OBX inshore fishing... Pigfish?

Saltwater Inshore Discussion
1

I’ve been here in the outer banks fishing for the last 5 weeks with some friends of mine (in between jobs), and we have been using pigfish ( baby white grunts, I think) for trout and redfish bait. The trout have been tearing them up! They are about the size of a small menhaden and they go crazy under a bobber. My friends catch them in a mini crab trap looking thing. They are some of the liveliest baits I’ve ever seen.

I catch full size (2-3lbs) grunts offshore of Edisto all the time. Has anyone ever been able to catch them small and used them for baits? I wonder if you could use the same traps on a nearshore reef and catch them?

2

pigfish and white grunts are different species of the same family. I caught one pigfish in CHS harbor yesterday, around 6" long.

when it comes to bait, simple is best and i’m not sure trapping fish is legal in SC saltwater- sabiki or cast net should get you whatever you need this time of year.

3

Hmm… I didn’t even think about the legality factor. Just thought that if you could it might be worth it to try and find them. They are so lively and make a great sound.

4

Any of the small grunts are the best baits for trout.

5

Is it legal to use a fish trap for them? I can’t find anything in the sc regs about using one.

6

Minnow trap with an entry hole no larger than 1".

7

Again something that representative Goldfinch is helping us with, trying to make bait fish traps legal.

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PROUD YANKEE

Oyster Baron

NMFS = No More Fishing Season

“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”

8

Cool, thanks for the info! That would be awesome if they were made legal. I did find out you can use them in FL and NC. Not sure about GA.

9

I have used PINfish for gator trout/big red bait, also small croakers. Never a pigfish though that I know of - don’t know that I could ID one.

I will be on the lookout for them now though-

10

They are killer baits. When the fishing was slow the other day up here, I had one swimming my bobber around for over an hour. Never had any othe bait stay so lively for so long

11

growing up on the tx gulf coast they were gold for catching big bull reds in the surf. Wing a hand-sized “piggy perch” out there and hang on…

Angler 204 FX
Yamaha 150

12

I tried a live pin fish under a sliding cork last week caught a nice 18" trout. Fished in Corpus Christi, Texas last year, The only bait we used were live 3 and 4 inch croakers live lined. Caught 37 trout with 21 being over 20 inches. The story in Texas, is trout hate croakers because they eat their eggs. Tried live lining small croakers here with no luck. Catch a few live lining a finger mullet. Nothing beats a live shrimp if you can fight your way through the pin fish.