Bait Fishing Tips

When fishing for live bait, there are many signs that will put you on the bait.  A good captain can read the water and/or a depthfinder to put the angler on the bait.

Circulating and diving birds are usually sure giveaways that bait is near.   You can position your bait on the outskirts of the diving birds and proceed to cast sabiki rigs or get close enough to throw a cast net.

Depending on the type of bait you are targeting will determine the size of hooks or mesh size of your cast net.  For these reasons, you want to have multiple options on board your boat.  Sabiki sizes 4 through 10 should cover you for most live baits.  Cast nets form ¼ inch to over 1 inch mesh are available.

When you don’t see sure signs of live bait on the surface, you can find the bait by reading your fish finder.  Most of the time the bait are found in large schools.  They school up to have safety in numbers from predators, and this works very well.   By watching your fish finder, you will see clouds of the bait.   Right then you want to either throw out your rigs or a cast net. 

If the bait is really thick, than you won’t have much of a problem staying on them.  But in most cases you will have to follow the school around and read your depth finder to put your anglers on top of them.

Another sure sign of bait is the area, is to see commercial live bait fisherman in the area.  Inlets and local channel markers usually hold the bait pretty well. 

Tightlines