The Best Rigs for Surf Fishing Success

Surf fishing comes in various forms (depending on species and season) in Florida, and two general genres—live/natural bait and artificial lures/flies.

Here’s a breakdown of the three basic rigging options for anglers who prefer to soak baits with surf tackle for table fish. It's coming into its own right now in the middle of autumn; winter through spring offers multiple species on both Florida coasts.

Dropper Rig

This is a multi-hook rig with either two or three hooks for fishing sand fleas, fresh shrimp, clams, or a synthetic bait strip such as Fishgum or Fishbites. There is a handful of variations of this rig standard for pompano, whiting and croakers along sandy beaches and on some Florida beaches; sheepshead, black drum and red drum often inhabit the rockier outcroppings.

Also called a double-drop, high-low and other local terms, the rig involves two or three hooks attached to a dropper loop, or "snood," that is basically formed by tying a dropper loop in the main strand of the approximately 36 inches of either the monofilament or fluorocarbon you choose for your rig line. Since this rig line will see more contact with bottom than the main fishing line to your reel, it should test heavier than the line you are casting. For example, a rig made of 20-pound test when you are casting 12-pound line.

The loops you form should be 3 to 4 inches long, and distance the hook and bait away from the main line while the rig sinker holds bottom. The baits are held up in the water column for maximum visibility. Most anglers place their rod in a sand spike, so they prefer a circle hook, either a size 1/0 or 2/0 Eagle Claw L197 circle Sea offset hook or Eagle Claw L7228 Circle Octopus. Circle hooks find purchase in a fish’s mouth when it eats the bite and runs against the tension of the rod.

For added attraction, and to suspend the baited hook in the water, colorful foam ball-shaped floats are threaded on the loops ahead of the hook, which is simply attached by "crimping" the bottom of the loop to push it through the hookeye, after which you just pass the loop around the hook and snug it up. Float colors run the gamut (see more below). Another option is a clear, red plastic bead as a more subtle attractor.

On all rigs, a small black barrel swivel is tied to the top of the rig (to attach to the fishing line) and a quality Duo-lock or similar snap is tied at the bottom, to which you attach your sinker. Example of commercially available rigs include the Surfari Series dropper loop rigs, available in both mono and fluorocarbon.

Sinkers are chosen primarily according to surf conditions. In calm surf, you may hold bottom with as little as 3 ounces, and a flat bank sinker will suffice. The average used is 4 ounces, with 5- and 6-ouncers coming into play if a groundswell or windy conditions produce higher waves. And that’s when it’s time to use a 4-sided pyramid—its sharp corners help dig into the sand. A more effective sinker is the "storm sinker," typically called the Sputnik, due to its resemblance to the Sputnik 1 space satellite. This sinker has stainless steel retractable arms that dig into the sand, effectively keeping your rig from moving across bottom in a heavy surf swell.

Mortician Rig

This is basically a variable of the standard dropper rig. The main difference is the dropper loops (snoods) are not tied with the main line. Rather, they are a single-strand piece of mono that is independent, free to spin around the main rig line and this reportedly reduces fouling of the bait and hook on the main line.

Anglers can carry spare snoods which can be replaced quickly should a cutoff occur. For a two-hook rig, a swivel is attached at the top and two sets of overhand knots are tied into the line about two feet apart on a 3- to 4-foot-long rig. The overhand knots in each set are just an inch to two inches apart—they serve as "stoppers" between which a short line with a circle hook attached is looped on.

The hook line loop is formed a surgeon’s knot or similar and the loop is placed against the main line, and the hook is passed through that loop. When snugged up, the hook line moves freely between the overhand-knot stoppers, so the baited hook can spin freely in the current. Commercial mortician rigs can be purchased here.

The Fish Finder Rig is primarily used in medium energy (swells) surf conditions to attract fish in areas with little cover and minimal structure. A pyramid sinker holds the bait in place on the bottom, and is threaded onto the line with a sinker slide, threaded onto the main fishing line before tying it to a barrel swivel to which the heavier 24-inch monofilament rig line (or wire leader if targeting bluefish or sharks), so that a fish will take a bait against low resistance.

However with a rod set in a spike, the slide allows direct resistance to your rod tip to quickly set the circle hook in a fish’s mouth. You can choose from any knot to tie on your hook, though some commercial fish finder rigs use a small snap-swivel to attach a hook.

The pyramid sinker will gradually move, which is a plus because it kicks up puffs of sand that may help a fish to find your bait. You can fish cutbaits (mullet), dead natural baits or live baits such as croaker, finger mullet or scaled sardines with this rig.

Does Float Color Matter?

• The purpose of styrofoam or acrylic floats for dropper rigs is clear, but does color or size matter?

"It's always been about optics for me," said Rich Vudilich, longtime South Florida commercial pompano fisherman and owner of Pompano Rich Charters. "There was a time when we slipped on a yellow styrofoam 'pill' and not think at all whether it has of any help."

Vudilich says his top selling float color (on his Surfari pompano rigs) is white. "It's visible early and late in the day, and seems to draw pompano best in that aqua green, misty water that we've come to call pompano water," he claims. "On the other hand, in tannic-stained water that occurs in Northeast Florida and along Alabama beaches too, customers claim that orange floats are best.”

Vudich closed by saying he now puts tougher acrylic floats on his commercial dropper rigs because they stand up to abuse better, and that the biggest misconception is that big floats tend to spook pompano and other fish.

---

---