How to catch more fish in the

South Carolina Surf

When I moved from the mountains of Virginia to the South Carolina coast I left a fishery I knew so well that days where I caught 50+ fish were not uncommon. I was overconfident in my fishing prowess and the challenges of saltwater fishing smacked me in the face with skunk after frustrating skunk. But Myrtle Beach was my new home and I was determined to figure out this new fishery. I paid for online courses, I watched countless hours of YouTube and most importantly I spent all my free time out there fishing, trying new techniques, lures, baits…improving a little bit every trip until that fateful day happened (…years later) and I had a 50+ fish day in the surf.

Surf fishing is not bass fishing. There really aren’t many transferable skills. I can’t tell you how many times I have had a tourist come up to me and ask me how I am catching so many fish. The story is usually similar: they fish a lot back home but they were out there the day before me and had a frustrating day of constantly getting their bait stolen and didn’t catch much. I offer up some advice but to teach someone how to have success in the surf takes longer than a 10 minute conversation as they walk past me on the beach.

I was rewatching “The Dark Knight” one day and The Joker has a line “If you’re good at something, never do it for free”. It hit me. I should start charging people for my surf fishing expertise. Which is why I am now a surf fishing guide and coach.

Getting to the point where you can consistently have very successful days in the surf can’t be done by reading one article but below I have outlined some tips and tricks that can hopefully help set you on the path to better success.

Know your target species

One of my first questions to tourists that stop to chat with me is “Well, what are you trying to catch?” 99% of them say “Whatever’s biting”. The surf is filled with all kinds of different fish that all behave and eat differently. I am going to break this down as simply as I can. There’s little stuff, medium stuff and big stuff. I typically will fish with either 3 rods or 6 rods. 1 for little, 1 for medium, 1 for big; or 2, 2, 2.

Little Stuff: Whiting, pompano, croaker, spot, pinfish, pufferfish, sea robin, black sea bass, baby sharks… the list of little stuff is enormous and they will all gladly steal a big chunk of frozen shrimp off a hook that’s too big for their mouth that’s attached to one of those awful premade wire rigs you can buy at Walmart. The little stuff is by far the most common and on light tackle they are super fun to catch.

Medium Stuff: Redfish, Speckled Trout, Bluefish, Flounder, Mackerel

Big Stuff: Sharks and bull redfish

During my coaching trips we will go over in detail each type of fish and how they behave.

Use the correct hooks

Not using the appropriate sized hooks is probably the number 1 mistake that fishermen make when fishing in the surf. I have watched a fisherman put an entire shrimp on a hook that was way too big, cast it out, watched the tap, tap tap of the little stuff take the shrimp off the hook within 2-3 minutes of it being in the water and then the rod went still indicating the bait was gone but the fisherman left the rod in the rod holder. There are so many bait stealers that a lot of inexperienced surf anglers will end up having baitless hooks in the water for extended periods of time.

Always use circle hooks. When using circle hooks, do NOT set the hook. This is not bass fishing.

Little stuff: size #2 or #4

Medium stuff: match it to the bait size but typically 2/0 or 3/0

Big stuff: 8/0 or 12/0

If you book a charter with me, I will bring all the gear necessary for a successful day in the surf. I can also send you links to all the gear I use so you can recreate what I teach you.

Good bait matters

Getting your hands on good bait will make a difference.

Little stuff: Fresh, never frozen, shrimp is best. Make the effort to go to the local seafood market to pick some up. It will likely be cheaper than the frozen shrimp at the tackle shop anyway.

Medium stuff: They will sometimes take the shrimp. I have actually caught a decent sized shark on shrimp but live baitfish is best. My favorite is mullet but mud minnows and menhaden will work just as well. If you can’t manage live bait, see if you can find fresh dead bait. If you can’t my suggestion would be to catch something little like a whiting or big pinfish and cut it up into chunks.

Big stuff: Live boney fish like a whiting or croaker, big chunks of cut bait - mullet, bluefish and mackerel all work well.

On my guided trips, I bring all the bait we need but if you’re interested, I can teach you how to get your own bait.

Location, Location, Location!

Large stretches of the beach are just flat sand with no real structure or anything that would hold fish. Learning to read the beach for run outs and sandbars is an important part of surf fishing and one that I can’t properly explain in this article. I would suggest YouTube videos if you’re interested in learning. That said, fish are constantly moving up and down the beach so they can be caught pretty much anywhere in the surf but if you want to get to a 50+ day you will need to learn how to read the beach.