As a newer member I’m still learning as I go, but I challenged myself late Sunday afternoon to go out and catch my own bait and then catch a few fish. After about an hour of trolling around I finally caught about a dozen 3.5" herring and started fishing. Within 30 minutes I had a good sized fish in the boat and a few smaller fish.
I must say catching your own bait adds another element of satisfaction to the trip. Do a lot of you guys do this on a regular basis? The bait seem much healthier as well.
I have been getting bait off my dock at daylight they are thick at times but really good sized 5 to 7 inches and I can keep them for about a week …that’s what I’ve been doin the last month.
I can toss a net fairly well but I am still trying to figure out how to find bait. Is there anything in particular you look for when locating baitfish? Points, channels, certain depth, etc? Warren Turner touched on this a little bit during the March meeting but I could always use more advice. I’m not asking for anyone’s secret bait hole just basically how I can “pattern” baitfish.
War Eagle 754 Ducks Unlimited - Yamaha 75
when the herring are spawning you basically want to key on the banks and rocks. I caught all of my bait for this past tournament(at least 25 dozen, split in two tanks) from the bank, without a boat, and my 50 gal Vest tank in the bed of my truck…obviously throwing a net in the rocks will cause you to lose a net but at least you will know where to look and try to find spots close to the structure that won’t hang up your net. I catch a lot of bait in jakes cove or go over to yacht cove as my 3rd option.(I will keep option 2 a secret…lol) I will often go to jakes the evening before i go fishing right before dark, just to see if i can still see some bait on top in the area so I will have a good idea that i can catch them the next morning. When its windy and chopped up on the surface you will have a hard time seeing them on top, if at all…sometimes if you just ride around an area, changing your line of sight, looking over an area from another side or different angle from the sun will help you spot them when they come up… I also use an 8 ft net, half-inch mesh, with 1.5 lb of lead per foot so it will sink fast enough…sometimes the little rings the herring make are subltle and hard to see…other times you will see fish crashing the bait to alert you where they are, sometimes you see the silver flash as a bait jumps at the surface… fresh bait will scale up your tank so go a little heavier on the salt, clean your scale trap frequently…keeping the scales on the herring is critical if you plan to try and hold them in a tank for a week or longer…
Team Shad Up & Fish
If you’ve had fun catching fish on the transom bait, you are welcome…
I’ve spent about 85% of my life’s wages on fishing, the rest I just wasted…
oh, and as everybody should know, herring are phototaxic, they are drawn to lights so any areas that have lights on constantly and near rocks, like the boat ramp on the irmo side of the dam, will be loaded with bait this time of year… sabiki rigs are another option for catching herring. bait caught with sabiki rigs are generally easier to keep scales on them too but you they just take longer to catch that way…fun for the kids though…they hit sabiki rigs better as they fall…find the right depth for the bait, let the rigs fall through it, then when you feel a bait on, let it swim around a a few seconds more before reeling it up to try and load up the other 5 hooks on the rig…use a 2 ounce bucktail instead of a pyramid weight at the bottom of the rig and you may jig up a striper in the process…lol
Team Shad Up & Fish
If you’ve had fun catching fish on the transom bait, you are welcome…
I’ve spent about 85% of my life’s wages on fishing, the rest I just wasted…
I haven’t checked at all this year yet, but it should be about time for them to show up circling the towers up near the surface in the late afternoon/evening.
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
Reality Bites(Woody) is a bait catching fool! I think he prefers catching bait to catching stripers sometimes.
I went out Friday evening and struggled catching bait over deeper water. I use the same net that Woody does but I guess over the deeper water and without lights, it’s a lot harder to make happen.
Yep… always thought those herrings were phototaxic. When I put a hook in their nose, they follow my boat around too.