Fishing in saltwater is a lot of fun. Some of the best results come from using live bait. Below are five tips for catching live bait for saltwater fishing.
1. Location is Important
Just like any other type of fishing, you are going to find your bait fish certain places. Some of the places that you want to go fishing for bait is pier supports that are barnacle encrusted, rock jetties, shallow wrecks and reefs, and grass beds based on the type of fish that you’re looking for.
2. Moving Water
Since you know where you’re going to look for your salt water bait fish, it’s important to correctly time your catching. Outgoing nor incoming, it won’t matter – the water just has to be moving. The two times that are going to be most productive are the final two hours of the incoming tide and the initial two hours of the outgoing tide.
3. Night is the Right Time
During the day there is typically a lot of boat traffic, which means that bait concentrations are usually in the deeper water. They are often harder to locate and catch and are more skittish. After the sun has gone down or is near the sunrise or sunset, they are usually in the shallower water or in the current break behind bridge pilings.
4. Go Looking for the Fish
Drop an anchor over shallow reefs, wide-open grass beds, or wrecks and then scatter chum. You are going to discover that the bait fish are going to quickly appear on the slick. Look for little dimples upon the surface of the water and you’ll know that the bait is there.
5. Get a De-hooker
Since you are going to spend a lot of effort and time to get live bait, you don’t want the baitfish you have caught to die due to something so easily avoided. Devices for de-hooking your baitfish are inexpensive and let you de-hook the bait without having to touch the protective coat of slime.
Use these five tips and you will discover that you are having a better time with catching live bait for your next saltwater fishing trip.
