Home Forums Fishing Saltwater Learn me about saltwater

I dont know anything about saltwater fishing. What are the most common species fished for? What are the usual baits? I see a lot of youtube vids and they give me an idea but I'm still not sure what I am watching. Thanks

Depends where the salt water is. But anchovies and squid are good bait, here. Local targeted species are halibut, bass, ling cod. Often caught are bonito, barracuda, mackerel, perch. sheepshead. Big game fish are swordfish and marlin. Sometimes, mako and thresher.

Yup, all depends where you are, in nor cal we get after salmon halibut assorted rockfish albacore white seabass crab....bait depends on species but as pal said, squid anchovies sardines are the staples. Techniques and tackle vary quite a bit for each. If your thinkin about gettin into offshore saltwater fishing, don't!! Wine women and song will cost you less!

You will spend so much more money on the different kind of gear to catch different kinds of fish. I have 38 rods in my garage from when I lived in NJ. There we caught all kinds of fish. It also depends if you are inshore or offshore fishing, boat or from the beach. I can only speak of east coast and gulf fishing. I probably have $2K tied up in gear and tackle.

OP--If you give us just a bit of information (a little more than "salt water fishing") some of us might be able to provide better answers.

I left it fairly vague so as to get any relevent info but mostly inshore I think its called. Fishing for species close to shore, even from shore or piers. I dont know anything about saltwater fishing. Nothing. So I was just wondering. You see the high profile stuff on TV but not the simple stuff. I was wondering what fish the regular Joes fish for. I saw a guy keeping croakers, are those commonly eaten? Thanks.

Relevance will come when it is no longer vague.

Try Googling any specific area you think you can access for saltwater fishing (not many in Iowa). Local knowledge is only everything. Meaning: what kind of fish, which bait, and how to rig it depends entirely on precisely where you fish.

theres an old cliche that rings very true.
MOST FISHING TACKLE IS DESIGNED TO CATCH FISHERMEN NOT FISH.
of coarse that could be applied to other things as well.
i know golfers for example who have a garage full of golf clubs. and their still lousey golfers.
i have another friend who recently spent $15000 for a perrazzi
shotgun for trapshooting. and you know what? thats not expensive in that world. so in comparison to other hobbies
fishing is inexpensive. even if you are a tackle junkie.
assuming you dont own a boat of coarse.
as mentioned, it can vary from location to location and species
to species.
tackle need not be top shelf to be enjoyable to use and more than adequate for the job.
live or fresh dead bait will almost always out perform artificial bait for the basic type salt water fishing.
my suggestion would be to take a trip on a party boat or head boat as they are called in some areas. there you will find
just basic nuts and bolts type fishing usually with excellant results.
pier or jetty fishing can offer similar experiences. just the
basic hook and line fishing.
here in florida lots of those type oppurtunities exist regardless of which coast you visit. then of coarse you can also charter a boat large or small and do whatever type fishing
that might appeal to you. basic tackle can be rented at most
of the numerous tackle shops. all proffessional boats both large and small would furnish the tackle as well as the required license for their customers. so come on down and give it a try. the weather is nice, the fishing is excellant and we
need the money.

Considering saltwater fish can run from ounces to over 500 pounds, and can be caught on the surface, or over 600' deep, there is no common tackle or bait, it is specific on the species and water they are caught in. There is casting, jigging, trolling, mooching and other techniques as well. West Coast, East Coast, Alaska, Bahammas, Asia, all have different species and techniques.

In Alaska we fish for salmon, halibut, rockfish, lingcod, pacific cod and shark. There are some other saltwater fish that are taken incidentally but generally not targeted such as eel and flounder.

Ok, here in SW Florida we have great inshore fishing. Off piers and docks as well as at the beach and in small boats. A 7' rod that will handle 15 lb test and lures from 1\4 to 1oz is a good start.Make it a fast action tip. Use 20lb braid and a 30 lb fluorocarbon leader, lighter if the water is clear, and at least 3' preferably 5' Rig a 1/0 or 2/0 circle hook under a sip sinker rigged either texas or carolina style and use live shrimp.OR use a 1/4 to 1/2 oz jig head with a dead shrimp tail attached OR use the same jig with a scented plastic tale and a piece of dead shrimp or fish about the size of a pencil eraser. Those will catch what we got, which include sheepshead in the winter,whiting aka kings anytime, snook on the beach in the summer and redfish near the mangroves in the fall, seatrout in the same place in the spring. Sometimes a popping or clicking bobber above the rig works great for the latter 3. For the latter 3, think bass as a presentation model. ladyfish and spanish macks would be a bycatchI could write a book, but that will get you going hereabouts. Have a ball!!!

There are so many saltwater fish species to choose from. I think that you first step is to determine where you will be fishing then figure out what species live there. I like to use fresh shrimp or live shrimp to catch things like flounder set up on a bottom rig. For fish like speckled trout i use a six inch green tail grub with about a 1oz jig. Red fish which can get pretty big feed in shallow water and I have had alot of sucess with cut squid.

Maybe y'all could help me a little as well I've never salt water fished either I'm from Indiana no saltwater up there ha but I'm stationed on camp lejuene in North Carolina have a boat and mostly fish bay areas I was told to use mullet but I haven't done much good on those any help y'all could lend me would be great gettin tired of not catching any oh and of course puttin fuel in the boat but can't help that ha

your results will be a direct reflection of how many of the small details you paid attention to .

a spinning type reel is normally used if you fish from shore/pier. on a boat. i'd stick with a conventional setup.

like others have stated, tackle depends upon where, how deep, what species, etc you decide to target.

i fish long island ny from a boat and pretty much exclusively fluke, which is considered summer flounder. i use one particular favorite rod & reel for this species, but own nearly 20 different setups just for fluke. also, there are many different type lures & colors & sizes for the fluke, but i do very well with real bait setup. remember, it's not so much what you use but how you use it.

-ken