Nearshore Fishing: What You Need To Know

Nearshore Fishing: What You Need To Know

Nearshore Fishing is the perfect mix of accessibility, shorter trip length, and rod bending action. With shorter travel times and plenty of hard fighting fish, nearshore trips are great for anglers of all levels and ages. Here’s what you need to know about nearshore fishing so you can decide if it’s right for you, and if it is, which trip you should take.

Nearshore Fishing: What You Need To Know

Nearshore Fishing is the perfect mix of accessibility, shorter trip length, and rod bending action. With shorter travel times and plenty of hard fighting fish, nearshore trips are great for anglers of all levels and ages. Here’s what you need to know about nearshore fishing so you can decide if it’s right for you, and if it is, which trip you should take.

What is Nearshore Fishing?

Nearshore fishing is a broad category of saltwater fishing that takes place between the waters past the jetties, beaches, and bays and the offshore drop-off. This type of fishing borrows a lot of techniques from both inshore and offshore fishing because many of the fish species and environments overlap. To help you decide what trip is right for you, here’s three of the most common nearshore trips.

How to: Nearshore Fishing

The distance from the shore where nearshore fishing takes place is totally dependent on location, but the style of fishing used will generally fall into one of these categories.

Trolling is commonly used in nearshore waters to target some of the smaller offshore species like kingfish, mahi mahi, and Spanish mackerel. Trolling is done by setting out multiple baited lines at different distances behind the boat, creating a spread. The spread is slowly pulled behind the boat to cover as much water as possible. The lines are baited with lures, jigs, small baitfish, or squid depending on the fish you’re after. While trolling, the boat drives near underwater structures, ledges, or anything that may hold fish. With the bait dragging behind the boat, once a fish bites, the hook is set instantly.

Bottom fishing is one of the most universal styles of fishing and is used in every type of water—from lakes to offshore canyons. Bottom fishing uses a weight and baited hook to drop your line to reefs, shipwrecks, and other structures. Depending on the fish, bait can range from live or cut bait to jigs. This tactic targets powerful fish that are challenging to catch, many of which are also exceptional table fare. The fish usually targeted by bottom fishing include red snapper, grouper, amberjack, and cobia.

Casting is usually thought of as an inshore or freshwater style of fishing, but it is also prominent in nearshore waters. Casting is fairly straightforward, with lures and bait being thrown out and retrieved to hopefully inspire a bite. In cases where the water is clear or the fish are swimming close to the surface, sight casting is popular. Sight casting means you look for fish, and when one is spotted, you move in closer and cast to it. Casting is most popular near rigs or other structures that surface predators like cobia, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, and sometimes mahi mahi.

Nearshore Fishing Charters

Nearshore fishing trips are some of the most well rounded and high value fishing experiences you can get. If less time traveling and more time fishing while still having a shot at catching a monster fish sounds ideal, take a look at our nearshore fishing charters.