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Bay Fishing
with Bait 101
1st
of 5 Articles
I see weekend fisherman that spend a lot of time on the water not really
adapting to the methods that professionals use to catch fish
consistently. If you are a lure aficionado or tournament angler
then this article is not for you, sorry! I see a lot of authors
writing about how fast to work your chartreuse, pumpkin seed, gold
flakey, curly tailed fish whackers or to find sandy, shelly, grassy
flats drop offs…so I thought I’d write something most of you could
really use to catch fish more consistently!
I will go over the four or really five major types of fishing bait that
we use as fishing guides. The first way to fish although many
guides have given up this method because it requires more effort to
train the customers is shrimp and popping cork (SPC). The Second is
anchoring up and fishing the sand pockets located in the flats. The
third is anchoring up and fishing guts and isolated deep water areas
locked within the flats systems. The four and fifth way are fishing
with Piggies (piggy perch not pin perch) and Croaker.
Now that I have the described the types of fishing we choose, let me
explain when we use them…this is the most important part! Wind, is
the most important indicator of what method we will use. I
personally pray for wind so we can use the most popular, successful
and frequently engaged method – Shrimp and popping cork. SPC can be
used for the longest time frame during the year! The SPC method
also allows my customers more of a chance to do the fishing
themselves instead of feeling all they do is reel in the fish! When
the wind is blowing 15 knots or more this is the best option to
catch fish! This is only an option in the Fall, Winter and Spring
as the bait fish mature and others invade the flats system this
methods becomes unfeasible, also the larger fish don’t seem to
gobble up the shrimp as readily. If you use the SPC method in the
summer on the big bay the fish seem to range in the 14” and under
category which will leave you hungry at the end of the day!
If there is no wind…put the shrimp and popping cork
aside…seriously…you’ve got to get used to fishing the sand pockets
(Pot Holes) and put your time in doing it! This is a very important
tip, don’t try to revert back to drift fishing with shrimp and
popping cork. It will take time to have confidence to do this type
of fishing but it is worth the effort because nothing is more
effective on light wind or windless day. This type of fishing can
be done with live mullet, cut mullet, dead shrimp, live shrimp, pin
perch, piggy perch, ballyhoo or crabs. I like to use live bait
predominantly when there is little wind however I will almost always
mix it up with cut bait too just to add scent to the water. You can
use everything from a jig head to a Carolina rig with various
weights, we also add a water corks at times to get extra casting
distance which is very important on the days without wind!
The next style of fishing is low tide fishing. Hopefully you’ve studied
your map or taken note when you have been crossing he flats on
normal days, if you did you will have areas in the back of your mind
to try when these conditions present themselves. Be very careful if
you don’t know the area well, maybe watch another boat enter that
area and wait your turn to try it. Remember some lanes into the
deeper guts in the flats system aren’t even as wide as your boat.
We use the anchor up method of fishing on these days too, however
the big difference in choosing bait. Since a low tide day can
either be windy or calm the way I determine my primary bait is based
on this rule; windy days use any type of bait that will create a
scent on calm days use live bait. The simple analysis is that windy
days the water is murky and hard to see through and calm days the
fish can actually see what they inhale from quite a distance!
Now the forth and fifth method are very similar and I will combine them;
Piggies and Croaker. The reason I made them two different styles is
because of the areas we use them, Croaker seem to stay effective way
longer in the area north and south of Port Aransas such as the
Laguna to the South and San Antonio Bay to the north. In the
Rockport and Port Aransas areas Croaker mature faster to be used as
bait than Piggies, but when Piggies start coming in look out!
Piggies and Croaker are held very fondly by fishing guides because
when you are on fish and the time is right you can’t find a hotter
trout bait, not without saying Redfish will tear’em up too! We fish
these types of bait at the rigs, grass edges off the deeper bay
islands, reefs, Intercoastal waterway and sand pockets in the flats.
The preferred rig is a size appropriate kahle hook tied to a 20#
leader attached with a swivel or knot to the main line. The time of
year we use this bait is from the about the middle of May into
September, at that time the bait is predominantly too large and the
schools start migrating.
Now that you know why and when we fish certain baits we can start
talking about the various techniques that make a difference in
presenting it to our prey, but that we have to save that for the
next article! After all I do have to make some time to fish instead
of write! With all kidding aside I want to spend time covering
each of these methods in depth as they all have their place in our
fishing arsenal! I hope you’ve enjoyed this article and remember if
you don’t eat it release it and try to release all big Trout…get a
picture it will last longer, save some for the kids!
Fish More, Live Longer!
Capt. Scott McCune
____________________________________________
Capt. Scott McCune (USCG Master)
fishntexas.com with
'The Saltwater Cowboy'
361.563.TUNA(8862)cell
Email:
scott@fishntexas.com
Web Page:
www.fishntexas.com
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