Fishing Gear for Eastern Lake

i've caught some freaking monsters (yellowfin, cobia, etc) on my good old medium ugly stick many many many times, it will bend double (or more!) but the 6' graphite pole hasn't snapped off at the reel holder yet (although the reel has snapped off its base and flew up to the first guide before!) - 20# line minimum and metal leaders or the big redfish will just swim away with your pinfish time after time

I'm planning on trying my luck on Eastern Lake and wondering if my ZEBCO Bass rod I use here in Texas will withstand anything I might land in Eastern Lake. I'm hoping not to have to invest in one of the heavy duty surf rods. Any advice or tips anyone can offer.

Thanks! T-2 days before paradise!

You should be fine with the Zebco.

What are you planning on using for bait? I am curious if AqBio or SJ have a preference-live vs artificial. We went redfishing in our local waters with weedless golden spoons and did well. Not sure what they like in SoWal

It will be more productive with live bait. It's too hot to find any live bait shrimp but Seagrove Icehouse has live "mud minnows" which work really well for the trout and redfish. Pinfish are also great bait but generally a little large in size for your target fish in the lake. Sunrise and sunset are the best times. Please review size limits, buy a license, and consider catch-and-release as these lakes can only stand so much fishing pressure.

Oh, and the Zebco is probably perfect in size for lake fishing. Surf-fishing, well, perhaps something larger.

lures work sometimes, but live bait works all the time

It will be more productive with live bait. It's too hot to find any live bait shrimp but Seagrove Icehouse has live "mud minnows" which work really well for the trout and redfish. Pinfish are also great bait but generally a little large in size for your target fish in the lake. Sunrise and sunset are the best times. Please review size limits, buy a license, and consider catch-and-release as these lakes can only stand so much fishing pressure.

Oh, and the Zebco is probably perfect in size for lake fishing. Surf-fishing, well, perhaps something larger.

Great advice. I try to live by the old Boy Scout philosophy of 'taking nothing but pictures and leaving nothing but footprints'.

if the outflow is still closed (alberto=abierto?) then the lord only knows what's in there...or how may pieces its in...

A good 6 or 7 foot rod with 6-10lb test ought to be fine. There's some trout and some decent reds but I can't get them reds to play nice. But I go with artificial baits. Good luck.

You know its odd, I've fished the emerald coast area a long time and never had much luck w/artificials around the bays, ditch and surrounding tidal lakes...Lord knows I've tried....Always had to downshift to live or cut bait...Now I can head into the Bend or further south and get larger, harder species on spoons/plastics but when i'm between destin and pc I leave the tackle box @ the house...I take 1/2 dozen bait hooks and egg sinkers...I wonder why that is?...Red

Never been to Seagrove Icehouse...certainly didn't know they had live bait...what do they generally stock?...

too much real food available?, or smarter fish cause they live on the redneck riviera!

pinfish rule - everything eats pinfish

Allifunn's son and nephew were catching some nice Pompano and LadyFish on Friday. They were using a Pompano Rig with dead shrimp,on light tackle, casting close to shore in Grayton Beach.


Perhaps Landlocked can chime in and tell us more about the huge Redfish which he landed and released this weekend.

I have a hard time believing its smarter fish or more bait...Who can really suggest that the panhandle is fished harder or has more bait than FL bay/10,000 islands/keys/etc...I'm obviously sick of castnetting or buying bait