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….
Pinfish are great bait for a wide variety of species; they are easy to catch and are found all over the shallow waters of the Suncoast. Put a little bit of bait (squid works very well) on about a #2 or #4 hook and toss it over some grassy bottom – it won’t be long before the well is full of ‘pins. You can also chum them up with….
Striped mullet (Mugil cephalus), black mullet, and fatback: We love it fried or broiled and even the gizzards are delicious when cleaned properly and fried. Oops, I guess I got carried away. Alive or as cut bait, mullet are great for kings, barracuda, amberjack, you name it, everything (including me) – loves to eat mullet…..
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….
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. …..
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….
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……
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….
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