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The Right Bait Offshore
by Capt. Mike Holmes
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There are a few areas of offshore fishing where the pure joy of fooling fish with artificial lures is the only angling technique considered acceptable. I'm sure there are, although I personally do not practice these disciplines. Fly fishermen generally stick to artificial creations - possibly because a large chunk of bait casts poorly on a fairy wand. Some billfishermen will rarely use anything but trolled artificials, although these days the trend has swung back towards live baits and properly rigged dead baits. All the rest of us depend on dead or live natural baits at least a large portion of the time to put a bend in our rods and fish in the box.
Now, in one of those quandaries so well explained years ago in Joseph Heller's marvelous novel, "CATCH 22", our need for conserving the resource by limiting the commercial harvest of fish has threatened to severely restrict the availability of the more popular dead natural baits on the market. The question facing offshore fishermen now is not whether bait will become harder and more expensive to come by - most outlets arranged that as soon as the Florida net ban was proposed - but what are we going to do about it?
Cigar minnows, or icefish, are probably the most popular purchased bait, at least in Texas waters, followed by squid. Mullet, Spanish sardines, and various small mackerel are farther down the list. Almost all of these baits are frozen, and the buyer has no idea of how long they have been in this condition. We do not buy frozen baits because they catch more fish, but because it is easier to do so than to seek fresh bait - and here I'm speaking of bait sellers as well as purchasers. When I first began fishing, bait camps had fresh squid and mullet on ice - locally and recently caught. Very soon these were largely replaced by boxes of frozen bait from California and Florida. Fresh squid is a tough bait that stays on the hook well- a good choice for almost any offshore species. Frozen squid can be removed from a hook with a hard stare. While frozen cigar minnows are usually very good bait for snapper, kings, dolphin,or whatever, they aren't very tough, either.
* * * * *
The answer to a several sided dilemma here is to return to the days when fishermen caught much - or all - of their own bait. Since the net ban question came up, I've read articles by younger writers and quotes from well-known guides suggesting that we must learn to use cast nets and to hunt for spots to catch bait. Well, guys, some of us have continued doing this all through the years of cheap, plentiful frozen bait. While doing so, we've made some pretty good catches of fish on days when they weren't so eager to feed on less fresh offerings.
Keeping a boat in a coastal marina can be an expensive proposition. If said boat could be trailered instead, one looks for as many reasons as possible to justify that expense. Wandering around most lighted docks at night with a castnet can provide enough bait and chum to ease the pain of monthly stall rental. Menhaden (shad), mullet, sand trout, skipjacks, piggie perch and croaker can all be found around the docks. The waters under fish cleaning tables are often teeming with bait sized shrimp. We get into some pretty good speckled trout under the lights at our marina in spring and fall, but also catch good numbers of bait sized sand trout on rod and reel in the process.
Having a few bags of small shad for chum has made the difference on many offshore trips, and having a variety of natural baits allows the fisherman to offer an expanded menu to the fish he seeks. Many times we've stopped catching fish on one bait, but got them going again immediately with a switch to something else.
Those who don't dock in a marina can find bait in the surf, bays, coastal bayous and marshes - practically any spot with shallow water and access to throw a cast net.
While fresh frozen bait - or bait iced and never frozen - is usually a better choice than purchased bait, live bait is even better. A bait well filled with mullet, piggies, or croaker will open new doors for the offshore fisherman. Triggerfish and spadefish are less likely to bother a larger live bait, but sow snapper, ling, amberjack and grouper will be happy to see them. Several bait outlets in the Freeport, Texas, area where I do my fishing sell live piggies and croaker - sometimes mullet - for those who don't catch their own. I often read about using live shad, but my experience has been they they don't survive capture and confinement in a bait well for very long. Live shrimp can be killers on winter-time snapper, and even mud minnows can be good offshore baits.
So far, I've discussed baits that should be caught prior to the fishing trip, but there are also baits available "on the grounds." King fishermen sometimes curse bonito (properly little tunny) and jack crevalle, but these hard-fighting species provide some of the best cut bait possible for snapper and grouper - even amberjack. Around rigs and over structure, blue runners, various small grunts, piggy perch, bluefish, triggerfish, and spadefish can be caught on light tackle and converted to cut bait. Vermillion snapper and lane snapper are also good baits for their red cousins. Pieces of shark are good cut bait - practically anything except remora will work, - I've never had luck with remora. Of course, smaller fish can be used as live bait for many larger species.
Trollers who depend on an icefish behind a jig of some sort as their main offshore weapon will find a properly sized mullet or sand trout works just as well - and a silver skipjack works even better. Strip baits cut from bonito are also good. Drift fishermen using live mullet will score more and better fish than if using dead bait, something we proved many times over last season. While night fishing 50 miles out of Freeport over Labor Day weekend, I was broken off four straight times on 50 pound tackle after dropping live mullet to the bottom - the probable victim of big warsaw, amberjack and one large ling that came up long enough to be identified.
In warmer months a good circulating live well is necessary to keep baits alive, but in cool weather they'll survive in a 5 gallon bucket for the better part of a day.
To sum up, there really is no bait crisis. If shrimpers and bait dealers in most areas would spend more time marketing the wasted by-catch that gets shoveled back into the bays and Gulf, there would be TOO much bait available, but as long as there are cast nets and small hooks available, we can catch our own bait. Rather than being a bother, I've always considered this an enjoyable part of the fishing experience, and a skill well worth acquiring.
One thing to remember, regardless of one's stand on fisheries conservation, a dead fish is a dead fish, be it a marlin or a piggy perch. Man issues relative valuations to fish species according to their importance to him. Nature doesn't feel this way. If we ban net fishing for the species we pursue with rod and reel, a ban on netting bait species is also in order.
In an ideal world, a little of each might be acceptable.