4. Inshore  Fishing

You've got your fishing tackle now. You know about baits, artificial and natural. You know how to rig up. You're ready to go fishing. But you're a family man and you want your family to have fun fishing with you.

The family. That's Andy. And Peg. And Mother. And you. Four people on a fishing trip? That costs money, a lot of money. More than a salaried man with a fixed income can afford. That's right. It costs a lot of money to go fishing—if you don't know where to go.

You can go offshore. And catch big game fish. Not good eating, but a nice over-size trophy to stuff and hang on your wall—if you have a wall that big. And a hundred dollars, maybe even two, to spend for a day of fish, fun and family— if they'll let Andy and Peg on the boat.

Or you can go inshore. Pack a picnic lunch and take it with you. Burn a gallon or two of gas to get where you're going. And catch some small game fish. All good eating— and maybe enough of them to make money on the day if you weigh the per pound worth of your catch against the going fish market prices.

By inshore, we mean nothing more distant than the closest beach, bay, cove or river mouth. And the inshore place for a family fisherman to begin is on the fishing pier that you'll be sure to find at one of those places.

Pier Fishing

The pier may jut out into sea or into a sheltered bay. It's the safest of all saltwater places to be with your family and the people you'll meet are folks just like you.

Want to know what's running? They'll be happy to say. Want some advice on hook or bait? It'll be their pleasure. Need a hand landing a fish? Someone will be right there alongside you with net ready to dip Mr. Fin out of the drink the moment you work him to the surface. Does Peg want a change of activity? There'll be girls her age to meet and both rails and friendly hands to prevent them from falling over the side.

Piers are good fishing spots and it is their underpinnings that make them so. Mussels, barnacles and grass cling to the pilings. Plankton is there, too. Small baitfish come from all around to feed on that bountiful spread. Game fish gather to feast on the baitfish.

But there are four of you and you have only two rods? There's a bait shop on the pier or right nearby. Fifty or seventy-five cents buys a cane pole and a drop line. They can be almost as deadly fished from a pier as your fancy tackle.

Any kind of fishing goes, depending on the time of the tide and the time of the year. You can catch them mostly on the bottom, but sometimes on the top. You need a sinker for the bottom, live line for the top. Or someone who got there earlier will tell you the fish are biting somewhere in between. Then you use a sliding float and perhaps a light clincher. If you're fishing the bottom don't forget to keep that sinker bouncing.

Or, if you're using lures, try jigging that buck tail on the bottom. Or live-line a light spinner down-current and then re­trieve. Or, and here's one we'll bet you haven't heard, foot-troll a small spoon.

What's foot troll? Later in this chapter you'll read all about it. And live-lining, too.

Bridge, Bulkhead and Causeway

Somewhere near you there is a bridge or a causeway or a bulkhead separating sea and shore where—except in those few places where the law doesn't allow it—the art of fishing is virtually the same as angling from a pier.

From a bulkhead you may have to cast a short distance to reach deeper water. On a bridge you may have to walk a big catch to the end to land him. On a causeway in the Gulf of Mexico or connecting the Florida Keys, you may be deep sea fishing without going out to seal

Surf, Rock and Jetty Fishing

When you fish any of these three places you've reached the pinnacle of inshore fishing. Here the elements and the batter­ing that only nature can hand out separate the men from the boys.

Surf fishing, technically speaking, is fishing at any sandy shoreline where the ocean beats against the beach. Rock and jetty fishing is surf fishing too, except that here the tides beat against something more solid than sand. The rocks and jetties —there is so little difference between breakwater and jetty that this book will treat them as one and the same—are no places for your wife or Andy or Peg to use as a perch.

The sand beach is far safer, yet it can be treacherous, too. But here the family can go, provided you first pick your spot well and they continually keep their eyes open against the unexpected. Your favorite bathing beach, or a spot close to it, can be as good a feeding ground for fish as rock or jetty. The unexpected to watch out for can be an unusually high breaker or a heavy piece of floating debris. One more hazard to watch for; people swimming. Swimmers and anglers shouldn't mix.

