Bass Techniques that Work for Salt and Brackish Water

[Rucksack]

Long story short, my wife's job is unexpectedly moving us to the North Carolina Outer Banks for a year.

 

I'll have access to both the sound (brackish to fresh-ish depending on where you're at) and the ocean. 

 

Anything from the standard bass toolkit I should be throwing for these new fangled species? My first thought is a soft plastic jerkbait or spinner on heavy mono to deal with oysters.

[Alex from GA]

Around the inshore water in Crystal River and Homosassa, FL I use 30 lb braid with a 20 lb fluorocarbon leader and throw plastic swimbaits and hard jerkbaits for trout and redfish.  Water is 1-5'.

[Buzzbaiter]

Tubes catch reds. There’s probably a lot of jerkbait and topwater crossover. Of course, swimbaits will work wherever you go. Ultimately, you’ll have to experiment with it and see what pans out; some techniques will work better than expected, while others will fall short. 

 

When using freshwater baits for saltwater, be aware that rust can become an issue.

[Jigfishn10]

Bucktail jigs with jig strips will catch a variety of fish. Just need to pretty much swim it along.

 

Diamond jigs with a surgical tube will be your friend on windy days. 
 

The soft plastics mentioned above were all great suggestions.

 

Good luck  

 

Edit…forgot to mention 

If you using your freshwater rigs and lures make sure you rinse with freshwater and dry. I make my bucktails with black nickel hooks and use freshwater rods and reels. I dry with an 18v leaf blower. Been doing it for years with no issues. 

[Catt]

There's a plethora of "cross over" lures.

 

Any soft plastic lures & techniques.

Zara Spooks, Chug Bugs, Pop-R 

Single spin spinnerbaits

Buzzbaits

Various spoons

Alabama Rigs

Hard Jerkbaits, shallow crankbaits 

[bigbassin']

The moving baits are where you see the most crossover. Swimbaits, topwaters, flukes, hard jerkbaits, and spinnerbaits are a staple in every saltwater box.
 

But anything you throw for bass will work in the salt. My pb redfish came off of a weightless white trick worm. Lot’s of guys catch good trout C-Rigging ribbon tails around oysters. Chatterbaits and rattle traps get thrown. You can even find videos of guys pitching jigs and soft plastics just like they are bass fishing for reds and snook, although this is definitely not a common technique.

[WRB]

Gold weedless spoons work good!

Tom

[casts_by_fly]

The guys above already filled you in on lures.  Now let me fill you in on places.  We went to obx most summers from 2018 to 2023.  I fished some way or another every trip except the last (short trip and I couldn’t be bothered to carry the gear). I looked at bass fishing as there is a good bit in the area.  Not spectacular, but pretty decent. I fished the sound with bass lures looking for trout and reds the first trip, just wading the shore.  Never did get into any, but caught some other junk fish. Knowing the area better now, I wasn’t in a great spot and it wasn’t a great time of year. I was in the southern sound below avon in august.

 

The surf on the frontside varies by time of year. I never got into anything big, but plenty of croaker, spots, a puppy drum, some flounder, all on bait. Again, this was august time. Early spring the big drum run and there are a bunch of big ones around. I imagine after most of the people leave in September and the baitfish are staying close to the shore you’d be in good shape throwing spoons.  My uncle used to do that further south in NC. 
 

That said, to the north you have the northwest river with a lot of boat access.  Then there is the Chowan where mlf just had a pretty good tournament. Most guys fished one of the other rivers but there are bass all through them. Alligator river also. Not sure where in obx you will be, but from nags head those would all be less than an hour drive. 

[Catt]

On 11/29/2024 at 1:28 PM, WRB said:

Gold weedless spoons work good!

Tom

.

[Pat Brown]

On 11/28/2024 at 10:54 AM, Rucksack said:

Long story short, my wife's job is unexpectedly moving us to the North Carolina Outer Banks for a year.

 

I'll have access to both the sound (brackish to fresh-ish depending on where you're at) and the ocean. 

 

Anything from the standard bass toolkit I should be throwing for these new fangled species? My first thought is a soft plastic jerkbait or spinner on heavy mono to deal with oysters.

 

 

I spend a lot of time in the Marshallburg area close to Beaufort/ Morehead City in the summertimes. I fish a lot for drum and Spanish mackerel and Blue fish and speckled trout.

 

We throw speck rigs a lot - little hair jigs with smaller hooks - usually two in tandem and clean up on schooling fish - pretty much anything predatory will hit these.

 

Drum - basically all the bass lures can work but personally - I like to use a cast net to get some finger mullet - the abundant forage in the OBX - throw a nice fat one on a C - Rig and let a 40 lb bull drag me around in the weeds.  Incredible!

 

Not a lot of bass fishing in that area unfortunately but about an hour inland you can get into some good fishing and 2-3 hours inland you got Shearon-Harris/Falls/Jordan and many many more INCREDIBLE lakes.

 

If you want to go bass fishing in the tri city area/Greensboro, let me know!

 

Enjoy NC - it's a state with absolutely incredible wildlife.  The bass fishing is underrated and I'm very very okay with that.  😉😉😉👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[SC53]

 Most bass lures will work on saltwater species, especially inshore ones.  @Catt has a good list as well as the others. Living here in central Florida and having fished a LOT in saltwater I can attest to the lures mentioned. 
For sea trout, redfish, jacks, tarpon, snook and ladyfish, a spook type topwaters or chug bug will get you all the bites you can handle. Flukes, spoons and smaller swim baits get the nod for sub surface presentations. Hoping a soft plastic on a jig head will get you flounder as well.

While not a bass lure per se, get you some goofy jigs in 1/8 and 1/4 oz in pink and flo orange. They’ll catch all the above at times and are my go to for pompano and whiting. Triple tail like them too. 

[Catt]

Down here a H&H Sparkle Bettle on a lead head is killer for Speckle Trout, Redfish, & Flounder. 

 

Now it's called  Damiki Rig