Originally Posted by Jared9220 (Post 462050)

Those sand anchors look great! I was going to dig a hole and bury the stake about 3 feet down, but these do seem like a good idea. The wind down there is crazy so we will need a good anchoring system. I think I might buy a set or 2.

As for the fishing gear. I'm just now starting to get to the camping stuff, but I know I'm going to buy 2 new rods and reels. I went to bass pro shop and found this 10' heavy penn combo for $99, but the reviews said the rod wasn't good and tends to snap. No Good:mad:. I'm looking at this 12' X heavy Shakespeare rod for $75 and pair that with the peen reel from the combo above but I really don't know. I'm open for any suggestions and deals you know of. Fishing line will probably be 40lb braided so I need a reel that can handle 300-400yrds of it.
Any idea on what kind of bait you are looking to pick up? I know i'm getting a few pounds of shrimp, maybe some crab and a good amount of cut bait like mullet. I'm no good with a cast net but I always bring one and someone always uses it and gets some live bait.

Originally Posted by Jared9220 (Post 462154)

The trip is less than a month away and I'm starting to dream about fishing, so I woke up and went to basspro today and picked me up a new rod and reel.

I had trouble picking between the only 2 15ft rods that they carry (Species Specific & Saltwater Fishing Rods | Bass Pro Shops). In the end after reading all the reviews I decided to go with the cheaper "Power Plus" rod and spend the money I saved on the reel. I'm hoping that the 15ft rod will help me get my bait way out there.

For the reel I went with the Penn Battle 8000 series spinning reel.

After reading up on mono vs braided line I learned that mono is the way to go with the bigger fish as they tend to run and pull the line and mono has more stretch. I'm starting to realize that I still have a lot to learn about saltwater fishing, but the more research I do the more it's starting to make sense. A good thing to do if you want extra line on the reel is to use a heavy braid line for 80%-90% of the spool (since you can get more braid line on than mono) and then do the last 10-20% mono for it's good stretch and strength. Then at the end of the mono line you put your leader setup. I'm leaving one bait way out to try and catch something big. hopefully my first shark

Originally Posted by Jared9220 (Post 462227)

I'll take long hook remover off my list then.

LOL.. You have the same setup in mind as we did for the Shower/restroom area. We are getting something like that also. It will work perfect. I am bringing at least one 5ft fold out table for food and that kind of stuff and I was planning on bringing 1 more smaller table for cutting bait on and hopefully gutting all our fish. We should have plenty of tables. I;m looking into 1 of those pop up shade tents as well. I did buy one of these more portable shade tents for $50 at basspro in case I want shade down away from camp. It is a fairly large tent, not tall enough to stand in but perfect for 2 chairs and an ice chest and super easy to setup and move. A tarp in between the trucks should work fine, but a pop up shade tent is great also. We will look like a small down out there with all the different camping, utility and shade tents we have.:p

As far as tackle goes, I'm still figuring everything out. I'm going to make my shark rigs like this guy does I think. They seem perfect for the smaller shark I am after.
Shark Fishing Tips - How to Make a Shark Rig for Surf Fishing - YouTube

Originally Posted by dwvninety (Post 462240)

Too bad us old timers are not invited. Guess we'll see you at SCARR 2015.

Originally Posted by Jared9220 (Post 463230)

Nice one Ralph. I'll have to fill up on liquid courage to get into the raft now.

P.S. I got the pieces for the brush bar in the mail today. thank you

Originally Posted by Jared9220 (Post 463234)

Only 3 weeks away I can't wait1

Yes, bring the boat/raft thing! I looked up that reel and it looks really nice. Are you going to tie on a good heavy mono on the end of that braid? I've heard that braid is okay but you need 20ft of mono at the end before the leader to absorb the shock when they run.

Originally Posted by ralphobell (Post 463270)

Forget about the raft and get you one of these.

Bait Launcher - BaitBullet - now you can also cast far! - YouTube[/url]