The surf—whether it be beach, rock or jetty—offers its top rewards in the fish to be caught. Fighting gamesters with minds of their own and the strength of the sea behind them. Stripers, channel bass, permit, tarpon, snook, croakers and corbina, squeteague and blues.

They're battlers all and once you've landed your first you're on your way to acquiring a mental strut that sets you apart from all other saltwater fishermen. You'll be a Sultan of the Surf, a title than which there is no higher.

Surf fishing, obviously, is done to catch fish. But it is far more than that. What if there is a day when you catch no fish? Just being there can be reward enough.

The majesty of the open ocean, the pounding waves, the surging of the tides, the sun, the sand. And why didn't you catch any fish today? Did you read nature's signs right? Or did you read them wrong?

Was the wind too strong? Or was the wind too weak? Did you pick a day when the sun was too bright and pass up that day of rain and storm? Did you cast out two hundred feet when the fish were feeding just fifty feet offshore? Did you hook a demon and let him have too much leeway with the line? Or did you set the line up too tight and let him break away?

All these questions, and many more, there are answers for. But there is only one person to give you the answers. You. Answer them right, and if you caught no fish today, to­morrow's another day.

The surf is a majestic place. But it is no place to fish if you have a weak heart or a physical ailment that cuts down on your agility and your ability to move fast—jump fast, perhaps. But if you have an ailment that can be cured by physical therapy, you'll find no better set of therapeutic condi­tions anywhere at any price. And you'll have fun taking the treatment.

There is only one way to reach the fish in the surf. That is by casting. You may use natural bait or you may use lures. You may work the bottom or the top. But you'll have to cast to get there. Here's where your spinning outfit seems made to order.

The clothing you wear can be just as important as the hooks you use in surf fishing. What they are will be dictated by the time of the year, the time of the tides, what part of the coun­try you're in and whether it's night or day.

Dress as lightly as you like and your skin will permit on a nice, windless beach-basking day. Bare feet and bathing trunks will suffice for wading out to meet the waves unless you're fishing a coral bottom. Then sneakers are a must.

You'll have to add clothes in colder climates as the weeks roll on, and foul weather gear if the weather thickens and there's rain in the air. Then hip boots or waders are a must, along with a hooded rubber parka. Any night of the year, winter, summer, spring or fall, dress for the cold. It's easier to shed clothing than wish you had clothes to add. And keep your foul weather gear handy. Wear dull colors. The reflection of white shirt or duck trousers on water can spook a fish.

Never venture onto the rocks and jetties without steel-cleated creepers—felt creepers are for fresh water—on your feet. Those rocks can be mighty slippery. And keep covered, too. No matter how warm the day may be, that spray de­velops a chilling bite after awhile.

Study the water carefully and learn how the waves are breaking before venturing onto the rocks. Breakers come in cycles, usually in fours; three are of average height—average for that particular day—and the fourth is always higher. Don't study just one set of waves. Study several and be sure. Don't go beyond the point where those fourth waves break. After you're on your vantage point study the rocks between you and shore and pick out your path for quick retreat, if quick retreat becomes necessary. Pick out the best spot for landing a fish after you've played him out. And never turn your back to the sea while on the rocks.

If surf fishing begins to sound rugged, don't ever forget it —surf fishing is rugged. But then, sultanhood doesn't come easy.

When you dress for surf fishing you wear more than clothes. You wear your gear, too. Or you should to make walking and climbing light and easy. You fish one spot out, or you find the fish aren't there today. You move down the beach a bit. Or you leave one jetty and you move on to the next and the next and perhaps the next and the next after that.

You may tramp the beach for miles, casting as you go, be­fore the quitting whistle blows. Add to that the balancing act you may have to do in clambering around the rocks, and you'll see why it's handier to wear your gear than to carry it.

You have a canvas tackle bag around your neck and over your shoulder. A military surplus sack is fine. You have a web belt around your waist. From it you hang a sheath knife— one that floats—a canvas lure bag, a small club, a metal stringer for your catch, and a small bait box if you're using natural bait.

Your hands are free—free to carry only two things, your rod and a long-handled gaff; long-handled so you can reach down from the rocks to gaff a tuckered-out fish and lift him out of the water.

