For most anglers, live-bait choices can be diverse. How can anglers be sure which to select and how to fish them? Pro skippers β spread far and wide β offer their advice here for live-bait choice, as well as tips to produce the most bites. When bluefish bite the tails off live bunker baits, let them sink for a few minutes.
Luchka hooks 5- to 8-inch bunker just ahead of the dorsal fin, or sideways through the nose if he wants boat mobility. Alternatively, he drops live bunker 30 feet or deeper with 2- to 4-ounce egg sinkers, depending on current and desired depth.
The name pogy applies primarily to yellowfin menhaden from the Chesapeake Bay through Florida, and Gulf menhaden from Alabama westward and southward. McKnight holds the boat up-current of an oil rig and drifts live baits to it. Some anglers distinguish species, while others lump Atlantic herring, alewife Alosa pseudoharengus , blueback herring A. In New England, American shad are protected and American herring are tightly regulated because of their importance as bait to the commercial lobster industry.
Jack Sprengel. Where Northeast bunker are generally heartier than indigenous herrings, the opposite is true farther south. Threadfin are caught in saltier water, so they keep well. McKnight hooks threadfin through the back, ahead of the dorsal fin and just behind the bony skull, or through the nose in strong current or to bump-troll.
Threadfin are common kite baits in South Florida. George McElveen, from his many years chartering in Islamorada, Florida. Savvy fishermen differentiate these baitfish species. Sailfish chase them around and get in a frenzy, and then we sneak a hook into one. McElveen bridles pilchards for kite baits just in front of the dorsal fin.
