Freshwater Angler Drowning in Saltwater

[JuniorB721]

Hello All,

I am a confident freshwater angler, yeah I have my off days but for the most part if I kept any of the fish I would limit out every day.  My parents just recently bought a place at the shore, Avalon to be exact, so I've decided to try and tame the beast of saltwater fishing. 

My first time out, I hooked a weakie.  Great start!  I was feeling good.

Last weekend I fouled a turtle and caught a small fluke building a bit more confidence.

This past weekend...  Complete and utter failure.

I threw absolutely every thing I had at these fish and paid the price with a back full of sunburn.  Now I know that bad days exist and that's part of fishing, no problem with that.  What baffles me is that I was with three friends, and none of us got even a bite. 

I can't shake the feeling that I'm doing something completely wrong and after a bit of research I found this site and felt like it was my best chance to get some help. 

We fished the Townsend Inlet, right under the bridge between Avalon and Sea Isle, the docks at 8th and 23rd st, the 8th st jetty, and a few bridges on the way out of Avalon.  We would get to our first place of the day roughly a hour before high tide and stay there for atleast two hours before we would think about moving.  We were primarily targeting fluke, but were also trying for tog, kingfish, and blues using top bottom rigs, floating jig heads, bucktails, weakfish rigs, swim baits, and some gulp mullet minnows, and I guess your standard surf rig with a three-way weight and leader.  We were also using some hot pink zoom fluke tail swim baits and as live bait we were using killies, squid strips, and herring. 

I'm not one to give up but for the first time in my fishing career I felt defeated.  I'm heading back down the weekend of the 10th and I'd love to be able to actually catch something, a keeper or two for dinner if I'm lucky but I just want to catch something. 

Any and all help is appreciated and thank you for reading my novel of a post!

[Luna Sea 5]

dont give up.  It is a different beast fishing Saltwater compared to fresh.  I am sure you fished Fresh water for years before you perfected it, it will also take that long to perfect saltwater.  Remember this, you are now fishing in a much larger body of water then you were when you were fresh water.  Your tactics, rigs, and bait are right on target.  Now you just have to put it your time.

[L.T.]

I also fish Fresh and Salt. Because of where I live I fish less saltwater. But what I have found out is:  In freshwater lakes ,  the bite depends on time of day. type of day bright sunshine or overcast.  In saltwater You have different variables you have to pay attention to, such as tides and such. The one thing both fresh and salt have in common are the phases of the moon.  You have great bunch  of good salty guys on this site who will be jumping in giving you more detailed salt advice than I can. Enjoy the ocean and the site. Use plenty of sunscreen.

[ped579]

Welcome to the site junior...

This time of year it is a tough go out there, but like Nicksaid you have to put your time in. 

One thing I would suggest is to try fishing at night.  It seems like you are use to fishing the structures anyway.  Use the lights to your advantage.  Fish like to work the shadow line and congregate there to ambush bait fish.  One thing I would add to your already good arsenal would be a 5" Mombo Minnow.  Try different colors but the yellow, orange, or black seem to work well.

Plus you would not have to worry about the sunburn problem.

Happy Catching

Paul

[blynch]

If you fish inlets alot, you can usually salvage the day by picking up afew blues with a quickly retrieved a17 diamond jig or 5 3/8 in yo-zuri crystal minnow.

[bassnblues]

Sounds like you're 2 for 3. That sounds pretty good to me.

[JuniorB721]

Thank you all for your help.  And I agree two out of three isn't bad but those times I had no idea what I was doing.  And after doing allot of research and reading I thought things would get better, but as is true with my families luck, no dice...  When I got down next week I'm going to keep at it and be sure to post my results.  If anyone is in the area of Avalon and wants to spend some time teaching a youngin or just fishing hit me up

[JuniorB721]

Well, I just spent a long weekend fishing good ole Avalon with nothing to show for it.  It was better then my last few trips but even more frustrating.  I kept getting my bait eaten, what was frustrating about it was they were all short strikes, always right behind the hook.  This weekend I added some gulp blood worms to the mix hoping that would help out but no dice.  I'll be going down in another two weeks and I'm thinking about trying some bunker.  Any advice or other suggestions or a better place to go then where I've already gone?

[bassnblues]

Not sure what the area you fish is like but the summer will bring out the crabs and small fish.

Maybe downize and keep the bait moving and a little off the bottom.

[Noworries2009]

Not too sure of the area in which you're fishing but traditionally summer at the shore for the shorebound angler includes fluke, small blues(from snappers to 2lbs) and weakies with small bass at night. Crabbing can be best bet and snappers are always a good way to go.I picked up a kayak last summer and this has increased my success for daytime fishing especially for fluke.Surf fishing can be another way to go. Get on the beach especially very early around dawn watch the light fill the easterrn sky.Bring a rod with a a lure of your choice and just enjoy where you are. You might even catch something ! Don't stay too long. An hour or so will do.Always makes breakfast taste better for me !  Then I wonder what all the fuss is about. Have fun