It may be livebait season, but don’t leave the dock without some other options.
A crowd of boats outside the inlet is no guarantee there’s bait in the area. Always be prepared with a plan B.
In Florida we are usually blessed with an abundance of live bait during the very times our fish are biting the best. For Northeast Florida fishermen, spring, summer and fall are all about a cast net and a quick trip along the beach to catch a livewell full of pogies. Whereas that may be the easiest way to fill a well with bait, let me add a word of caution here. Pogies don’t stay frisky all day, and overcrowding speeds up their demise. If you’re not going to use live chum, I highly recommend you limit your well to 1 pogy per gallon of water. High pressure circulation and an oval well are necessary.
As many fish as I’ve caught on pogies, if I’m fishing more than a couple miles offshore, I believe sabikiing up a pile of cigar minnows, sardines and blue runners is superior.
Don’t we all wish planning our fishing trips was just that easy? Take it from the hard lessons I’ve learned. There’s no such thing as always being able to catch bait. Ironically, you can count on the pogies disappearing from the beach at the same time cigar minnows and sardines either vanish completely or all shrink to sizes too small to troll.
On my boat, The Seven, most of our trolling trips involve either Fishing for Warriors or Sportsmen Against Childhood Cancer guests. I’m committed to putting folks on fish, and therefore I need a really good backup plan. For me, good catches always start with planning your…
