# pensacola beach 3-10-13---kinda funny story and a question inside



## andrethegiant (Sep 14, 2010)

got up at 4:30 this morning headed down to gb b&t to grab some sand fleas (yes im lazy) and than headed down towards fort pickens. Stopped and was fixing to get out and my suv was shaking from the wind so I had a feeling it was not going to be a good. Went ahead and rigged up my new set up from the outcast sale and got my line out, fought the wind for about an hour and got a real good hit; of course while my reel was screaming I was texting a friend and not paying attention. Picked up the rod, reeled for like 5 minutes and didn't seem like I was gaining any ground, than I realized I never tightened up the drag from having outcast spool it up :wallbash: so while fixing my stupid mistake the fish manages to get off

Only hit of the day, but I got tired of fighting the wind so I wasn't out there but maybe 2-3 hours

QUESTION- im pretty new to surf fishing, how do you keep your bait out in conditions like today? I had as much as 14oz of weight on and my bait was still washing within 20-30ft of the shore within 5-10 minutes of being cast out. Does it have to do with using mono?


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## Austin (Sep 30, 2007)

It's just bad conditions.. You seem to doing the right thing. And DANG, 14oz weight?!


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

YOWSA!!! 14oz and no hold= sit at home and think about fishing


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## andrethegiant (Sep 14, 2010)

no it wasn't a 14oz single weight, it was 2 4oz an 2 2oz all tied together at the end (so I guess that's actually 12) but I originally just had a 4 on and it washed all the way on shore, so I added another 4, and it would stay out for a couple minutes and never come all the way in so I decided to add my last 2 weights I had with me and it still didn't help as much as I wanted it to. I thought about just fishing the sound but wasn't sure what if anything would hit fleas over there so I just went home


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## PAWGhunter (Feb 3, 2010)

I keep a few 6oz spider weights with my surf gear, they help a bit, but not always. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do in these type of conditions. Wait for a better day and try again.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Ditto above. Some days are just not made for surf fishing


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## JD7.62 (Feb 13, 2008)

I want to know how in the heck you threw 12oz of weight on what we typically use in the surf around here.

What kind of set up do you have?


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## southern yakker (Jun 25, 2012)

I went yesterday and a 6 ounce parymid weight wasn't keeping it in place either.


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## flex (Feb 26, 2013)

check the weather conditions for the surf on weather.gov.

not that difficult at all to check and takes 5 seconds. if its gonna be 7 foot waves then you don't need to go surf fishing. i like to fish the surf in 2-3 foot days. when its flat its not good either unless you fish around sunrise


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## panhandleslim (Jan 11, 2013)

Andre, It may not help at all, in that type of condition, but with big seas like that it is imperative to concentrate less on distance square (perpendicular) to the beach and more on getting your rig directly into the incoming waves no matter what the angle. It will make the stay in the zone a little while longer. If the current is running exactly parallel to the beach, the drag on your line is going to pull it in. One other thing that helps is, if you can get and keep your rod up higher. A very high sand spike or even back up onto a wash out bluff or a dune. Anything to keep the line's cross section out of the water as much as possible. It's one of the reasons that the Hatteras guys use such long rods. Not just for long casts.


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## andrethegiant (Sep 14, 2010)

panhandleslim said:


> Andre, It may not help at all, in that type of condition, but with big seas like that it is imperative to concentrate less on distance square (perpendicular) to the beach and more on getting your rig directly into the incoming waves no matter what the angle. It will make the stay in the zone a little while longer. If the current is running exactly parallel to the beach, the drag on your line is going to pull it in. One other thing that helps is, if you can get and keep your rod up higher. A very high sand spike or even back up onto a wash out bluff or a dune. Anything to keep the line's cross section out of the water as much as possible. It's one of the reasons that the Hatteras guys use such long rods. Not just for long casts.


This actually makes sense to me
Because my stuff always ended way west of me and I was just casting straight out. And I also saw a couple guys down close to portifino (the only 2 surf fishers other than myself that I saw) and I remember wondering why that guy had his rod on a spike like 5' in the air


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## lowprofile (Jan 6, 2013)

flex said:


> check the weather conditions for the surf on weather.gov.
> 
> not that difficult at all to check and takes 5 seconds. if its gonna be 7 foot waves then you don't need to go surf fishing. i like to fish the surf in 2-3 foot days. when its flat its not good either unless you fish around sunrise


i like flat days just as well as med surf days. 

i got 3oz sputniks to hold my shrimp and 11oz to hold half a bar jack. sputniks and angling your line help a lot. look into up tide fishing.


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## Guy (Jan 25, 2012)

I agree. I've got a 2-piece, 16ft rod for those rough conditions, plus braided line. That helps just a bit, but only a little. And even when you hook up, it's always over sized reds and black drums. Lots of fun to catch, but no keepers.

You put that rod on a long sand spike and the wind just whips it around like crazy. Guess I'm getting a bit lazy and just chalk those days up as a loss... lol...


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