My Top 5 Easy Ways to Catch A Fish
By Darcie Arahill
How can I catch a fish today? Many anglers just want to bend a rod. Don’t overlook these simple and inexpensive tried and true methods.
Shrimp: Everything eats shrimp. All you need is a light rod, a bobber about 2 feet up from your hook and a live or dead shrimp. Now find some current and throw that rig around any structure: docks, piers, seawalls and pylons. I’m sure you will catch a fish, likely targets are ladyfish, jacks and snappers.
Spoons: Anglers have been trolling drone spoons around for years and catching every fish in the sea. Pull a basic silver spoon straight out or on a cigar weight at around 4-6 knots. I am sure that kingfish, barracuda, bonito, small tuna, blue runners and even mahi will reward you with drag-screaming action.
Bottom Fishing: There is no simpler way to bend a rod offshore than with a “chicken rig!” Just take a length of leader about 3 feet and tie three loops in it with a double overhand knot. The tag end goes to the mainline, the bottom loop goes to the weight and the other two loops get hooks. You can use any dead bait on this rig including sardines, chunks, squid or shrimp. You should expect to catch all types of snappers, mutton and more.
Surfcasting: Surf fishing is very productive but also a lot of work. What I like to do while doing all that work casting is to also fish a simple dead bait rig like the chicken rig. Popular baits include any chunked dead bait like bunker or blue fish, and clams bellies if you are up north.
The Bucktail Jig: You can throw small jigs under dock lights to catch snook or big bucktail jigs into deeper channels to catch striped bass, bluefish and snook. My favorite color is white. You can work the top of the water column fast, twitch it through the middle, or bumped off the bottom.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at darcizzleoffshore@gmail.com.
[easy-social-share]