Any ideas of keeping pluff mud and shells out of boat when catching bait. I don’t have room for a shrimp basket on the boat with all the fishing equipment.
Dip and clean your net before you bring it in the boat. put what ever you catch in a five gallon bucket and use a small bait net to transfer to live well… or what ever your keeping your live bait in.
For catching bait I use a 4 ft cast net. Much easier to handle.
It’s almost artificial season!
I always figured that shells and pluff mud were par for the course. It does help to have a spare 5 gallon bucket that you aren’t using as a live well to wash the deck down after you get bait. It also helps to bring a little hand scrubbie from home. Makes clean up easier at the end of the day.
Narcosis
quote:You don't have to drag every net back into the boat after you cast it. Pop the net a couple of times during the retrieve. This will drive the live/active bait to the top. When the top of the net clears the water, check for usable bait. If there is bait enough to justify pulling the net out of the water, pull it out of the water, give it at least two good shakes (straight down) and then dump it into a pickle bucket. They make half-tall pickle buckets. That's what I use for cast nets.
Originally posted by stanottiAny ideas of keeping pluff mud and shells out of boat when catching bait. I don’t have room for a shrimp basket on the boat with all the fishing equipment.
Yup - spare bucket. The net only sees about 2’ of the boat, all bait goes directly in bucket - your helper shuttles the bucket to the livewell, then rinses around you with the same bucket. I am not anal about keeping the boat clean, but I hate walking in mud all day… a few quick splashes with a 5 gallon bucket cleans everything right up. And a quick rinse of the net between tosses helps a bunch.
Get a muck bucket at Lowes or Home Depot - - bigger diameter than the 5 gal bucket, catches more stuff. Here’s a warning about something I learned the hard way - - all that mud and small moss and seaweed can clog your live well pump’s float switch, and that can flood your boat. Hose out your float switch box when you finish cast netting.
“Don’t tell fish stories where people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.” Mark Twain
Get a plastic 5$ tote that will hold scrimp basket, dump net into scrimp basket, repeat.
When done rinse basket in h20 and loose the mud, put bait in live well, vola .
If you think tote/basket may be to large for vessel it doubles as storage for net and anything else you need.
Last trip offshore live well pump broke so we shoved wash down hose in 5$ tote and kept Hayden’s all day long.
try a bed linner for a suv rear area!