Best Cut Bait

[Tarpon4me]

I was just curious about what everyone thought was the best cut bait for bottom fishing. This is a general question, no specific target species. If you were on a peir for instance, and could choose just one kind of bait to use, what would it be?

I know Squid is a killer all around bait, and Menhaden(pogeys) is awesome because they are so oily. But I believe if I had a choice, it would be fresh cut Bluefish. I've caught so many species off of that type of cut bait. I'm not sure if you west coast guys have bluefish over there or not. Do you guys have any of these?

Bluefish?


Menhaden?


Mullet?


Silver sides?


Green Backs? (scaled sardines-proper name)

[signature]

[gdn443]

We always used squid and silver sides for fluke. Thats most of the bottom fishing I'll do.
[signature]

[tomc]

the oilier the better,i use..hickory shad,bunker silversides,fresh water shiner,bluefish,snapper blues,striper peices,makrel,cod peices,scup,squid,green crab,starfish,chicken,nightcrawlers.and just about anything i can get my hands on
[signature]

[snook.hooker]

I've not had much luck with bluefish as cut bait - had better with ladyfish. Best overall is greenback, but that's one of the snook's favorite food (my favorite fish!).
Snook.Hooker
[signature]

[Tarpon4me]

Hey Paul, do you do much tarpon fishing down there? How do you go about it? The area I fish doesn't have "flats" or bays like you guys have.

I saw this Tarpon Tournament on TV and it was crazy. 300 boats with in like 10 feet of each other. They'd hook into a tarpon and battle between the boats. Then they got him to the boat, they lip hooked him drug him to the beach to be weighed, then let go. It didn't really show the fishing process, I wonder how they were targeting them. They couldn't have been sight fishing with all those boats. Drifting a live bait maybe? You ever seen a tarpon tournament like that before?
[signature]

[snook.hooker]

I don't target them, but have caught a few (they must've been hungry).

I've seen the same show, it's a little south of here. I guess the tarpon run down there once or twice a year. The hammerheads follow them, so there's some folks catching them, too. I can't tell you anything about it, other than I don't want any part of it - those guys are nuts, and I've heard fisticuffs are a regular part of it...
[signature]

[Tarpon4me]

I figured as much. About the time an inconsiderate boater ran over my 20,000 dollar fish, i'd probably be ready for a little scrappin' myself. To me, that's not fishing. You shouldn't have to fight other anglers and other joy riders, you should only have to fight the fish. LOL, I guess there are different breeds of fishermen. A man would get bald and grey quick fishing those kind of tournaments. [cool]
[signature]

[Kraizee_Skot]

[font "Times New Roman"][#ff4040][size 3]I haven't done any saltwater fishing since I was a kid living in San Diego. As far as I can remember we just used squid. That seemed to work for different types of fish.[/size][/#ff4040][/font]
[signature]

[Tarpon4me]

Actually, squid is probably one of the best, universal baits there are. Rather it's trolled whole or used as cut bait, i'd bet pound for pound it's produced more trophy fish that most all other baits, maybe combined.

When rigged properly, it makes irratic movements trolled and is irrisistable to many offshore species. I've caught everything from Mahi Mahi, amberjack, and kings, all the way up to sailfish and stray white marlin.

There isn't a better bait for black sea bass and other similar bottom feeding species.

If i'm taking the boat to the reef, there are two thing I don't even put the boat in the water with out; Chum and squid.
[signature]

[Dryrod]

[cool][font "Poor Richard"][green][size 3]Did a lot of pier fishing when I lived in SO. Florida and I used either squid or chunks of herring. Worked well on Blues ,Spanish Mackerel and Yellow Jacks. But I have to admit that we would jig for pilchers and the fish really went wide over them. Guess that they liked live bait best.[/size][/green][/font]
[signature]

[snook.hooker]

Live bait is always the best, of course. My problem is keeping it alive, even in a bait bucket with an aerator they seem to die quickly... but some days I've had shrimp stay alive for 3 hours - same setup - go figure!
.

(hey look - I'm a perch!)
[signature]

[Tarpon4me]

Ahhhh, the dreaded bait dying off problem. I use to have that very problem, until I learned how to cator to the needs of each specific species I was carrying along for the ride. Menhaden and Greenbacks probably the most difficult to keep alive. If you've got either one of those guys in a bucket and an aerator, that's not going to cut it. They need constant fresh water and soft, rounded corners. when their nose starts turning pink, you can forget about it, they've got about an hour or so to live and they are cut bait. Shrimp, mullet, and mud minnows will stay alive all day in a bucket, granted you dip out some of the old water and fill up with some fresh every now and then. I tell you the ticket for those guys, a flow troll bucket. Those work killer. I've got a nice set up on my center console. It will keep the Pogeys alive all day. I don't have a fresh water system on my boat, but the live well is huge, and has long sweeping, rounded corners. I just dip out some of the old water every now and then, and bucket back in some fresh. Another trick is to toss some ice cubes in with them. Those ice cubes will do two things,
1. slow the fishes metabolic rate, hints the fish slows down and needs less oxygen
2. as they melt, releases more oxygen into the water.

The thing about that is, you can't get crazy with the ice cubes or you'll cool the water down too fast and get too much fresh water in the salt water and the fish will go into shock and die. So use caution when using that method. But when done properly, it can help add 2 or 3 hours of life to fragile baitfish.[cool]
[signature]

[snook.hooker]

Thanks, T4! Sounds like we'll have live bait for the Open!
[signature]

[Tarpon4me]

Fo' Shizzle[cool]
[signature]

[trollboy8]

In mexico, we always used baliju or ballywho with great success.
[signature]

[Tarpon4me]

We use alot of ballyhoo here, but i've gotten to where I don't even mess with them anymore. It takes so much time to rig them up. Hell, I can use one of the new soft plastic lures or drag a diving lure and get the same results. The newer trolling lures are just about as good as the live stuff now a days. [cool]
[signature]

[trollboy8]

Interesting that you would say that. While we were trolling ballyhoo, the whole time I was thinking that a Rapala jointed sliver looks exactly like them and has more action. I will have to try that.
[signature]

[Tarpon4me]

I use alot of Yo Zuri, braid, and a few others; Here's a list of my all-star team:

1. Yo Zuri Hydro Magnum (they dive deep and hold at almost 8 knotts)
2. Braid Flash Dancer (if you can find them)[cool]
3. Clark Spoons (an old school favorite)
4. Yo Zuri Bonito


I've also got a new lure i'm going to try out and post the results on the board. I've seen all the hype about the Williamson Soft Trolling Lures and if the weather permits, i'm going to try out the two I ordered this weekend. I got the ribbon fish, and I must say, they look awesome. [cool]
[signature]

[sailfish4me]

I go with bloody stuff. Stingrays are pretty bloody i imagine they work good.for about anything in SC sharks spots anything that eats dead stuff.
[signature]