No yak, no board, no idiot to take the dare : deploying bait

[ikaika]

Ok - so ya don't have a kayak, no surfboard, no raft, no pfd and no idiot willing to swim the bait out to the desired drop-zone ...

I have a good 11ft spinning set-up with backbone to heave 8oz's & bait, but that length of single strand is a problem on the cast.

Back in NJ we used shorter leaders - and longer rub lines with heavy casting set-ups.

The trick was getting bait out at least 30-40 yards into the trough.

If you fished top of the tide into outgoing, we used a "lifesaver" candy and a balloon.

This was good enough to coil up the rig + sinker (optional) ... connect it to the swivel and balloon with a twist tie linking everything to the "lifesaver" candy.

you didn't cast this rig - because you'd break the candy.

You waded out about waist deep, figured the drift (and the wind), and placed the rig in the water.

without the bait dragging bottom or etting 'hung-up' and the wire leader+bait acting like a sea anchor, we could get these baits out about 100-150 yards before the candy would dissolve and the rig would "uncoil".

[cudaman]

You can use the candy from a fishing bridge, a pier, or an inlet. Sebastian inlet is a good place to get tips and small bulls that way, but you might tangle with a monster every now and then.

Back in NJ we used shorter leaders - and longer rub lines with heavy casting set-ups.

You can do the same here, all you have to do is cast to the gut right before the sandbar (waist deep sometimes) or right after the sand bar. The smaller sharks and sometimes decent sized ones will swim through there at dusk or dawn.

If you have a reel big enough and a rod with guides wide enough. You can use a wind-on leader and short single strand wire the same way, but the wind-on will give you the advantage of being a longer rub line. For the single strand all you will need is no more than 3 feet.

[MichaelAngelo]

This may be an interesting solution to the problem i'm facing on my roadtrip down to Florida.

I have a Penn 9/0 but no idea how to deploy a bait with it. I was planning on ballooning when conditions were correct from bridges. However, on beaches I can see the 3-4 ft. wire leader getting hung up on the next sand bar. Coiling the rig with the lifesaver sounds like a way around that.


Just an aside:
Do you guys feel that the bait is better off on the bottom rather than riding along with the balloon?

[MichaelAngelo]

This was good enough to coil up the rig + sinker (optional) ... connect it to the swivel and balloon with a twist tie linking everything to the "lifesaver" candy.

Could you elaborate how you coil up the leader with the twist tie so that it can unravel?

[tears143]

I am not sure if it'll work on the beach as the outgoing tide as it would be traveling South, I think on the east coast and North on the incoming. They don't go out to sea... You might be able to pull that off with wind blowing into the ocean and find a rip tide to drift the balloon.

[mogenmyle]

you guys are trying too shark fish and if so then you can rent a kayak and they will bring it too you on the beach you will find that if your fishing from the beach your gonna want too try too keep your baits from washing up unless your gonna walk with it down the beach so i would keep it on the bottom

[MichaelAngelo]

you guys are trying too shark fish and if so then you can rent a kayak and they will bring it too you on the beach you will find that if your fishing from the beach your gonna want too try too keep your baits from washing up unless your gonna walk with it down the beach so i would keep it on the bottom

Never considered just renting 1 yak and having the cost split among the group... that's a neat idea.