the back of the second gut and just onto the 3rd sandbar. im using 12/0 circle hooks and using cut bait, mullet, shrimp, squid, and blue crab (all frozen) but it seems that the hardheads love all of these! so any tips for keeping these things off my lines? maybe if i can get it past the 3rd bar i would have better success? thanks for any help or info.

those dudes are ALWAYS there and can put a hurting on you. using bigger bait will detur them but if they want it bad enough they will take it anyway. also using lure and not bait help too.

Like striker said they will always be there and will eat just about anything I even caught one on a lure once. If you have bait they will eat but the best chance of avoiding them is lures.

im catching them on my surf rods. so will game fish eat a lure that is just out on a leader on the bottom???

Stop using shrimp and stop fishing muddy, chocolaty looking water.

Bigger bait if you must use bait. Best way to is switch to artificial lures and cleaner water.

bigger baits, i caught one on a spoon, i swear i'm just gonna start keeping them and label it my "fish fry" ziplock for all the people that can't tell the difference.

"ohhh yeah, thats talapia! mmmm..."

thanks for the ideas i think i may have a new plan of attack for my next trip. i may not be able to get away from the muddy water. it seems all the beaches in my area are just plain old muddy. i have been going to the closest beach to me (mcfaddin ~ 1 hour from my house) but i think next time ill go the extra 30 minutes to get down to crystal beach past rollever pass probably. is there some kind of moon phase that i should be looking for also? ive been making sure to hit usually the outgoing tide, but i always make sure its moving one way or another. thanks again.

Unscented lures are gonna be the only way to not catch as many. Bigger bait = bigger hard heads lol.

I even saw Wader-Noob on the forum caught a hard head on a chartreuse and white clouser.

Keep the bait at least 1 to 2 ft off the bottom. That should eliminate about 99% of them.

Have had them take Gulps on a very steady retrieve.
Went out on Fulton Pier last week, guy at the office wanted to sell me a fish towel. Wasn,t planning on catching much, so I asked "what for". His answer... hardheads. My answer.... I'm using artificial.

I have to ask...How did you catch that triple tail?
Please don't tell me it hit dead shrimp on the bottom.

Sounds like you've got pretty heavy surf gear, so you're going for bulls and arties are kind of out of the question. Stop using squid or shrimp. Try using a larger live finger or pony mullet on a fishfinder. Hardheads are less likely to eat the larger live baits. Don't chop the crab in half, just crack the shell a little and hook it on the corner. Piers or jetties in the area? If so, get on them and fish the color change. 12/0 is a pretty big hook, must be some decent sized hardheads. Also, congratulations on the tripletail! That's a rare surf catch!

leave hardhead on as bait cut 1 side fin off and make a slice in center out back fin, you might be suprised.

the triple tail was caught on the first cast of the day on saturday. waded to the first sand bar. casted and landed just shy of the second bar. by the time i had the rod back and in the holder it was on. i was using frozen cut bait from academy.

the closest jetties that i could fish would probably be in galveston which is just over 2 hours drive if i catch the ferry. i guess i need to go ahead and get a cast net for some live bait.

wait so something actually eats hardheads!?! how do you hook it?