St Joe 4-2 and 4-4

[EdB]

Hit the river on Thursday. There are still some steelies around. Had a good day with my buddy, we got these and let 2 go.

Those 3 hens on the right sure reloaded my spawn supply, all set now.

Now that I had some fresh gold, we hit the beach on Saturday. I got this nice brown and a small steelie. My buddy had some hits but blew it. One time his pole just about got ripped out of the holder but I think he was sleeping.

[GLF]

GREAT job Ed! Nice looking brown. Whats your setup when fishing from the beach?

[Priority1]

Ed, Good job pounding Steel. Nice looking Brown from the surf.

[Adam Bomb]

Very nicely done...Great looking fish.

[Prof]

From the beach? Wow! Very nice!!

This rookie is salivating and has got to ask… How did you do that?

Just to give you some perspective, I’ve got lots of experience fishing for bass, crappie, pike, etc. out of a canoe or kayak on inland lakes. However, we just picked up an old aluminum 19’ Sea Nymph that we’re trying to resurrect that will allow my boys and I to get out in decent weather after lake trout, etc. But from the beach???? Sounds like what I did when I was in the Navy and stationed down in Pensacola, Florida. I think I’m rambling a bit, but “Golly gee wiz†(cleaned up pretty good hey?), that looks awesome!

Can you shed a little light on techneque for those of use who are new to this part of the sport?

Again, very nice!

[EdB]

I use a 9 ft medium action rod with a spinning reel. Some guys like longer rods off the beach to keep your line above the surf breaking near shore. You can compensate by using long rod holders. Our rod holders are PVC pipe duct taped to a 3/8 inch steel rod. Just push it into the sand on the beach. We use a typical pier rig. You run your main line through a snap swivel, don't tie it on, it should slide up and down, then attach to a barrel swivel. Then tie on a 2-3 foot leader to a #6 single egg hook. Attach a 1oz to 2oz pyramid sinker to the snap swivel. If the surf is up, you might need to go a bit heavier but too much surf makes it tough to fish. The barrel swivel will keep the weight from sliding down to your hook but allows a fish to hit with out feeling the weight. You need to wear waders and walk out to the 2nd sandbar. You will go over the first sandbar and the 2nd trough is usually just about to the top of your waders. Keep going until the 2nd sand bar, it usually comes back up to waist or knee high depth, and cast it out as far as you can. Walk your pole back to shore leaving the bail open so your bait sits where it landed and put it on a rod holder. Reel up the slack, get a lawn chair and wait for bite. Fresh steelhead spawn bags or skein is my favorite bait but you can use salmon spawn, nightcrawlers, shrimp, minnows. We had a night crawler out on one pole but it never took a hit. The best conditions are to have some waves breaking in. Calm days are not the best. Beach fishing is not the most productive way to catch trout but it sure is relaxing on a nice day.