“What’s catching in the surf after Labor Day?”

Surf fishing after Labor Day is one of the most laid-back fun
things you can do. The water temperatures start to cool down and the
summertime doldrums end. Instead of just the usual pan fish type species of
fish such as kingfish, croaker, and spot we see bluefish, stripers, red
drum, flounder and trout.

“But I like to catch kingfish and spot?!”

And they will still be there for another month if you like to
fish for them. Just continue to use your light surf pole in the 7 to 9-foot
range spooled with 10 to 15-pound test line and fish in close to the beach.
Use any kind of kingfish rig with size #6 or #8 hooks baited up with
bloodworm, Fishbite Artificial Bloodworm, shrimp, or little piece of cut
bait such as bunker or mullet. You can put the rod in the rod holder and
“wait” or you can cast out and very slowly retrieve in along the bottom
towards shore. If you are only using one rod, I like to use this “slow
retrieve” tactic. It covers more territory and you can find out where the
fish are biting. It also keeps the crabs from chewing off your bait. (That’s
the one nice thing about Fishbite Bloodworm Alternative—the crabs don’t seem
to be interested!)

This is a good time of year to head out to the beach with two rods, a
shorter pole rigged up with small hooks and small pieces of bait and a
longer 10-12 foot rod spooled with 15-20 pound test rigged up with larger
hooks and bait. Fish the shorter rod in close and the other longer rod cast
out further.

“What kind of rig should I use?”

There are two ways to go. First, you can use a top and bottom type surf rig
with two surf hooks attached. If you are targeting bluefish use rigs with
Styrofoam surf floats next to the hooks. There are lots of pre-made bluefish
rigs out there on the market. You have Sea Striker brand bluefish rigs,
Jeros, Fin-Strike and Eagle Claw. Just look at the hook size and determine
whether the blues are running snapper size or larger size. (Hint: Usually
the larger the float, the larger the hook.)

Start the second season out on the smaller realm of hook size, as September
sees more snapper sized blues in the 10 to 16 inch range. In October and
November we see larger bluefish in the 14 to 36 inch size range. THEN you
can buy the rigs with larger hooks!

When you use the top and bottom type rigs for bluefish you generally use
“cut bait” and put it on the hook. What kind? Well, in the fall of the
year, any kind of cut bait that you can buy that is either “fresh” or
“freshly frozen” is always good. Generally this time of year, there are
three type of baitfish schooling in the bays and surf that the fish are
feeding on. They would be bunker, mullet, and spot.

Spot is one of those fish that you can catch on your small rod close to
shore with some sort of worm, take it off the hook, cut it in either chunks
or strips and throw it out on the big rod! (If you are lucky enough to have
the spot biting that day.)

You can also catch spot in the back bays with little hooks and bloodworm.
Lagoons, marina basins, the 127th Street Pier at high tide, or 9th Street
Pier anytime are good places to go.

Bunker is one of those things that tackle stores have fresh sometimes. Just
cut it in chunks for the best results as it is sometimes mushy to fillet.
You can also buy “bait quality” bunker in vacuum-sealed packs that works
just fine. Cut the top part of the fish in chunks and cut the belly (white
part) into strips if it is solid enough.

Now to the fun bait! Mullet! Usually in the fall we have schools of finger
mullet running up and down the coast. If the run is the same as year’s past,
we should have a good amount of finger mullet available in the tackle stores
fresh and freshly frozen. Then you can use what you call a finger mullet
rig!

“What’s a finger mullet rig?”

. With these rigs, you can thread a whole finger mullet or other small
baitfish on the hook without cutting into the bait. The advantages of using
a “mullet rig” are: 1) Your bait will stay on the hook. 2) If you are
getting bites, but cannot seem to hook the fish, the “mullet rig” will make
a big difference. 3) Some days the fish we are after will only take a whole
finger mullet and not a chunk or strip of bait. (Tip- If small fish are
nipping the tails off your finger mullet, insert one of the hooks of the
double hook back into the tail section.)




“I keep coming back with half a finger mullet no matter how I hook it!”

When this happens it means the fish are either small or not very hungry.
What I do is cast out, and then start reeling in very slow back towards
shore. This makes the bluefish more aggressive and they will chase after the
moving mullet and will take a bigger bite out of it and will more likely get
hooked. Also, if the blues are running on the small side, they will usually
take a half a mullet just as well as they would take a whole one. So if you
come back with half a mullet, make sure it is sitting right next to the hook
and throw it back out. I sometimes even cut a big finger mullet in half and
just fish with half a mullet. This is also helpful if it is windy and hard
to cast out a whole one far enough!

If you simply want to use a top and bottom type rig you do not want to use
the finger mullet whole, you want to cut it up. There are two ways to deal
with finger mullet for baiting top and bottom type rigs. You can cut it into
one-inch chunks and hook the mullet through the dark part of the mullet only
once. You can use the tail section if you like, but most people throw away
the head. I like to cut off the tail and hook that piece of mullet next to
the tail right on the hook. That piece stays on the best because there are a
lot of bones near the tail section of the mullet.

The other way to use finger mullet (or any size mullet for that matter) is
to knock off the scales and fillet each side of the mullet off the bones.
Then you can cut the fillet into two or 4 strips depending on the size of
the mullet and the size of your hook. Filleted and striped bait are
excellent for flounder, kingfish and trout as well as bluefish.

“My rigs keep twisting around in the surf!”

Use a snap swivel at the end of your line and that will help a lot when
casting and retrieving. The little barrel swivels or 3-way swivels that come
on the rigs from the factory are just not enough to eliminate the line
twist. Putting a snap swivel on the end of your line will make a big
difference!

“What about stripers and flounder?”

For stripers and flounder you can skip the floats and use either a
heavy-duty top and bottom rig or make a single rig out of a three way swivel
and snap for the sinker. Many surf anglers like to use a fish finder rig so
the fish can pick up the bait without feeling the weight of the sinker. Cast
out, and reel in slow along the bottom on a quick drop off for flounder.
Stripers and drum like slightly turbulent surf and also like drop-offs,
rips, sloughs, and other structure. They also tend to bite best early in the
morning and then again towards dusk and even after dark.

Circle hooks in the 3/0 to 7/0 range are good for stripers and red drum.
Wide gap or Octopus styled hooks in the 1/0 to 2/0 ranges are good for
flounder. You do not need steel leaders for these fish. Sometimes stripers,
trout, drum and flounder are leader shy and are scared away by thick wire
leaders on your hooks.

Second season surf fishing is the best! Surf’s up!

Good fishing…