New member and thinking St. Marks

[Badbagger]

New to the board and moving over from the freshwater side. The wife and I fish out of a 1966 G3 center console and we are thinking of heading out to St. Marks to the lighthouse in a week or so to try out luck. I've fished out there once a few years back and took home a few Trout. Any suggestions as for bait, best times and the like ? I'm thinking some Berkley Gulp Shrimp.. 3" or 4" ? Any and all input is more than welcome and hoping for some suggestions from the experienced. What else can we expect to find out there ? We live just outside of Tally.

Also looking for some suggestions for some reels and SW rods. Spinning is for certain. Thinking Penn Sargus 4000 and a 7' Ugly Stik Medium rated 12/30 line weight and lure weight of
1/2 to 4 oz. Money is an issue and I know there's better out there but we need two setups. One for the wife and myself.

Again, thanks for the help and tight lines.

[FishWithChris]

welcome to the salt.

the best thing you can do is search and read and search and read here in the forums. The Intro threads have a wealth of information

[fishinfool]

The Quantum Blu PTs runs around $80 and seems to be a pretty sturdy saltwater inshore reel. You can always step up to a Boca or even a Cabo later on. The Shimano Symetre 3000FJ runs about $10 more than the Quantum and it too is a very reliable reel for the $$. Shimano Teramar is hard to beat for an all around inshore rod at approximately $100 and the warranty is over the counter as opposed to having to ship it back to the manufacturer.

[Jumptrout51]

For your rods you said "1/2 to 4 oz".
Don't you mean 1/4 to 3/4?

[Badbagger]

Thanks for the replies and indeed, an error on the lure weights; thank you! Looking forward to seeing what's catchable down there.

[Harmsway]

Yeah, I (and I think a lot of people) made the mistake at first of thinking bigger was better. Now, I know that lighter and right-sized is the ticket. A good all-purpose inshore rod is a 7' medium power fast action. Any saltwater-grade spinning reel in the 2000 to 300 size is way better than any freshwater-grade reel.