# Fishing channel and surf



## vworley (May 8, 2010)

Hey guys, I'm headed down late this week and want to do a little surf fishing on the Gulf side, as well in the channel Our house backs up to the channel. Last year we fished the channel some and caught what looked like catfish, as well as a couple of other types. Can we eat some of these?

Couple of questions.

What type of fish might we catch in the channel and how should we rig? Bait etc...

Also, where is the best place around perdido key to fish the surf? And how should I rig for that?

Thank you for any pointers,
vw


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## AgentWD40 (Mar 10, 2009)

Johnson's Beach at the end of Perdido Key is a great place to fish. In the surf, your best bet would be a pompano rig (double/triple drop rig). As for bait, live sand fleas and peeled shrimp (fresh dead) works best for me. This time of year you can expect to catch pompano, whiting, red fish, spanish mackerel, lady fish, jack crevalle, as well as a few others in the surf).

As for the channel/sound side you probably did catch some catfish. There are two types of catfish, hardheads and gaftstop sail cats. The hardheads are generally considered a trash fish (though I have known some to eat them, but I wouldn't). The sail cats are actually pretty pleasant tasting and tend to be a bit bigger. You can tell them apart based on the longer whiskers and fins on the sail cat. Be wary of the spines on the fins...these are very painful.

You can also catch speckled trout, white trout, red fish, black drum, spanish mackerel, and whiting, as well as a few sheepshead that may be lingering around. These are all edible and some are quite tasty. Live shrimp on a carolina rig works best for me. Although the same pompano rig could get results on the sound side as well, just with lighter weights as you don't have to contend with the surf.

Good luck!


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## vworley (May 8, 2010)

ok thanks for the info. I looked up the Johnson's park, but didn't see much info on fishing. I'll just show up and give it a try. 

What size weight's would you recommend using on channel and surf side? 

Thanks again for the tips. We leave Friday o'30 early! 

I'm going fishing,
vw


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## AgentWD40 (Mar 10, 2009)

In the surf you wanna use just enough weight to hold your line in place. Most days for me this is between 2-4 oz. On rough days I will go to 5 or 6 oz, but you'll need some big surf rods to toss that out.

On the sound side, usually 1 oz works just fine.


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