By: Dan Carns
Saltwater fishing is an exciting sport, especially if you come from a freshwater background. I began my fishing life as a child fishing the ponds and streams of Georgia and Alabama under the patience of my father George, but eventually moved to coastal New England where saltwater fishing rules. Some of you are just beginning to experience the joy of saltwater fishing. While many aspects of this sport simply transfer from fresh to salt there are some things that will change, including the gear and the lures. Sure, we salties use topwater baits, spoons, and swimbaits but they tend to be larger and certainly the fish can be much bigger, even too big for the gear we carry! I know several accomplished freshwater tournament anglers like @wendy_biles_fishing and @amybrownfishing that are suddenly trying out saltwater fishing and are having great success.
In areas like New England, you will typically be chasing a specific species and may catch a couple of additional types of fish but if you are fishing anywhere in Florida the number of possible fish species is suddenly huge and may include fish you’ve never heard of or seen. I would recommend that you start out chasing some in-shore species like snook, redfish and spotted sea trout as they are easy to reach in a kayak. They also tend to hit the same types of lures as largemouth and smallmouth bass. You may also be able to use your more stout freshwater rods. As your saltwater experience grows you can then start to target sharks, tarpon and grouper but will need to upgrade your rods and reels. Don’t be surprised if one or all these species end up on the end of your line even in shallow water.
While you may be an artificials only type of angler, bait is a sure-fire way to catch dozens of different species. By bait in mean primarily shrimp, live or frozen. It’s super easy to create a cheap live well out of a sheetrock bucket and a battery powered bait bubbler. Of course, if you’ve got a way to keep bait alive then pinfish, crabs and pilchards are also highly effective baits.
I would be remiss not to mention the toll saltwater has on your gear so be prepared to leave most of your freshwater fishing reels behind unless they are high-end and resist saltwater. Nothing will corrode a freshwater reel faster that a little dunk in saltwater. As kayakers we are super low to the water and as we reel up line, water is dripping on the reels as well as drenching the rod eyes in salt. I personally use all Penn (2500 – 4500 series) Spinfishers for my reels as they are super resistant to saltwater intrusion. Gently spray a little freshwater on the rods and the reels, dry with a terry-like cloth and then use a line/reel lubricant like Superslick or Reel Magic.