# Tips to avoiding sargassum?



## SandSquatch (Jun 30, 2020)

Do any of you veterans have any tips to avoiding sargassum along the upper coast? Weather conditions to look for? Specific beaches better or worse than others? I realize it will be present for the next couple months, I just haven’t worked out a reliable pattern to avoid it or plan trips around it.

Chunking and kayaking big baits has been virtually impossible as it becomes fouled up and washed down the beach in 20 minutes or less.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks, Pete


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## Sgrem (Oct 5, 2005)

North wind


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## mccain (Oct 20, 2006)

sargassum is rude, inappropriate, and hurtful to others.............or is that sarcasm


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

https://optics.marine.usf.edu/projects/SaWS/pdf/Sargassum_outlook_2020_bulletin06_USF.pdf

Hereâ€™s a sargassum map. Not sure if it all that reliable.


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## SandSquatch (Jun 30, 2020)

@sgrem: I’ve been keeping an eye out but those north winds are tough to come by this time of year

@mccain: I like that 😂 I think it applies to both


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## SandSquatch (Jun 30, 2020)

@karstopo: thanks for the heads up, looks like we will be fighting it the next couple months, doesn’t look like it will get any worse at least.


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## Category6 (Nov 21, 2007)

Run a long leader from your weight to a large breakaway float at the swivel like a milk jug size secured with a rubber band (put a light stick in it at night so you can find it to retrieve it after a breakaway). Get your rod tip way up high like in a rack then reel tight to your float. This keeps almost all of your main line dry and serves two purposes. 1) keeps from rubbing bad spots in your braid on the sand bars, 2) keeps your line from snagging the sargassum. It will still catch around the float but not enough to drag your bait if you have the right weights.


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## SandSquatch (Jun 30, 2020)

@category5: Do you attach the float at the swivel between main line and leader, or between leader and steel bite leader?


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## fathertruthful (Oct 22, 2020)

*Amerryla*

We donâ€™t know for sure if it will happen every year, but currently proposed
efforts to develop prediction and alert systems would help answer this important question. Signs from the Eastern
Caribbean so far this year are that weâ€™ll be seeing sargassum in the region periodically throughout MZFRSS-7000 . Some scientists
associate the cause of sargassum with higher than normal temperatures and low winds, both of which influence ocean
currents, and they draw links to global climate change


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## TPOTTS (Aug 17, 2017)

I am late to this discussion but one of the best ways to combat sargassum is to make sure you are casting or yaking baits out at a pretty significant angle up into the current, not straight out in front of you. This will help the weed ride up your line to the rod tip and you can shake it off/pull it off. A shark platform/high rack helps significantly as well as using straight braid. Also try using weights with thicker legs, its not the actual weight of the spider weights that hold baits down, it is the leg thickness. Try using weights with 3/32 legs and in the most severe conditions 1/8. Sometimes it's just so bad that you are going to get wiped out no matter what you try.


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