What Surf Fishing Gear Do I Use and Recommend? 

Hey beach bum! the H20 express is 25% off right now! just got two for $80!

I'm 85 as mentioned before. Have used many of my fresh water rods N reels in salt water, wash good no problems. Fishing for many years. Tight lines young man God Bless. 🐻

Great info ... just what I was looking to learn! Thanks for sharing another great video Matt!

I've been waiting for this updated video!!!

Great info Bro. Thanks for taking the time to coach!

I've got a selection of Spinfisher V and VI's. 3500's, 4500's, 6500's and 8500's. They are built very well. The VI's have the full water proofing, which is in added plus. They all have nice smooth drags and retrieves, and they hold a ton of line. Because I fish in fresh and saltwater, they get a wide range of use. I have been playing with the Live Liner versions, which takes a little tension off on the initial strike. Rods, I run 10, 10.5 and 11' Mojo Surf rods as well as Tidewater 6.5, 7 and 8' rods for casting. I recently used my 10' medium Mojo surf rod, paired with a 6500 VI with Live Liner feature for carp on freshwater. I bagged a half dozen carp, with the largest just under 20 pounds. (I use an umbrella stand for my rod holder on grassy shorelines.) All reels are loaded with 20, 30 or 50# PowerPro. I believe the 8500 with 50# line on the 11' medium-heavy surf rod should handle most small to mid-sized sharks, as well as big pike or muskies. Steve

Thank u so much I am going to gulf shores and I know nothing about surf but now I do because of you

I am a newbie Snowbird from north of Pittsburgh, PA. now wintering over in Gulf Shores. I'm strictly freshwater fishing with no interest for saltwater...... until I happened across one of your vids. Dude your videos are addicting, you have a passion for fishing, and you're a natural at teaching. So now, I'm all ears and need learn the "cans/cant's" of Alabama fishing regs. Unfortunately all my fishing gear is tucked away, for a long winters nap, in North West PA. The gooder part, I now have reason to go buy more fishing stuff and even better, when I explain to my wife🤑....... I can blame it all on you. 😝 Keep up the good work, I think I'm hooked.. To you an your family.... A Very Happy New Year. Tight lines.

been watching for forever. i love your videos man KEEP IT UP

Ninja Tackle Dagger Surf Rod is a great rod, loads up nicely and cast awesome, got mine paired with Penn Spinfisher V 6500LL. Reel is a bit too heavy however, really wears you down quickly if your throwing 2+ounce spoons and lures in the surf. Got a Quantum Cabo PT 50 on the way which is about 10 grams lighter, should make for a great combo...

Great video! Very informative. Easy to follow. Thank you. Keep 'em coming.

My light-ish set up for Pompano/Croaker/Pinfish(for bait) set up is damn near identical to the first one you showed, but with the 2k series Penn Battle. I hit a 23 lb Red on it today under the overpass from Orange Beach to Pensacola. Hell of a fun fight to pull something that big in on what is essentially a bass rod.

Nice setup That St. Croix is a great rod just bought the 7ft model (fast action) Tidemaster which went for $180 at Tackledirect So they sent ya a 180 to 200 dollar rod. I paired with a Penn Fierce II 4000 with blue 20lb braid. I love that setup. Great vid as usual

Hey Matt; great info ,thanks for sharing ,I've been using Tica salmon/steelhead rods for a few yr's. now and love , love , love them I have 2 - 12 footers and 1 - 14 ft. soo much fun ...Tight lines Brother

lol... Really enjoy your kingfishing videos dude. Thanks! Just watched this video. Some funny coincidences... I was wondering about your settups bc I lost one of mine. This July 4th weekend I was camping and fishing Assateague Island Maryland. I had my Penn Battalion Rod with Battle reel in my hand looking for flounder when I looked over at my other rod. It was gone (in a second!). Dragged out to sea by a Cow nosed ray I'm sure. That rod was a Wright McGill steelhead rod! It had a kingfish/spot rig with fishbites and a squid strip on it. Didn't get to use it much but I liked the rod. I saw it at dicks and I thought it might make a good kingfish, spot, croaker, snapper blue mid-summer small game rod. Luckily it was paired with a cheap older reel. This time I will invest in better rod holders too :))

This is very cool stuff. Thank you for your thoughts!

been fishing Star Rods and Crowder for a while now, can't beat the lifetime warranty on them