You've read all the signs and you think they're right Now it's time to find out. You're standing in the surf. The sea is a clock. Twelve o'clock is dead ahead of you. Your first cast hits the water at nine o'clock. Your second at ten o'clock. Clockwise you go, right around to three o'clock. They were all short casts. Now you work back to nine o'clock but they're all long casts. If you've had no strikes, no hits, no bites, it's time to move along a bit. And you repeat. Nine o'clock to three o'clock to nine o'clock and move on again.

Or you're on a jetty. The end of the rock pile is twelve o'clock. Since you're further offshore you can make the cast­ing cycle eight o'clock to four o'clock. Short-cast first to eight o'clock. Around the end of the jetty—twelve o'clock—until you hit four o'clock. Now you long-cast back to eight o'clock. No action? It's time to move on to the next jetty. Aren't you glad you're wearing your gear?

Fishing the Flats

Throughout the Gulf Coast, hi spots along the Pacific, not too much along the Atlantic, the saltwater flats are Paradise for the shallow water fisherman. The Florida flats are the capital state of Paradise.

Here you mostly make like a hunter stalking his game—you stalk your fish. The layer of water between bottom and top is so thin, you'll often see your quarry and you'll aim your cast like you were aiming a gun. But you don't aim to hit your target. You aim somewhere in front of his nose—not close enough to spook him—and he'll feed his way up to your bait and hell strike.

That's the time to hang on tight! Your line will peel off the spool like you'd hooked into a misguided Cape Canaveral rocket. Play that fish? For a time—and quite a time it will be—that fish will be playing you.

You fish the flats for many species of saltwater fish, but what you've hooked into is a bonefish. We can't think of one word of rebuttal for the anglers who have fished the waters of the world, but always go home to Florida because their hearts are where the bonefish is.

How deep is the water that the bonefish calls home? Some­where between your knees and your ankles. Florida isn't the only state for bonefish, however. You'll find him wherever there are flats and warm saltwater. That means all along the Gulf Coast and part way up into California. Just wade out and be ready when that bonefish wades in!

Drift Fishing

There will come a time when your family will want to spend a day on the water, not at the water. Pick a quiet-water inshore spot, rent a skiff and an outboard motor at the nearest boat station for seven to twelve dollars, depending on where you live, make sure you have Coast-Guard-approved life pre­servers—one for each of you— a spare can of gasoline, drink­ing water or soda pop aboard, and it's ahoy for the unbounding main.

You have two rods and reels, the cane pole and hand line you bought that day down on the pier and you're ready to fish. But where? That bay is a big place and when you asked the boatman where the fish were he waved thataway. You'll have to find out for yourself. So you'll get out in deeper water, shut off the motor and proceed to flush out the fish by drift­ing with the wind and the current.

The four of you bait up, start to chum up an oil slick, let out your line and wait to see who gets the first strike. One of you adds a heavy-enough sinker and fishes the bottom; one of you uses no sinker at all and fishes the top. The water is, let's say, twenty feet deep. So you attach a sliding float to one line, ten feet above the hook and just enough weight to keep the hook ten feet down. Attach another float to the other line, fifteen feet above the hook, again with just enough weight to keep the hook straight down.

Now the four of you are exploring at different levels, you're all settled back nice and easy and that's all there is to drift fishing.

When one of you hooks and lands a fish, you take up all the lines so as not to foul round the propeller, start up the kicker and scoot back and beyond the spot where the fish struck. Now you drift again. There's another strike and an­other fish! At the same spot.

Was it Peg that caught both of them? And was she explor­ing at the ten-foot level? Then all of you rig up the same way; sliding floats and just weight enough to fish that ten-foot level. Back up beyond the spot you go, just far enough beyond to drop anchor—you needn't drift anymore—without spook­ing the fish, and play out just enough anchor line to bring the skiff right over the hot spot and hold.

There you fish for as long as the fun lasts. Then you up anchor and drift again. You'll have quite a day.

Mooching

Mooching in the Pacific Coast salmon country is an adapta­tion of the drift-fishing technique, adapted and adopted be­cause a few years ago some experimentive fishermen proved that was the best way to do it there. This is how those old moochers do it.

