The outfit
- Rod
- 7 ft medium-light spinning rod, fast action
- Reel
- 2500–3000 spinning reel
- Line
- 10 lb braid
- Leader
- 3–4 ft of 15–20 lb fluorocarbon
- Hooks
- 1/0–2/0 non-stainless circle hooks for shrimp and crabs; 1/8–1/4 oz jig heads
- Weights
- None, or a small split shot; a popping cork for seatrout
- The one outfit to bring if you only bring one: it casts a shrimp a long way and still handles a redfish.
- Rinse the reel in fresh water after every trip; Keys salt and sun kill drags.
Bait to pair it with
- Pilchards (scaled sardines) · live
- Pinfish · live
- Mullet (finger mullet and cut mullet) · live
- Live shrimp · live
- Blue crabs and pass crabs · live
- Soft-plastic swimbaits and jerkbaits · artificial
- Topwater plugs · artificial
- Bonefish flies · fly
- Baitfish flies (Clousers and Deceivers) · fly