Enjoyed the video! I'm going to try one of those H2O rods

Was looking for steelhead rods and this is one I saw 2 years ago and think this could be a good video to do now that you fish a lot more places than the surf

Right-on yer use of "Penn Reels". I use only Penn Reels. I have eight so far. From the old 320SS to an 8500SS . Also the NEW Penn 2500VI . Love the light reels, enough for fishing Daytona Beach area. Halafax River at Main St. Bridge is only two blocks east of where I live. Here you can catch whitting,trout,bluefish, (hardheads) fur sure even redfish, plus what ever happens along ya know. I use the 2500,and a 3500SSV much of the time .All have Penn Rods at 6'6 & 7' one peace? Any way I'm sure you will aquire more Penn "SS" reels eather the V or VI. You can't go wrong. I've used these sence 1978, never had a fail yet. Corse the SSV &SSVI are new. Keep up the great videos. Thanks, Tom.....

No Penns are fully sealed. Only partially sealed. They are great reels, I have 3 penn spinfisher vi and they are good reels. Fully sealed reels are Van Staal, Zee Baas and Visser are the only sealed reel out there. I have a Van Staal and they are awesome! Mostly I'm a penn guy. Keep the videos up! I enjoy your videos! I'd like to go surf fishing with you, maybe you could teach me something. Anyway great video!

Hey Matt what's up? I have a couple of the Diawa Laguna casting rods and a couple of the spinning rods. I haven't broken one, but the inserts have come out of the line guides on them. For a $30 rod though they are great. Nice and light.

hey appreciate this video man.. really helps..keep up the great vids...

You'll love the Mac!

I know from looking at most of your videos that you are primarily a Penn reel guy. I have a suggestion for you. Like Tony at FishGum I am a vintage reel guy. I have about 8 Penn vintage surf spinning reels that I absolutely love. Four of them are the classic Greenies but I also have some of the black and gold Z reels. Some of these are nearly 60 years old yet they still look great and operate perfectly. I also use a vintage silver Penn 104 and a 105. Altogether I have about 50 vintage surf spinning reels all of which I still use. It would be cool if you did some videos using vintage surf tackle. Even better it would be extraordinary to offer guide trips letting your customers utilize vintage rods and reels. You would just need a few. They take more upkeep than modern reels but they will outlast all of them! If I lived closer I would loan you some gear to do some videos. Just an idea. It would make a truly unique video! I’ll bet Tony (FishGum) at Navarre Beach could hook you up with some vintage tackle but I can’t speak for him. Doing a video using the new artificial bait he has developed would be a great video as well. I used some over a year ago and it worked great. He has improved the formula since then. I think he will have it on the market this summer.

Once you go MAC, you never go back. And I love my Penn Battles.

I have a penn battle two 2000 with ten pound pp too and it’s given me the most knots by far out of any penn i own

You have some generous subscribers.

Great video sir. I am a big penn favourite too. I had almost all the penn selections in conflict,spin Fisher, slammer (HS), battle and sargus models. Really excellent reels. I had shimano and daiwa BG (MAG SEAL) and piscifun reels also . But I cast my favourite vote on penn branded reels. Thank you sir. Hope to see more videos from you

Heading down tomorrow hope the fishing hoping to catch my first black drum

I have 2 Spinfisher 10500’s. They are just a little bigger than yours😂 Anything Penn is good stuff! Great videos!

So I haven’t finished the vid yet but I’ve been surf/beach fishing one time caught two bluefish and loved it. Now I plan on getting my own setup for Christmas and I’d say my budget for a rod and reel is like $200. I’m a bass fishermen and really don’t know much or anything about surf fishing but wanna get into it as every year I spend 3 weeks at the beach. What do you think would be the best for a starter like me?

Watched the whole thing from coast to coast! You’ll be using 12 footers in the future! Great video and I love the variety of your gear!

Love your videos watching from fl. C

I bought that same power pro in blue 20# online - I think I paid $18-ish for 1000 yd spool. (I just can't remember if it was amazon or ebay) If I had to say I had any regrets it'd be that I shoulda got neon yellow.

I use a Tsunami Air Wave 11’ w 30lb braid on a Daiwa BG5000 and then another same rod same braid on a Spinfisher 4500. Both are perfect and can catch anything.

Thanks for the video, very good information. Are these one or two pieces rods?