They rig up with a sinker just heavy enough to reach bot­tom on the vertical, cut their kicker motor down to zero— they don't cut it all the way off—and drop their line over the stern. They're using strip bait double-hooked to give a spin­ning action as shown in Chapter 3. When the sinker hits bottom they quickly rev up the motor and scoot forward about fifteen feet. That brings the baited hook shooting up from the bottom at an angle—like a baitfish trying to get away. Then they cut down the motor again. The rig hits bottom, the motor is given another quick shot, the boat scoots forward fifteen feet and the bait comes angling up.

That's mooching. The salmon hits the hook and that's fish­ing!

Jigging

Sinker-bouncer is a time-honored name for natural-bait bot­tom fishermen because the best way to fish bottom is to keep the sinker bouncing in order to first, stir up the sand or mud and maybe wake up a dozing darling and second, to keep the bait moving and perhaps attract a passerby.

Not many anglers ever try it, but jig-bouncing can bring home a long string of fish, too. Here's how to do it.

You're drifting in an outboard, rigged up with a buck tail jig. Cast up current, wait for the jig to hit bottom. Take up the slack and raise the tip. Now drop it. Raise it again. Drop it again. You're jig-bouncing.

Reel in from two to five feet of line every once in awhile. Let them out again. Smack the bottom. Reel in again. The more action you give the jig, the more action the fish will give you.

Suppose you are fishing from bay shore, pier, causeway or bridge. Cast against the current. Bounce as you retrieve. That's jigging, too.

Or open your bail and lower a quarter-ounce jig to the surface, using your finger on the spool to gentle the drop. With bail still open, let the jig drift away on the current. That will give surface action if there's any to be had. When you're out as far as you want to go crank the handle to close the bail. Let the jig settle to the bottom. Now start bouncing home. That also is jigging.

Live-Line Fishing

This is a deadly type of fishing in two kinds of strong water—eddies and pools where two tidal streams meet (per­haps they'll be thoroughfares cutting through the marshes) or straightaway tideway’s where the current is swift. You may be able to reach them from a shore bound vantage point or you may have to get there by boat. If it is by boat, anchor at least thirty feet above the pool.

It's important to keep your distance because you don't want any man-sounds or any man-made vibrations to spook the fish.

Open your bail, ease your rig into the water, keep the bail open and let the bait drift down with the flow of the current. If you're fishing an eddy, close your bail when you reach it. If you're live-lining a straightaway current, let it out as much as one hundred feet.

When you bring your line to a halt, just let it lay. The live bait, the live water and the live fish you're after will do the rest. Baited up with a soft-shell crab, live-lining is an action-packed striper-swiper that will have you going back night and day.

Boat Trolling

Trolling is a method of dragging your line through the water when conditions aren't right for drifting. There may be too many boats around, the winds may be blowing north when you want to go south, the tide may be too strong.

So you don't drift, you troll. You do that by using your motor. Make sure you're rigged up with the right swivel to take up the action that otherwise would twist your line, use a keel-type sinker if any weight is called for, use a wire leader at least four feet long, and keep your bait at least fifty feet behind the boat to escape the action of the wake.

Here strip bait or worm-rigged spinner lures are killers. Japanese feathers are wonders and spoons are deadly.

Best speeds for inshore trolling, depending on locality, traffic congestion and what kind of fish you're after, vary from one to six miles an hour. Sport-fish trolling is basically a surface technique, but if you want to prospect for species deeper down than a keel sinker can take your bait, there are drail and planing devices available in tackle shops to take you down to any depth.

Foot Trolling

Foot trolling probably is the only team technique you'll find in fishing. Who's on the team?

Every man, woman and child fishing from pier, bank, bridge or causeway. They all line up along the rail, facing in the same direction.

They drop their bait to the surface, run out as much line as needed, and they all start walking. Up one side, down the other and about face and back the way they came.

But, since the best fishermen are nonconformists, you'll rarely see that happen. It's best for your peace of mind to confine your foot trolling to times when you're alone or when you'll have only Mother's, Peg's and Andy's idiosyncrasies to contend with.

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