Last edited by Which Way Out; 06-18-2012 at 11:24 AM.
1. if you're in a car, take a 1 gallon milk jug or 2 liter soda bottle filled with water to wash the sand off your feet
2. take a roll of quarters...if the bite is HOT you'll want change to fill the meter if you're in a metered zone
3. go from 4am to 9am...the meter maids aren't on duty until 9am (i think...haven't checked lately) but if the bite is good, see #2
4. apply your sunscreen and then...wash your hands! If you get burnt, have plenty of vitamin E capsules waiting at home
5. keep your baits cool with a 5 gal bucket filled with a couple inches of wet sand
6. sandcrabs...I prefer the rarer soft shell type but if I can't find them I use needlenose pliers and peel a few pieces of shell off the back to expose the tissue underneath. If the sandcrabs are small, put 3 or 4 on the hook.
- technique 1: I use a long rod (I think it's a B&M 10' crappie rod...long rods help keep the line out of the water to keep the waves from moving into shore too fast but it takes getting used to).
-technique 2. I use 6 or 8 lb line...sand is rough and abrading on mono line so heavier line suits me...I wouldn't want to land a huge corbina on 4lb test that's been scraped across the sand.
-technique 3. I run my line through an egg sinker (1/2 oz to 1oz), then through a red bead (to keep the egg sinker from slamming and getting stuck on the swivel), then a snap swivel. I pre-tie my hooks (#6 bait hook) with a 2' - 5' leader ending with a surgeon's loop and I cut notches on a piece of cereal box or cardboard (cut 4" x 10") so I can wrap my pre-tied hooks around the notches...and I put roughly 10 pre-tied hooks on that. I HATE fishing where I have to STOP AND TIE UP A HOOK, particularly when there's a school of fish going through. I'd much rather unwind a hook off and snap it into the snap swivel and cast.
technique 4. don't keep a TIGHT line, just keep the slack out of it.
I'm enclosing a pix of the homemade sandcrab rake anyone can make. I got the dust bin, hardware net, and zip ties from Home Depot. Cut the back and bottom out, lay a cut piece of hardware not on the open/cut spaces and attached with zip ties. I don't take too much of the back off because of the weight of the water and sand that has to pass through. Oh yeah, wash your rod and reel when you get home...I also spray it down with anti-salt spray (salt-x, corrosion x, etc.)