[phoneman]

This may be a dumb question but we stayed at a place on the beach just south of the
Surf City pier last September and I could not manage to find any sand fleas in the surf. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me why I couldn't find any last year. I usually don't have any trouble catching them. We are going back next month and was hoping someone could give me some advice on catching them. Also any surf fishing tips will be appreciated. I just want to catch some table fare for the long winter coming up.

 

[sinker man]

Normally there will be a colony underneath a pier. I just walk the surf until I find a colony but I avoid the areas with houses and such and the inlets themselves. Storms, beach replenishment, polution, and overharvest could all be blamed for the appearant decline in sand fleas. Bad storms can really hurt them as well as getting buried by the beach replenishment projects. They are short lived and rebound fairly quickly but when the whole population takes a hard hit it takes at least a couple of years for them to become plentiful. Some people are unconcerned about the health of the resource and if they have a hard time finding them they harvest all they can stand so they can freeze them for "hard times". That is pretty short sighted in my opinon.

 

[sandbar]

I haven't seen big colonies at Bald Head either. They did the beach renourishment on part of the island in March but I knew better than to try and find them there. I use a rake and can only manage to find a few every now and again. But then I haven't needed many cause I can't find the pompano either. TA said Sept. was the best time for the pompano and I've been impatiently waiting. The fiddler crabs are plentiful here and may be an option you could try. I've caught black drum, sheepshead, and even sea mullet using them.

 

[Topsail Angler]

There is a very good article on Pompano in our articles section. You may want to check it out if you haven't seen it yet.

 

[sinker man]

You won't catch a ton of pompano at one time in the summer but you can catch one or two an outing all summer long. Usually you can catch a couple of decent sized whiting and a pompano or two in a morning outing along with a couple of other fish depending on where and when you are fishing. I like to fish fleas on a couple of rods close in and a piece of cut bait out across the bar. I also carry a couple of spoons and maybe a mirrolure or two and a couple of jigs that both flounder and trout will hit. The key to summer surf fishing is 1. go light 2. go before it gets light. 3. go at night. 4. move if they don't bite. Tying your own rigs without hardware will help alot. I tie my sandflea leaders with 12lb mono and shrimp/cutbait 2 hook leaders with 20-30 because of the blues. On the long shot I normally use 50 mono shock leader and 50lb mono bite leader.

 

[phoneman]

Thanks for the info sinker man. I hope to find the pompano and flounder waiting for me when I get down there the third week in September.