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bait fish

Atlantic Croaker

The Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) is very similar in appearance to a small black drum. The easiest way to tell them apart is that the barbels (whiskers) on the drum’s chin are pronounced, while on the croaker’s they are very tiny. They are also called chut, grunter, corvina, crocus and rocodina. They are great bait for grouper and many other fish when they are fished from a still boat – they don’t troll well at all….

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A short history of bait fish in the Tampa Bay area.

In 1970 the fishing in the eastern Gulf was fantastic. The mullet were prolific all over the Tampa Bay area. Kingfish were large and numerous in the spring and fall and there were so many grouper in shallow water that they were considered a nuisance fish during kingfish season. There were such large schools of Spanish sardines, scaled sardines, threadfin herring, and menhaden that you could seemingly walk on them from one side of Tampa Bay to the other……

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Cigar Minnow

Cigar minnows, cigarfish, or hard tails are all “Round Scad”, Decapterus punctatus. They grow commonly to 6 inches but can be as large as 12 inches. The picture at the top of the page is a Big eye Scad. As the name belies, they are cigar shaped and have a line of enlarged scaled running….

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Blue Runner

Blue runner, hard tail jack, yellow jack, yellow mackerel and runner are all Caranx crysos. Whatever name you attach, they’re great bait for larger fish. They are very hardy in the baitwell and can swim surprisingly fast for long distances on the hook. They commonly grow to 12-14 inches but are said to reach 20 inches…..

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