Need some advise on saltwater fishing tackle..

Just purchased a 23' Carolina Skiff Dlv. Been fshing for years in jordan and harris, but wanting to do some fishing down at the coast. I have very little experience down there and was hoping to get some advise on what kind of tackle I may need. Mostly inshore fishing. flounder, trout, drum etc and some bottom fishing offshore. Black bass, grouper etc. Thanks for any help!

Ohh man that's a question that could be answered with a novel. You can use all of your bass stuff for all of the inshore fish. Easiest answer is put on a Carolina rig with a finger mullet and fish structure like the edge of oyster reefs, points, mud flats, creek mouths, drop offs. If you ever pull your boat down to Wilmington get up with me and we can go fishing.

Thanks wildlifer!

One thing I've learned about fishing saltwater after fishing fresh water for 10 plus years is fish structure just like you do in freshwater. You'll catch fish everytime but only difference is you're in saltwater. Most of the time you can use the same baits as you do freshwater fishing.

Gulp 3-4" mullet or shrimp in new penny or pearl white. Put it on a jig head to match current and you will catch whatever. You can throw spinners and crankbaits as well. Mirrolures are fun.

As for inshore tackle the prior responses are correct in that quality freshwater rods and reels will work just fine (just remember to wash them down to avoid corrosion). The main difference is that many inshore species are toothy critters (trout and flounder mainly) so you'll probably need to use fluorocarbon leaders that are heavier than you are accustomed to avoid being bitten off. Also simple flounder rigs can be bought cheap and many crank baits, tube baits, bucktails and plastic shad/minnow baits work well just like for bass fishing.

For bottom fishing you'll need something heavier in either spinning or lever/star drag conventional style (or both might be preferred) to handle stronger fish, heavier rigs and deeper water. Something like a 5000 to 6000 size spinning reel rig and a conventional like a TLD 20 or equivalent Penn will suffice for most situations and even work for near shore kings and trolling larger Spanish mackerel.

If you are going after nearshore kings make sure you have a reel with 300+ yards on it. Kings will make an incredible first and second run and peel off the drag.

GSOHunter said:

If you are going after nearshore kings make sure you have a reel with 300+ yards on it. Kings will make an incredible first and second run and peel off the drag.

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Exactly! That was the main basis for suggesting a 5000/6000 size spinning reel (or even larger) and something like the TLD 20 where you can have several hundred yards of braid as a backer with a couple top shot of good 20+# mono. Even good size reef fish can pull like hell so a solid setup with stout line is a good thing to have when bottom fishing near shore.a

A good place to start would be to go to Field & Stream and/or BPS tell the salesperson what your intentions are & they can give some good suggestions. Then shop around for the setup you want as you can possibly get better prices somewhere else. Overton's had a good TLD 20 combo last fall for a great price and BPS had a good deal on some Penn Battle spinning combos & BPS will spool your line for you if you purchase there.

Thank you to everyone! Y'all have given me a good starting point.

Definatley the Shimano tld series reels for trolling and light bottom fishing. Best reel for the money. We used two 15 series and two 20 series for everything from spanish mackerel to kings and mahi, then we had a couple 25 for bottom fishing. We would keep 150 yards of 150 lb braid in a Gatorade bottle and reel in on for bottom fishing. All of the reels we kept spooled with 20 lb mono, and would just reel on heavier leaders if needed. We also had two Penn battle series spinning reels. Between that we were prepared for any type of fishing we could handle from inshore to 20 miles off.

apexhunter said:

Exactly! That was the main basis for suggesting a 5000/6000 size spinning reel (or even larger) and something like the TLD 20 where you can have several hundred yards of braid as a backer with a couple top shot of good 20+# mono. Even good size reef fish can pull like hell so a solid setup with stout line is a good thing to have when bottom fishing near shore.a

A good place to start would be to go to Field & Stream and/or BPS tell the salesperson what your intentions are & they can give some good suggestions. Then shop around for the setup you want as you can possibly get better prices somewhere else. Overton's had a good TLD 20 combo last fall for a great price and BPS had a good deal on some Penn Battle spinning combos & BPS will spool your line for you if you purchase there.

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I've caught kings up to 22# on trout-sized reels while fishing live bait for spanish...just have to let the drag do the work for you.

TLD 15 is going to handle almost anything within the range of your boat. I have caught massive rays, cobia, sailfish, kings, aj's, and dolphin with mine.

My preferred inshore setup is a 6'6'' fast action rod with 3000 series spinning reel. I have shimano stradic and penn battle with no complaints.

I use the same spinning setup on the boat when casting to feeding spanish or albacore. Usually use gotcha jig-fishes/stingsilvers for this. Remember to try and match the hatch with fish actively feeding on the surface.

For near shore live bait fishing (mostly kings or spanish) I use a 6000 series abu garcia conventional reel. Usually has about 200 yards of braid and then a douple dozen yards of mono.

For the heavier stuff, I use the shimano TLD. You can get rods with different actions for different species. If you are pulling dead bait, you want a more stiff rod than if you plan on pulling live bait.

Welcome to the expensive world of saltwater fishing.

Simple Spanish trolling rigs... 2 ounce in line trolling weights and 0 or 00 size Clark spoons in silver/pink flash have been wearing out the Spaniards this week..

Bucktail rigs with 3" White Gulp mullets. Also VuDu shrimp are killer...

Same setup as above but with #0 Clark Spoon in silver/chartruese fkash.