Let me help you out. The sea is a very vicious place where everything eats each other! What pain, just life carring on the best it can! Use barbless hooks, remove trebles and use circle hooks with barb bent down. What ever it takes, get the fishing fever and don't worry so much! If you do happen to foul hook one and don't really want to dine on, some hungry fish will finish it up!

Gig or spear is a cheep start, hook and lines next on a bamboo pole works too. Kids have so much fun with less gear and catch some too!

Very well could have been a huge tarpon or a giant shark feeding around pass`s! They tend to feed in same places. Big tarpon don`t jump all the time, some just freight train away with a shark on their tail!

Spend a little more and get the black handled rapala knife, better blade than wooden handle filet knife. Learn to sharpen them, they all work better close to shaving sharp! Used them all and this old black handled rapala filets best with flex and holding a edge too!

Reel faster, tighten up the drag and give a good fight! Don`t let speedsters get caught by the tax man/sharks! Bloody fish sharks want-em and if you pause to wipe the sweat off sharks on it!

Use fluorocarbon leader for fooling the fish in clear water! Retie as soon as any scratch`s noticed near hook or lure. They can see scuffs too well and for dirty water any one works fine just as long its scratch resistant from barnacles and oysters! My experience is best with the expensive Seaguar premium holds up best, less scratch resistant and generally tuff on oysters where some less expensive ones fail!

Simply soak in Itilian Dressing 12 hours and grill em! Works great on any firm fish, grilled with maybee some garlic and papricka added! Flip once for looks, dont over cook! Yum

Very interesting, Gotta give it a saltwater try with crab or shrimp scents added! One target fish only wants crabs and this might be the bomb needed! Thanks

Whole lot of fishing in coastal areas, suggest getting license so not just a pier rat. No offense, graduated to john boat brigade beside growing up known as a pier/seawall rat. Lots of folks miss some great fishing along our shores! Panhandle area has lots of black drum, redfish and flounder to speckled trout for great eating! Big fish include cobia and king fish during the hot days of summer. If just vacationing do pier for free and if 3 days avalible for fishing time grab a 3 day non-resident license $17.00! Check out FWC.com for details! Dont let the big one get away!

Back in time Quick reels lasted with lots of saltwater use and were reasonable. Diawa BG was next strong reasonable saltwater reel and now lots of enginered reels avaliable! Yes spend a reasonable amount and get a strong reel. We try to buy Penns american made boat reels but most of our spinning reels are Diawa BG`s for durability. Discount reels work fine for freshwater but saltwater use needs sealed bearings and upgrades not found in freshwater reels so they last a season or ten before needing serviced.

Should work for any medium size fish too! Hay it would work for trolling too. We mostly deep drop for big bottom fish. I know it works great there. Don't let the big one get away!

Check out Diawa Tanacom reels and others that get much heavier. More of a bottom fishing reel with power to pull big fish up. Say big catfish or other bottom fish with a lever to engage reel pickup. Plenty of the old guys like me set rod on boat rail and just let boat fight em and just work on reeling em up! Can ya fix a rod holder inline and set reel lever in his range?

Got one for deep drops. See more used by old timers grouper fishing in near shore spots! If you got a bad back or wrist problems this reel saves the day! Overnight trips on the Gulf Coast of Florida its a trip saver.

My favorite batter for great tasting filets is a custom mix of 1/3 corn meal and 2/3 Italian bread crumbs with parmesan cheese. Add more flavor with paprika and garlic too. Dip in milk and 1 egg mix and dredge thru batter to frying pan. Does not need deep frying just a little olive oil and pan fry to crispy and just a little burnt for a great crunchy taste!