Coastal fishing

[Trav]

I am going to visit my uncle who lives in Coles Point, VA and he has a dock on the river. He isn't a outdoorsman at all so he has no fishing tackle at all but I want to fish while he is at work. I was thinking about getting him set up but really have no idea what to buy him as far as rod and reel. Would what I normally use for walleye in Canada work or should I go with the type of set up I use for trout fishing be better. Also is that more live bait for speckled trout, flounder and croaker area or is that more artificial bait area.

I will be the first to admit I have never so much as wet a line in anything but fresh water so I am kinda lost.

[Arty]

My opinion (you'll get others). If your fishing for those things in that area, a good bass rod setup would work fine. Bottom fish with soft shell crab pieces, sand crabs, shrimp, or even bloodworms.

[Arty]

This is assuming you are going to fish the river off the dock...

[airbud7]

No telling what you will catch off the dock in saltwater....

[Thumper]

That'll wake yer ass up!

[BarryBobPosthole]

Trav, I always caught specks on bass stuff, like Artie said. We used to float live shrimp under a bobber to catch them in the mangroves.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

If I were to only have one, my dock set up would be a medium to medium/heavy 7-8' rod with an appropriate spinning reel. Outfit yourself with some two-hook bottom rigs and 1/4-1 oz weights. Use just enough weight to hold bottom depending on how the tide is running. Cut bait, live minnows and especially blood worms will work great. My go to the last couple of years has been these sheets of imitation blood worms. Tough as nails and if spot or croaker are around they will nail them. Then use croaker or spot for fresh cut bait to catch something bigger. Berkeley Gulp Saltwater baits work great as well.

[Thumper]

One fun thing about saltwater, you'll always catch SOMETHING!