That penn spinfisher V I caught a 5 foot nurse shark on it and it held up great 👍 and I had it on max drag

Hey Matt, love your video's. Amazon has the 4500 spinfisher 6 for $114.

Always amazed at how much lighter your tackle is fishing in the Gulf as opposed to what we use up here in NC fishing in the Atlantic. This video answered a previous question about how the Ninja Dagger and Academy H20 rods compared. This is a very helpful video. Thanks very much!

The Penn Battle II 5000 is $95.96 right now on the Penn website and the 8000 is the same price. That's a $25 savings on both reels. I'm guessing they are about to release the III. They just announced the Penn Fierce III but just says coming soon.

Hello, Nice channel, congrats. I wonder if you can make a video, teaching and talking about fishing leaders too. Regards

My philosophy with fishing gear is spend more on a reel than a rod, my first job was at academy and their h2o products are top notch for the price definitely gives my ugly sticks a run for their own money, Penn reels are the best reels to buy, I use braid and power pro is still my go to but I think suffix is now my favorite as it's a little thinner and seems to cast a little farther daiwa, h2o Express and even yozuri are excellent but I don't recommend spider wire it frays way too easily, I normally use steel rigs or sometimes tie braid and fish don't really care in my experience as long they're hungry they'll still bite.

Man that stinks you deleted the footage! You had some catches on those lures on your top water baits! BUMMER! That was a great trip and thank you for taking us! We will go again before long! Hit me up and come to Oklahoma and lets catch some crappie!

some good choices. just remember that the star rod aerial has a 5 year warranty so if breaks and its in the warranty send it back and get a new one.

I need one of those Ninja Dagger Rods!

I had a 12' feet surf rod with a 5000 size reel, make it 20LB braid mainline with 30LB shock leader mono and still having trouble to cast far. When I see someone cast their surf rod at the beach, it make that "swossh" sound after cast which I couldn't replicate..

Excellent details: can u please put it writing to choose the best, along with the prices thx

The Spinfisher VI 4500 are great.

well done on the video

I sure do like the shimono baitcaster 4500 reels. Have you ever played with one?

I’m looking to upgrade my surf rods. I fish Northeast Florida where as you know 3-4 ozs are required. What are your latest suggestions on rods and reels? Rod length and reel size?

Most of my gear was bought from Craigslist or FB marketplace...looks gnarly but catches plenty of fish.

Daiwa BG reels. Best $100 reel out there.

I think it’s about time for a new gear vid!

Now that I've had time to watch the video I have to ask, how have those Pursuit's, both the II & III, held up? I'm a big Penn guy too, I still fish some original Fierce & Battle reels. I had a Sargus for the longest time I bought used and it finally gave out. I've always considered the Pursuit as a weekender or tourist rod, good for a few days worth and that's about it.

Try Lamiglass rods they awesome.

We just put line our Penn Senators 12/0’s and took 1 hour per reel. Have you ever put baits out by balloon? Would love to see a video of you shark fishing using balloons.

I only fish with St. Croix rods for inshore. Just cause I cant afford the Hatteras Heavers yet from St. Croix

Little ford 😂 more like big Chevy 😂 love your vids man

Local Academy has the 12' graphite H20 XPress and the 10' fiberglass? Beginner surf fisher, which would you recommend? I'll hang up and listen.

Are you using a swivel for your leader? Or are you tying straight to your main line?

Mr. Bum, I enjoyed this video very much. I have the opinion that the fishing industry is leaving the average working man behind by producing so many high end rods and reels. Don't get me wrong. The high end stuff is excellent, but most folks raising a family won't have the money to fork out $250 each for a rod and reel. The good news is.... as the rod and reel industry goes more high end, the designs from previous years become more affordable. Especially reels. The drag is the most important part. The inexpensive options you presented were excellent. Most of us believe that an expensive reel on a less expensive rod is the way to go. I like the opposite. I prefer a "midrange priced" reel and a better quality rod. I find your vidoes to be fun and informative. Please keep them coming. God Bless and best regards, Dan

What are your thought on the offshore angler rod as a casting rod for spoons and top water from the surf as well as some bait fishing? Just getting into surf fishing and looking to put together a rod reel combo that won’t break the bank too bad

Thanks been wanting to see what the master used lol love the vids

Sorry to generate a new question, on this amazing video by the way, have you ever done a suggestion, for those of that fly down, on a travel surf rod suggestion? One that might break down into 3-4 pieces? I have steelhead rods that I could bring from the north, but was wondering what your take was on travel surf rods??? Thanks in advance.

