Article by Skylar Snead and Chris Taylor
A Way of Life
Beach fishermen are their own breed. From trucks rigged for fishing on the beach to the hours of time spent just staring at water, reading every ripple—we are dedicated fishermen who truly hone our craft to stay consistent year after year. Whether it’s springtime black drum, sharks and flounder in the summer, reds in the fall, or everything in between, you can find us out there with families, friends, and even alone with our own thoughts.
A lot of beach guys are very innovative. To be successful at surf fishing and to get the most out of your time on the sand, you always need to be ready. Most guys we know have racks built onto the truck to hold coolers or rods. But a lot of guys I’ve learned from will go even further—building racks, shelves, and all sorts of other contraptions in the back of the truck to aid with always having everything you need. If you don’t have the room, I understand. But for me, the less I have to pack every single trip, the less I can forget on those trips. So my personal truck is usually loaded and ready for surf fishing. Sand spikes, tackle box, bump board, boxes to hold various weights, and even a grill are normal things I keep in the back of my truck from spring to the middle of October.
We’ve simplified rig-making and the materials needed for anything from black drum to kingfish to the big reds. Everything we need to tie a rig or snell a hook is inside a small plastic ammo can that you can purchase at Harbor Freight. Not having a whole tackle box to go through with 100 different rigs makes things easier. Knowing what works helps, but in reality, simple is usually good.
Not everybody can make their own sinkers and stuff like that, but knowing how to at least tie your own rig can save you a ton of time and money. We truly innovate. So being able to tie a rig on the fly to adjust to a situation can greatly help you—or just to try different things. Maybe you want your rig to be longer to get the bait further from your weight. Maybe you want to get more casting distance, so you shorten your leader and make everything closer together for less wind resistance. We try new things. Most importantly, we all have tried new things and found something that works well for us. We try new things that don’t work at all, but we can at least say we tried.
What works best for me may not be what works best for you. Everybody has their own style and preferences. You have to go out and try new things to find out what works. But I can promise you, most hardcore guys are trying their own rigs, saving money by doing so, and also innovating and trying new things while they’re trying those rigs. We sit at home and tie rigs for hours at a time to prepare for the season—study what’s worked in the past and study what other people are using and doing.
We also do lots of maintenance. Beach fishing is salty and sandy. Both of those things are not good for fishing equipment. So usually every winter or early spring, it’s time to bust out the fishing gear and clean it up. Check your guides for any chips or cracks in the ceramic. Take your reel apart and give everything a good cleaning. Sticky drags are one of the main reasons for lost fish, and cheaper reels that have been exposed to saltwater and sand are notorious for having a sticky drag. We normally learn how to do basic maintenance—like cleaning out and adding grease, taking the line roller apart to clean it, and taking all the drag washers out to clean them. It’s something I do multiple times a year, especially on certain reels I know can be more of a problem if not maintained more often than others.
Beach fishing is our lives. We’re out there for multiple trips, adding up to 40–50 hours of getting skunked sometimes before we ever land a fish. To us, it’s always worth it because those 40–50 hours weren’t just wasted sitting around—we were learning, innovating, and thinking of how we can improve ourselves, along with simplifying our fishing trips.
A lot of us love the peace that comes with surf fishing. Sitting miles away from anybody in silence for hours until one of the rods bends over so hard and so fast you think it’s going to break—and you have to sprint to it. That’s what we live for. It sounds crazy to say you had 50+ hours of fishing over the course of a couple of weeks to catch one huge fish and spend one minute with it on the beach, just to let it go and do it all over again. I wouldn’t change it for the world. That one minute can make a memory that lasts a lifetime with a fish I could never beat.
Sometimes just the peace is what surf fishermen crave. I don’t know how many times I’ve left the beach after not catching a fish or even getting a hit and still felt accomplished.
Surf fishing isn’t just a way to fish. It’s a way of life. See you on the sand!
