Surf Fishing Carolina Rig?

[Big Epp]

Hey all,

I'm going down to Gulf Shores Alabama between Christmas and New Years. This year I plan on fishing from the surf and also in the sound behind the island. From what I understand, the primary fish available in winter down there are mullet with the occasional pompano. 

I'll be using a traditional pompano rig with bait from the surf most of the time, but thought I might throw a couple small crappie size jigs out too. Both mullet and pompano have fairly small mouths, so my thought to get small lures out to them is to make a carolina rig with maybe a 2 ounce egg sinker.  Anyone ever try something like this?  Any other tips or ideas?

[Big Epp]

Whiting, not mullet. I'm reading up on it a bit, and haven't found too much outside the pompano rig. Might try a heavy jig with a twister tail.  Charter fishing won't be an option, as that's way outside the budget. But I read the the speckled trout move inshore and up rivers (doesn't help me, but it's interesting).

[JD_mudbug]

In the Northeast, two types of rigs are popular. I don't see why they wouldn't work elsewhere.

One is like a pompano rig with the weight being at the end. Your main line is tied to a barrel swivel. You tie a line from the barrel swivel to a snap with a couple of dropper loops spaced apart in between the barrel swivel and the snap. On the dropper loops, you rig a hook with bright tubing, a grub, or a streamer fly. On the snap, you can use a diamond jig if you have a pier or boat you can vertical jig from. If you can’t vertically jig, you can just put on a sinker.

The other rig is a sinker slider rig. We use those instead of a Carolina rig set up. Slide main line through a sinker slider, put on a bead or a silicone skirt collar, tie on barrel swivel, from the barrel swivel tie your leader and hook/jig/fly. The bead/collar will protect your knot from the sinker slider. This set up has some advantages. You can use a braid main line and a mono or flouro leader. If your hook gets snagged, you can break it off and save the rest of the rig. The sinker slider has a clip so you can swap sinkers easily without having to tie a new rig if you need to change weights. You can pre-try some hooks so all you have to do is tie 1 knot if the line near the hook gets frayed. I usually use bait on a circle hook on this rig. I have also used some of the Gulp products and also a saltwater buck tail streamer fly. These flies have no weight and just flutter in the water.

If there is current such as incoming and outgoing tide at a river mouth, we use the flat disc river sinkers. Strong current can cause bank sinkers and egg sinkers to roll on the bottom causing snags and line twist.

[BobP]

I catch redfish in the surf using a standard Carolina rig and finger mullet.  Seems to work ok.  There are all kinds of rigs I see used in salt water.  Most of them work if you are fishing with “live” bait.  Some of them work well with soft plastics, depending on what the targeted species is.

[Big Epp]

We're down here now, but on the west end of the island. Our part of the surf has a decent trough before the first sandbar, and I haven't found any cuts in the bar nearby. I also left my big surf rod back home so I could fit everyone's pole, so I can't cast past the bar. 

I've been using a double dropper rig with a small hook on each dropper baited with fishbites. Then instead of a sinker I've got a ¾oz jig with a white grub tail (also tipped with fishbites). I'm not trying that hard, but with 3 hooks you certainly can't say I'm not trying!