What size weights / lures are you throwing on the breakwater and the 11’ dagger and do you do any cast & retrieve with those longer rods? Trying to decide on a long rod for cast / retrieve stripers NE usually 3oz weight with a fly or swim bait. Much appreciate any insight and thanks for the video!

Just moved to the Houston area and looking to do some salt water fishing in Galveston. Can you or someone tell me, Is there a difference between rods used for bait fishing And rods used for lure fishing. Is bait fishing the same as a Jig?

Has anyone tried the 9ft Ugly Stick GX2? It’s $40. Wondering how it compares to the steelhead rods mentioned here.

Do you use Mono backing underneath the Power Pro Superslick Braid when you spool it up?

I liked your gear man. Thanks for sharing.. good luck 08.23.2020

Come to St Augustine Florida and go fishing.

Why don’t you use long spool reel or it doesn’t make difference in long cast distance?

I know you get this question on every video, and I've asked a few times and I'm sure I've been buried in comments, but in your opinion, would an H2O Express 10' rod with a Shimano Sienna 4000, 30lb power pro braid work for the majority of fishing in the surf? I have some experience but I'm looking for an answer from someone like you who knows the water more. I have most of the rigs set up, I'm just trying to take some family who hasnt been surf fishing before and would like to have a few rods set up the same so they can all catch something. Thank you if you read this!

How much over the rod rating are you willing to go?? Your steelhead rod tops out at 3/4 ounce, but you said your throwing a 1 oz weight? How much over do you go?

Hey bama love the channel keep it up, also I have a Penn defiance 2 10ft surf rod goes really and has a wooden butt on it, just thinking with your sand spikes glue in some foam around the inside to help with wear on your Cork rods a few blokes I've spoken on the beach do it here in Australia just a thought cheers mate

I've found out the hard way that I'm better off buying less expensive tackle and then I don't have to worry about breaking, loosing at the bottom of the ocean, river, canal, etc. Much more fun to find cheap stuff that I really like.

What size is the Viper 2 reel you are using on that Daiwa Laguna?

St Croix rods are very nice rods they tide master run about $150-$250

What rods would you recommend , I have a slammer iv dx 5500, a slammer III high speed 6500 and a spinfisher vi 4500, I'm looking to start using them for the surf but I don't know what rods I should get, Im looking for 3 rods I can get for around 220$

Caught some nice pompano using your method. Fresh shrimp and fish bites. Destin Florida.

I have a battle 3 6000 with 7’ MH rod . Could this work in the surf?

I am in the process to moving to Florida on the gulf side and was wondering what a good beginner rod and reel set up would be for surf fishing. I'm from Massachusetts and all I've done is bass fishing in lakes and ponds. Thanks Mat

Hey bro, great vid. Try to stay with the Spinfisher V if you can, the VI does not have the slammer drag and (imho) a lesser reel.

I have 7 Piscifun spinning reels of various models and all of them all excellent reels! They are actually better than my Penn and Shimano reels! Lighter, smoother, and better drags! Much much cheaper to boot! I know a lot of people like to knock on anything that is made in China, but they are tremendous reels, especially for the money! And most of these people have never even used one of these Piscifun reels! Heck, even Penn and Shimano reels are made in China! So there goes that crap! You need to try Piscifun HonorXT or one of their new model reels, they have really made improvements on their new lineups of reels!

What is your opinion of the penn battle 3 6000?

You need to add a couple casting reels to your arsenal.

Hey would you mind posting me the link to that 11ft rod and reel please? Thanks man

I just ordered a Ninja Dagger based on your recommendation.

105 heat index? No sweat for Texas! Here in austin, it got to 114 heat index!!!!!

Good video thanks 😊like 👍

will be getting a carbon x 4000

great!

Can a baitcast reel be used for surf fishing opposed to spin cast?

Are your rods one piece or 2 piece? Does it matter?

Do you get you line from Academy, and do they put the line on for you?

Great vid and #stay bummy

Are any of these rods 2 piece. That is a pet peeve of mine.

You ever thought about VAN STAAL reels

You’re gonna love using a Mac!!