Not everyone has the budget to hire a clearwater fishing charter, but there is an alternative, you may not catch as many fish but you have a good chance of hooking up with some by surf fishing. If you have ever been to clearwater beach in Florida, you will see that it is usually pretty packed, this may not be the best time to do some surf fishing there as you do not want to hook up with anyone. But if you visit clearwater beach in some of the colder months in Florida, such as the winter you will see that it is like a ghost town there on the beach. This is an excellent time to do some surf fishing and I have been successful many times hooking up with snapper, snook, sting rays and small sharks.
Before I even break out all of my fishing gear though I will make sure that the tide isnt too rough, if there are big waves crashing then it makes it more difficult for the fish to find the bait. I also want to make sure that the water is clear, and you can go out on the pier that they got there and check that, hell you can even fish from the pier if you want to, but as for me in the past I have had much better luck fishing from the beach than I have had fishing from the pier at clearwater beach Florida.
You will need to make sure that you have long rod, the longer the fishing rod the further you will be able to cast out into the water. I also make sure I have a couple of egg sinkers on the leader line to give the line some extra weight, making it easy to get the bait out there where the fish are swimming. The kind of fishing line that I use is 15 pound test braided line, with a 30 pound test fluorcarbon leader line. I choose to use this set up because of the clearness of the fishing line and it has always worked for me in the past.
I use anywhere from a size 2-4 circle hook, and as for bait my favorite kind of bait to use are live shrimp. So you will also need a bait bucket and a small rope to keep the bait alive in the water. Make sure that you bring some chairs, and some surf rod holders because when it comes to surf fishing you will need to show some patience as fish do not always bite right away it could take some time, but once you have that big snapper or snook reeled in ashore it makes it all worth while.
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