Many inshore and offshore anglers freely admit they prefer using live baits to artificial lures. During the heart of the season, most baits are available for someone proficient with a cast net or jigging rig or who is privy to a good spot to set a minnow trap. If an angler doesn’t have these skills or knowledge, tackle shops at most areas sell live bait. However, that’s not always the case later in the year. So the question is “what do you do and where do you go to get live baits then?”
The answer depends upon the species of fish one wants to catch.
Many guides and knowledgeable fishermen say trout and drum prefer shrimp to everything else. Speckled trout and red drum also feed on minnows but typically prefer mullet minnows instead of mud minnows (except in a few situations). Depending upon the guide or angler, they’ll say flounder prefer peanut pogies (menhaden) or finger mullets but will eat a mud minnow.
Most fisheries experts say shrimp are the first of these baits to leave the sounds, creeks and estuaries each fall. There have been times I would argue this point, but for now let’s accept that premise.
These same folks believe finger mullets are the next to leave these inshore areas but often concentrate in the surf and at inlets for a short time.
Until they depart, shrimp and mullet minnows are generally best captured in a cast net. Most folks will do well with a 6-foot net with 3/8-inch mesh.
Several tackle shops buy shrimp and mullet minnows from suppliers farther south and try to keep them in stock for a while after they aren’t available in the local area. Instead of throwing a cast net, you just throw a couple of $20s on the counter and the bait comes back at you. But even a $20 won’t buy shrimp or mullet minnows sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
You may not find them at the northern end of the N.C. coast, but in most of the areas from Pamlico Sound to the south feature a few small creeks and drains that stay warm enough to hold mud minnows most of the winter.
Catching mud minnows is simple. They’ll readily move into just about any of the conical entrance wire or plastic minnow traps.
I’ve had good luck using pieces of balled up-bread for bait, but several fishermen recommended using shrimp heads, leftovers from cleaning fish the previous day or small scoops of canned cat and dog food.
If you don’t have to deal with much tidal change or are far enough up a creek that isn’t too influenced by tides, place the trap so about two-thirds or three-fourths of it is submerged and some is above the water line. This seems to be the depth mud minnows prefer.
However, if you’re at a tidal situation, place the trap to be at this depth at low tide. Low tide is when minnows are flushed out of other areas and mill around in more open water.
Check the trap regularly and remove captured minnows to a bait tank or other holding area. When closely confined, they often turn cannibalistic and will attack weaker minnows.
These same traps and techniques also catch mullet minnows but not with the same proficiency. Mullet minnows are more of a filter feeder and aren’t particularly attracted to the scent of the food in the trap.
Those folks looking for larger live baits for king mackerel fishing or for trolling offshore will face a different problem. Each fall comes a time when the pogies that have been plentiful all year disappear. A few weeks later, the big winter pogies arrive. During this time, the pogies in an area remain deep and rarely flip to reveal their location.
When the pogies get like this, I put up my cast net and start using a technique I learned at Hatteras many years ago. Some of the local captains, such as Rom Whitaker of the Release, Bruce Armstrong of the Sea Angel, Steve “Creature” Coulter of the Sea Creature and Spurgeon Stowe of the Miss Hatteras, are so good at this technique they seem almost able to make bait.
When the baitfish get scarce at Hatteras, these captains ease along the beach, watching their fish-finders at places known to hold bait. When they mark baits, they set a gillnet. The gillnet they use is a sink net, which has heavier leads and traps fish from the bottom to the surface. They don’t try to circle a bait pod but lay a net through it.
Sometimes baitfish invisible at the surface are thick enough you can feel them hitting the net as it’s put in the water. When this happens, you only leave the net out for a few minutes and start bringing it back in and putting the caught net in the boat’s baitwell.
But most times, they ease off the net just a little and let it set for about 10 to 15 minutes before hauling it back. While it’s rare, there have been a couple of times this underwater bait has been so thick we could feel it pulling us around with the net and didn’t even need to put all the net out of the water.
Opinions vary regarding the best net to use. The best idea probably is to talk with the person at your favorite net shop, as they may have to custom build the net.
I like a 1 9/16- or 1 5/8- inch mesh net. This mesh may hang to double that size and some net shops may refer to it as 3 1/8- or 3 1/4-inches. The first measurement is between the net strands, with them parallel, and the second is pulled closed and measured from the inside of one knot to the outside of the immediate next knot.
I believe a net made of .139-inch diameter netting is softer and will catch better, but the strands are thinner and have a tendency tol break or tear more easily than thicker strangs. Many fishermen find .177-inch netting to be a good compromise between soft for better catching and .208 netting, which is stiffer but stronger and more durable.
Gill nets are made as either sink nets or float nets. The difference is in how much weight or how many floats it has. A sink net is made to sink to the bottom and fish up, while a float net is made to float and fishes down from the surface.
There are several formulas for hanging a gill net.A simple explanation is this determines how much drape or fullness is in the net and how much webbing it takes to hang a specified length. The hanging formula also has some affect on how well the net performs.
I prefer hanging a net on a one-half formula. This takes one 200-yard bundle of webbing to make one 100-yard or two 50-yard nets.
Most king fishermen find the 50-yard net to be all they want for catching baits. Many net shops won’t break a bundle of webbing to make a net, so having a friend who also wants one helps share the net expenses.
A deep net is needed for catching bait. This measurement is in meshes deep and the equivalent for 10- to 14-feet deep is best. This should be somewhere between 80- to 100-meshes deep, depending on the exact size in each particular net.
To use this net, even to catch bait, a license is required. This could be a standard commercial fishing license (SCFL) or a recreational commercial gear license (RCGL).
Basically the SCFL is a commercial license, and there are many requirements.
It must be used on a permitted boat in addition to the SCFL license, while the RCGL allows recreational fishermen to use limited amounts of commercial type gear. But they can’t sell any of their catch.
The RCGL costs $35 for a year from the date of purchase. Other details about these licenses are available by calling the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries at 1-800-682-2632 or visiting its web site at www.ncdmf.net.
The other means of catching live bait for ocean use is jigging a sabiki rig. There are many kinds and sizes of Sabiki rigs, but in general it’s a rig with a long main line and several smaller lines with feather, quills, beads or other attractors covering hooks tied to the main line.
To catch baits using a Sabiki rig, position the boat over or beside structure where baitfish are holding and cast the rig to them. The Sabiki is retrieved and jigged through the water to make the attractors flash and attract baitfish. The baitfish are hooked while trying to eat the attractors.
Many species are attracted to various-size Sabiki rigs. The most common off N.C. are cigar minnows, sardines, threadfin herring (greenies), tinker mackerel, Spanish mackerel, bluefish and blue runners.
Sometimes using a Sabiki to jig for baitfish can be more fun than the intended fishing.
These are some working ideas for catching live baits in the late fall, winter and early spring. It’s possible to catch live baits throughout a warm winter.
Even if you can’t find live baits or catch them, don’t give up on a day’s fishing. You can buy a box of frozen baits or use some of the synthetic baits to have something that’ll allow you to go fishing.
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