Baitfish

Saltwater Inshore Discussion
1

What type of baitfish can I use for inshore species (flounder, redfish, trout, etc.) I know finger mullet are excellent bait and mud minnows work well for flounder, but when I throw the cast net I get alot of small croaker, glass minnows, menhaden, pinfish, sardines, herring, and silver perch. Are any of these good for inshore fishing? Should I just stick with finger mullet?

2

Every one of them :wink:

Capt. Larry Teuton
Cracker Built Custom Boats

“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made.” -Robert N. Rose

3

One of the best days I had last year was when I could not find any MM or finger mullet. All I had were glass minnows. I put 2 on a hook and bam.

“Apathy is the Glove in Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”.

4

So they all are worth fishing with? Just fish them as I would finger mullet?

5
quote:
Originally posted by jdem989353

So they all are worth fishing with? Just fish them as I would finger mullet?

oh yea.
  • I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.

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6
quote:
Originally posted by jdem989353

So they all are worth fishing with? Just fish them as I would finger mullet?

If it’s a small fish you cought in-shore, then the bigger fish in-shore will eat it!

7

I just figured all baitfish are not the same, there are some fish prefer and others not so much. I have always heard alot about finger mullet but not much about the others.

8

sometimes the fish are particular and other times they will eat anything. I like to have a wide range of baits. Many fish will even eat there own species. However, it is not a good idea to use game fish for bait.

  • I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.

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9

Try fishing with artificials!!!

10

keeping any size gamefish landed by a cast net is illegal. Those “silver perch” wont stay alive long but man oh man will the reds love them…I always wondered if they are Weak fish…Which are protected,and limited to 1…Always wondered what these little big mouth silver guys are…Are they game fish or not??
Could they be silver trout??Or silver perch??The ones i am speaking of are plentiful in creeks and have big mouths(like a bass)

11

They could be weakfish or white/sand trout. It can be very hard to distinguish by looks. However, white trout are not very common this far north. Check this out:

There is a difference between the weakfish and the “yellowmouth” trout but that difference may not be determined visually.

Researchers at FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Reasearch Institute (formerly Florida Marine Research Institute - FMRI) have recently confirmed the presence of the sand seatrout on Florida’s East coast from the St Mary’s River through the Jacksonville area down to the Indian River Lagoon. Before this discovery it was thought that the sand seatrout was found only on Florida’s west coast. The summary bullet points of an in-house report on a genetic study of the distribution of the weakfish and sand seatrout in Florida are listed below.

  1. The geographic and reproductive ranges of weakfish and sand seatrout overlap along the Atlantic coast of north and central Florida.

  2. Sand seatrout may be the predominant inshore species of the weakfish / sand seatrout duo in Florida Atlantic estuaries northward to the mouth of the St Johns River.

  3. Individuals exhibiting the genetic characteristics of hybrids were identified.

  4. Visual identification of these two trout species in the Florida Atlantic, even by experienced biologists, may be tenuous.

I learned from personal communication with the chief scientist on this project that the weakfish of the St Johns River may lose their typical striated color pattern, becoming plain silver colored like the sand seatrout. The hybrid species is also unmarked. Genetics is the only sure way to identify these fish accurately. This poses real potential enforcement problems with regards to bag limits. Please check with FWC Law Enforcement with regards to how they are handling enforcement of the weakfish regs.

Eric Sander
Recreational Fishing Surveys
Fisheries Dependent Monitoring
Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

  • I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet o