Are there fish that can be caught at/from our west coast public beaches? No, not during the day when folks are on the beach and in the water but maybe early morning or at night. Are there fish there within casting distance of the shoreline? If so, what kind of bait/artificial might work best?

Thanks.

Definitely. You'll catch fish even when there's people around...I like live bait the best, especially on the beach where the water is usually a lot clearer than in the bay. Use live shrimp, whitebait, pinfish, pigfish and finger mullet and you can catch various species this time of the year. Even frozen shrimp will get you some nice sharks and other species too...

If you prefer lures, try a jig with a forked tail, or a DOA, day glow shrimp. Fish from right along the shore where the water suddenly drops off {3 feet}, YES, three feet, and cast in an arc 180 degrees around, from 9 o'clock around to 3 o'clock.
From 10 to 1 o'clock, you can cast out 10-15 yards and work by bouncing or just reeling along the bottom... SLOWLY.
If you find rocks, seaweed, etc., cast near them, too.
If you like to wing it WAAAy out, a Gotcha or Silly Willy bounced along the bottom works wonderfully for me!

Bill :fishing:

Caught 4 spanish, 2 jacks, a half dozen ladyfish, a skipjack, some grunts and had a few cutoffs on the Pass A Grill beach today. Probably from about 10am until about 4, with people and dogs all over the place and a ton of boat traffic. A few on silver spoons, most on live shrimp under a bobber. I like live shrimp on a jig too, caught a few flounder right on the gulf pier beach at desoto yesterday. Jig wasnt working at pass a grill, switched to bobber and started hooking up.

Very neat. Thanks for sharing.

Pretty darn sure you didn't catch any copperband butterlies on Pass A Grill. You an aquarium hobbyist there, ktek?

On windy days that kick up some surf, I have had luck with Snook along the beaches in the surf. Starting around now thru September - mainly July and August. If it is too windy for the yak, I hit the beaches.... Oh yeah, O dark 30 to start...

Snook are on the beaches now. net up some white bait OR net up whatever is in that area....whether its small threadfin pods, small school of whiting, small schools of pinfish. Those fish are there and they are feeding so "match the hatch". also plenty of macks/ ladyfish/ jacks will be cruising them as well. Snook will be running the trough in 1-3 feet of water. make sure your scale your leader down. I start with 15 unless im seeing bigger snook then ill throw 20.

Get a few saluki rigs and a once-ounce egg sinker with a little brass ring and swivel at the top. Hook that to the ring hanging out of the sabiki rig and tie your line to the other end. Cast it directly alongside the beach in the direction you are walking.

You will catch baitfish and small Macks even on the sabiki. Use the bait live and eat the mackerel.

Put the sardines you catch back into the same trough. It runs directly along the beach ten feet from your feet, that is why you should cast along the beach, not away from it.

The beaches are loaded with snook. They are in balls. Spawning balls. Ranging anywhere from 10 fish to 200 at a time. We have seen clouds in the passes with what looked like 10,000 fish in them.

But they are there. If you do not want to fish with live bait, use a lead jig. All white with white bucktail on it. Deadly.

And can somebody get our Brit friend on their boat? Mine is getting ready for school :)

Beach fishing is different more people watching then fishing. Now as for summer snook they are all on the beach, they need some sun to. The most productive time is just before dawn. Your favorite lure cast parallel to the shore line and in just a few feet of the shore line will do well. Now for the people watching time of day. Whiting are small but gives you something to do and you can eat them. As bait for the whiting some try sand fleas well for over 50 years I have tried but have never caught fish with a sand flea. Had the guts sucked out of many but no hook ups. :) Also forget frozen shrimp they do not like them, very picky they are. Get some small shrimp and cut it in two, you can use both parts but the bait needs to be small and fresh Fish just past the sand bar at low tide or inside at high tide anyway you need to find where they are. Do not let the bait just sit move it slow, very slow and may be bump it sometimes to get there attention. When they pick it up the pick up is not hard so you need to feel the line. Something like fishing for bass with a rubber eel.

O yes some times pompano will move through the inside of the sand bar and sometimes a flounder will be there.


good luck

deathroll wrote:
Lazy, it was one of the default choices when I signed up for the site. :)

Captain Dave shows up with some great beach snook news just in time for this thread!

Looks like it's time to get out there B)

I'm hitting the Pinellas beaches tomorrow, if anyone wants to meet up, send me a PM

www.theonlinefisherman.com/captain-david...-clearwater-pinellas