fish Archives - Page 2 of 3

Sand Perch

Posted on July 22, 2020 at 8:56 am by Charles Walker / Bait in the Tampa Bay Area

Sand perch or squirrelfish (Diplectrum formosum), are excellent grouper bait. They also taste good, but their small size makes cleaning them too much trouble for me. They are a very pretty fish, with electric blue cheek lines and orange and blue sides. They also have a large mouth and very sharp gill plates – so be careful when handling them….

Striped Mojarra

Posted on July 21, 2020 at 10:18 am by Charles Walker / Bait in the Tampa Bay Area

Striped mojarra aka: sand perch, goat, goat fish, and sand bream make very good bait for almost everything. Diapterus plumiere does have soft flesh and will not take too much abuse in the baitwell or on the hook but grouper, snook, tarpon and snapper, to name a few – all love them….

Menhaden

Posted on July 20, 2020 at 2:12 pm by Charles Walker / Bait in the Tampa Bay Area

Shad, bunker, shiner, pogey, and no telling how many other names, are all describing the menhaden (Brevoortia patronus). There are two in the gulf in my area: the gulf menhaden, with one large spot behind the gill cover with several smaller spots behind it, and the finescale menhaden with only one spot behind the gill cover….

Ladyfish

Posted on July 20, 2020 at 2:05 pm by Charles Walker / Bait in the Tampa Bay Area

Elops saurus – known as ladyfish, skipjacks, cuban tarpon, banana fish, ten-pounder, Macabi and lots of other names. Ladyfish are great big fish bait. As live bait for kingfish or barracuda they can’t be beat. They can be caught easily with hook and line either trolling small spoons or anchored and chumming with small baits out on the hooks. …..

Atlantic Croaker

Posted on July 20, 2020 at 1:39 pm by Charles Walker / Bait in the Tampa Bay Area

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….

Crabs

Posted on July 19, 2020 at 4:17 pm by Charles Walker / Bait in the Tampa Bay Area

Crabs are great bait for many species in Florida waters. We have Blue Crabs, Calico Crabs(that many people call Pass Crabs), Fiddler Crabs, and Sand Fleas(I think they are crabs, if not, they should be). Of course, there are many more varieties of crabs in Florida(I’ve had a lot of old crabs on the boat) but these are the most commonly used for bait….

Cigar Minnow

Posted on July 19, 2020 at 3:56 pm by Charles Walker / Bait in the Tampa Bay Area

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….

Blue Runner

Posted on July 19, 2020 at 3:40 pm by Charles Walker / Bait in the Tampa Bay Area

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…..

Sharks

Posted on July 19, 2020 at 2:25 pm by Charles Walker / Fishing, Game fish in the Gulf of Mexico

There are almost as many sharks in the Gulf of Mexico as there are species of sharks in the Atlantic. As a matter of fact, somewhere in the Gulf, there has probably been caught at least one of every shark that lives in the Atlantic, north of the equator. There are stories, and in some cases pictures of great white sharks caught in the Gulf….

Pompano Fishing in the Tampa Bay Area

Posted on July 19, 2020 at 2:12 pm by Charles Walker / Fishing, Game fish in the Gulf of Mexico

There are many ways to fish for pompano and you have a good chance of catching them if you just use some common sense and have a little knowledge about their habits. If you have a shallow draft skiff, you can find pompano schools fairly easily. Run along the beaches, close to the swash channel, on full plane and have someone watch your wake for pompano “skipping”. They have a tendency to jump out of the water when frightened and skip along the surface on their side. ….

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Sand Perch

Striped Mojarra

Menhaden

Ladyfish

Atlantic Croaker

Crabs

Cigar Minnow

Blue Runner

Sharks

Pompano Fishing in the Tampa Bay Area

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