# What is your favorite bait for the surf ?



## Rawpower (Jul 4, 2011)

OK. 2coolers. What is your favorite bait for surf fishing? 

Reds =

Bull Reds=

Specks=

Sharks=

Spanish Macks=

Add your favorites=

Please leave your feedback.

Thanks


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Slot reds= From April through November ,mullet. From October through May, crab. Fresh jumbo shrimp year round.

Bull reds= Same as slot reds but I will also use big croaker and whiting in the warmer months.

Specks= I use the same baits I use in the bay, topwaters, slow sinkers, soft plastics, and spoons for artificial , live croaker, shrimp, mullet, and shad for natural baits.

Sharks= For bigger sharks I like using jacks or bonita, sheephead are also good in early spring for sandbars. When casting baits for sharks I use mullet, croaker, whiting, or any other small fish I can legally put on a hook. I've never had good luck using stingray, but a lot of people do.

Spanish mackerel= I never target smacks, but I do catch them when fishing for trout using the same baits. 

Black drum= Both keeper drum and big ugly's are always underrated as far as surf fish go. The smaller ones are great eating and the big ones put up a strong determined fight. All I use for drum is crab and fresh jumbo shrimp year round.

Whiting= Probably the best eating fish on the Texas coast, but because of their small size they are rarely targeted. When the big ones start showing up in February I rig my surf rods up with double drop leaders using fresh shrimp and fill my ice chest up.


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## coin-operated (Mar 17, 2011)

Only target Specks, so I use a big silver spoon with red trailer or a white and chartreuse Mirrodyne suspending.


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## KilgoreTrout (May 11, 2016)

I only target specs but will use topwaters (Super Spooks, One Knockers and SS Jrs.)early in the morning and switch to Silver spoons and Chickenboy lures for underwater as the day goes on or after the topwater bite is over. 

Tight lines!


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## fishingcacher (Mar 29, 2008)

OK. 2coolers. What is your favorite bait for surf fishing? 

Reds = finger mullet

Bull Reds= finger mullet

Specks= live shrimp

Sharks= finger mullet

Spanish Macks= finger mullet


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## Rawpower (Jul 4, 2011)

Whiting= Probably the best eating fish on the Texas coast, but because of their small size they are rarely targeted. When the big ones start showing up in February I rig my surf rods up with double drop leaders using fresh shrimp and fill my ice chest up.[/QUOTE]

I always catch em in the Surf but only used them for cut bait. Iâ€™m gonna catch a few and try em out. I see whole families set up a picnic table and a pit right on the surf cooking. They must be chowing down on a bunch of Whiting. Easy to catch and no limit.


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## rock87 (Mar 11, 2012)

*Bait for Redfish*

I catch my own mullet I guess because I am cheap. But I catch a lot of Red's on them. I usually throw 15" 16" 17" trout back so they will grow & give a better fight. A 12" whiting is very good to eat & takes about a minute to fillet.


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

One bait I haven't seen mentioned is using very small crawfish for whiting. I used to have a place where I could pull small crawfish out of aquatic vegetation. It's easy to transport and keep alive, stays on the hook and the whiting couldn't get enough. 

Cut up ladyfish is a good red and shark bait. 

Mud minnows have always been good in the bay for reds and flounder, but I haven't tried them in the surf.


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## gigem87 (May 19, 2006)

I've been through them all, and have gone back to the old school spoon.

I have never been a big topwater guy. I know people love them, and I own a few. But that wouldn't be my only bait.

Mirrolures have done me good in the surf, but I don't like the multiple treble hooks to mess with if there are waves.

Soft plastics? They are good, but when the macks and bluefish show up, they get wasted.

Spoons. Final answer.


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## Mr. Saltwater (Oct 5, 2012)

Reds = finger mullet in clear water...cut crab in sandy water

Bull Reds= 8-10" mullet in clear water...whole crab in sandy water

Specks= live shad/finger mullet

Sharks= multiple big mullet 

Spanish Macks= finger mullet


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## Rawpower (Jul 4, 2011)

gigem87 said:


> I've been through them all, and have gone back to the old school spoon.
> 
> I have never been a big topwater guy. I know people love them, and I own a few. But that wouldn't be my only bait.
> 
> ...


Spoons, the forgotten Hero of the Surf. I need to start throwing them again. I saw a video where they added a glow in the dark teaser to the hook. It looked like it might do good in the dark water.


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## dbarham (Aug 13, 2005)

Black chrome ss jr with the belly paint scratched off because mullet dont have chrome bellys


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

Baitfish flies tied with Steve Farrar fibers and tied similar to deadhead minnows and deer tail hair clousers work well for trout and Spanish mackerel when it's not too rough to stand and cast a fly rod. The same flies work well from a boat when it's calm enough to get in close. A whiting will take a small chartreuse and white Clouser at times.

On the baitfish, black, gray, chartreuse or olive over white have been productive. Purple back white middle over pink belly is another good one. My favorite hook for these is a sz one gamakatsu stinger hook. The baitfish end up about 2.5"-3" long and have a sink rate about like a mirrorlure catch 2000.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

For bull red fish a whiting head in the warm months, and crab in the cold winter.
For black drum, which is an awesome game fish in my book, crabs, or mullet head, they like some crunch to their meal.

*Big* Jumbo shrimp on a kale hook is always good for slot reds and black drum.

For specks I like mirror lures, and spoons, and lately I have been liking the "Cock of the Walk" swim baits from H&H, they look like croaker, and the white swim shad as well.
Pomps( the absolute best eating fish in the surf) like peeled fresh dead(or peel a live one) shrimp on the bottom. 
Spanish Macks like whatever they can cut off your line three times before you tie some steel on.

Whiting like dead shrimp and cut whiting. They are the best tasting surf fish you can catch on most days.
Return sharks to the water, and stingrays. 
Unless you like to fish for sharks then keep the rays for shark bait as they are good for that.
Or so I hear, I use weedeater leaders so sharks of any size can cut me off and be gone!
I like to fish for either speckled trout or bull reds and big black drum when I fish the surf.


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## Rawpower (Jul 4, 2011)

Oh Yeah, I catch Pomps in the cooler months. I Always release them because they seem kinda small. I bet a cooler with Pompanos and Whiting Would be Awesome!


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## Fishmaster84 (May 4, 2016)

Just about anything will bite fresh caught shad. By fresh i mean shad that was still alive minutes before you put in on the hook.


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