How To Surf Fish Using Plastic Grubs For Saltwater Fish Species
One of the most traditional ways to catch fish is surf fishing, even before humans ever made the first boat. This is precisely the same method as standing next to a dam, on a riverbank, or even next to a lake.
The main difference here is the immense size of the oceans and that they have saltwater instead of freshwater. We will take a good look at how to surf fish by using only grubs as bait to get your catch of the day.
So keep on reading and find out how you can catch different saltwater fish species by using grub only.
What Is Grub
Grub is a soft plastic type of bait that you can use to catch fish and comes in different sizes and shapes. They can be anything from two inches long and as long as up to four inches, and they vibrate in the water.
This movement in the water is picked up by the fish, which makes it look like life bait, and the fish go after it. Grub comes in two main types: the single tail and the double tail, and all of them fall in these two categories.
How To Surf Fish With Grub
For the best results when it comes to surf fishing with grub, you need to select the right colors of plastic bait. This simply means that you should choose those colors that resemble the natural colors in the water to lure the fish.
If you use natural colors for your plastic grub, it will be much easier to catch fish with them to increase your catching experience. If you choose the type of grub that vibrates a lot in the water they will look like natural bait swimming in the water.
Natural Colors
The colors that occur the most in the water naturally are lemon green, a smokey color with glitter, and pearl green or silver. Mussels and clams are brown and orange colored, so grub in that color will allow you to catch the correct type of fish.
The gray colors of crabs will also be a good choice, or you can select the motor oil green and brown colors of sidewinder crabs. By using these colors, you will be able to imitate the natural colors of live bait found near or on the shore.
Best Equipment For Grub Surf Fishing
When fishing with grub, you need to use a medium-strength fishing rod with a moderate-to-fast action. The light tip of the rod will allow the fish to take the grub when you are swimming in the water.
With the fast action achieved with a reasonably fast rod, you will be able to get a nice hook set. One should use a light 6 and up to 10-pound line in combination with a slow reel with a ratio of 6:4:1.
Surf fishing rods are usually a bit bigger than your standard fishing rods, which will allow you to cast heavier baits. But this is not really necessary when you catch fish from the shore and use only plastic grub as bait.
One will need a heavier rod to pull those big catches out of the water. Braid is also the best option for surf fishing because of the lightweight of the line.
Braid does get quite slick when it is wet, so you need to make sure the bait is secured with a strong knot. The best knot to use for this is the Palomar knot to ensure it does not slip too easily.
Topwater poppers and spoons are some of the most popular fish lures to use when it comes to surf fishing with grub. Because grubs do not have any odor, they need to attract the fish visually, so color is essential.
The best time to use these colorful grubs for surf fishing is when the water clarity is relatively high for better results. It will also be ideal to use them when the surf conditions are a bit moderate and not too heavy.
When you use grub as bait for surf fishing, you will have to create life-like actions to imitate the movement of natural bait. To use a silver spoon, cast it parallel with the shore and then retrieve it back to you at a steady speed.
A fast retrieval will work very effectively with bluefish.
How To Rig a Grub
A lighter jig-head style hook is the most effective type of hook to use when you want to rig grub to lure fish. A simple Texas ring is also a straightforward but quite effective way of rigging grub for surf fishing.
Summary
Now that you have some idea how to fish saltwater species from the shore with grub, go get that catch of the day. You might find this quite rewarding, and it may become your style for the next few years of fishing.