Signed my son and I up for a SC sand dab charter this weekend looking to end our skunk spree (and be out on the ocean for the first time in 10+years). Anyone fish for these much? I'm concerned about my gear, I have an older rock cod rod and a lighter pole I used to use for salmon/albacore that I'd figure would work better for my son (much lighter).

I guess my question is, how heavy of line do I need to fill my reel with, will 20lb work on my lighter rod and say 30-35 for the bigger setup?

Sand dabs are small fish. 20 lb. line is fine. I've jigged up a bucket full for lingcod bait, just killing time while I was waiting for a white sea bass to bite. You will be using a sabiki style rig tipped with squid to jig them up off of the bottom. I personally use a rig that employs 2 sinkers. The top sinker is attached to a slider, which is stopped by a snap swivel that connects to the sabiki. Then the second sinker is connected to the bottom of the sabiki. This keeps all of the hooks right on the bottom. After a minute or two, I reel up and usually have a full string of dabs on the hooks.

Last week (3/5)Took my son on a charter for Sand Dabs, full lines from the first drop! Came away with about 25lbs (cleaned) of dab feast thanks to some neighbors that didn't want to eat the fish.