Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

Fished 5:00am- 10:00am in the surf a couple miles east of the pier. Lightning storm moved through the area the first hour or so but far enough off to not be much of a worry. Waves were mild the first few hours but grew to decent riding size later in the morning. The only other guy fishing didn't have weights bigger than 3oz and was struggling to keep a line out the whole morning.

In total 17 hardheads, 1 puffer, 1 big ray (40+ lbs easy), and a nice 18" pompano, all on fleas. Missed 6 or 7 big strikes that looked like they had hooked themselves but then lost on slack line. Saw the other guy pull a couple of small cats and one skipjack before I left, just as the rain started.

Nice report and your puffer is actually a burfish, same family.

Thanks for the proper ID. He didn't look particularly harmful but I didn't end up picking him up. I seemed to recall some story from the old salts in Rhode Island when I was a kid about them having similar toxins to catfish spines but haven't been able to verify this on Google. I really wanted to hold it, the spines didn't seem very sharp, but played it safe and shoveled him back into the surf.

Verdict?