Thread: Best spoon size for surf

Just curious to everybody's opinion on the best size spoon to throw in the surf. I'll be down middle of June and from what I've read the ladyfish should be thick in the surf. "Should be". Is 3/8 and 1/2 ounce sufficient in a cc spoon. Or do I need to go bigger. I plan on buying a few gotchas to throw also and whatever else the folks at J & M tackle tell me. But I love to fling a spoon. My plans of fishing the pier several time may only turn into a couple times with the agenda my wife and kids have in store this year. So will probably hit the surf early morning and hopefully late evenings. And another question my 7 year old says he is planning to tag along when I hit the surf if I spoil is abu Garcia spin cast with some good 6 to 8 pound test mono and set him up with a Carolina rig or pompano rig do y'all think that rig will do the job or should I buy him a bigger spin cast before we make the trip.

For pompano and whiting good size is maybe inch and 1/2. Fished in 2-3 feet of water.

For your son, just dont do big chunks of fish........ no sharks :-)

I like to throw a 3/4 oz CC spoon. I can chunk that thing a LOOOOONG way. If I see surface activity I will try to reel it real fast so that it is skipping on the water's surface. If no surface activity then I just "hop and jig" it back to shore. You might want to consider using a 40 lb leader in case there are any blue fish around to help from getting cut off. I always try to use a small black snap swivel to help reduce line twist. If the fish are picky then I will take it off. I have seen times when using the swivel reduced the number of strikes.

...another question my 7 year old says he is planning to tag along when I hit the surf if I spoil is abu Garcia spin cast with some good 6 to 8 pound test mono and set him up with a Carolina rig or pompano rig do y'all think that rig will do the job or should I buy him a bigger spin cast before we make the trip.

He may do OK with it, but from my experience younger kids are not very cognizant of keeping their reel out of the sand and seawater (some adults seem to miss that concept as well ;-) lol
A sandspike could help but spincast reels are not well designed for longterm saltwater use, especially in the surf.
Another help for him may be using some precut Fishbites strips in lieu of shrimp. at times orange or pink may be just as effective and stay on the hook much better than ordinary bait.

One thing I did when the kids were little (well, I still do) was go to a lot of garage sales and buy up all the usual zebco spincast reels I saw for a couple bucks. I let the kids use them bream fishing and then took those when we went a-Gulfing, and just accepted they weren't going to make it. 2-3 days max and they tore up. Some didn't make it past a long active day.

Of course, being boys, they considered them "kid's stuff" and wanted to use the spinning reels anyway.

Originally Posted by Surfman75935

Just curious to everybody's opinion on the best size spoon to throw in the surf. I'll be down middle of June and from what I've read the ladyfish should be thick in the surf. "Should be". Is 3/8 and 1/2 ounce sufficient in a cc spoon. .

I picked up a few of these 1/4 oz feathered spoons by Cotton Cordell. I'm going to try them in the surf the next time I'm down there.

I would go 3/4 to 1oz from the surf. You may get by with a lighter spoon(or Looney Jig) if there is no wind but a 10mph South or Southeast wind makes casting difficult.

Thanks for the responses. Hopefully I can get him a few fish while we are there I'll be down June 16th hopefully I can make it to the pier and meet a few of you.

Bought my spoons for my trip. Academy had a decent sale on some of them. Now next question is, I have a 2500 spinning real. Medium. 6'6". Spoiled with 110 yards of 8# spiderwire ultimate mono. Is that enough of a set up to catch some lady fish and maybe some blue fish that have the bait pushed to the sand. And maybe a Spanish? Just wondering if that will do it. I know I'll have to play them out but I usually fish with light gear to make it a challenge.