What We Use for Bait

Scaled sardines, called greenbacks or whitebait around Tampa Bay. Silver, palm sized, and the number one live bait on this coast.

• We net them ourselves before every trip, usually over the grass flats or around channel markers, after chumming them up with a block or with jack mackerel.
• They go straight into the livewell and stay lively all day.
• We free-line them with no weight, or fish them under a cork when the current is moving.

Snook, redfish, trout, mangrove snapper, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, tarpon and just about everything else that swims in Tampa Bay.

A bigger, oilier cousin of the greenback, with a long trailing fin off the dorsal.

• Threadfins school in deeper water, around bridges, markers and nearshore reefs, and come up in the same cast net.
• They are bigger and bloodier than greenbacks, which makes them a better bait when you want something with more scent in the water.
• Slow trolled or free-lined, alive or cut in half.

Kingfish, sharks, tarpon, big snook and grouper.

The most dependable bait in Florida. Everything eats a shrimp.

• Fished live under a popping cork over the grass flats, or on the bottom with just enough weight to hold.
• Around bridge pilings and docks we fish them tight to the structure for sheepshead and snapper.
• Fresh dead shrimp on the bottom still catches when the water is cold and the fish are sluggish.

Speckled trout, redfish, sheepshead, black drum, mangrove snapper, pompano and anything else feeding on the flats.

Tough little reef fish that live on the same grass flats we fish.

• We catch them in bait traps and on the cast net, and keep a few big ones for the fish that want a real mouthful.
• Fished on the bottom or under a float along mangrove shorelines and around structure.
• A lively pinfish swims hard and stays on the hook, so it fishes well while we work other rods.

Big snook, gag grouper, cobia and sharks.

Fiddler crabs for sheepshead in the winter, and blue crabs when the tarpon are rolling.

• Fiddlers go on a small strong hook and drop straight down against bridge pilings, docks and rock piles.
• Blue crabs, quartered or whole with the points off, get drifted to rolling tarpon during the summer.
• Crabs stay on the hook well and are a natural food for both fish.

Sheepshead, black drum, permit and tarpon.

Chunks of ladyfish, mullet, mackerel or threadfin. Bloody, oily and easy to smell.

• Redfish feed by scent, so a chunk of cut bait on the bottom near an oyster bar or a mangrove point is one of the best ways to find them.
• For sharks we fish bigger chunks on wire with a chum slick running behind the boat.
• Cut bait works when the water is stained or the current is ripping and fish need help finding the hook.

Redfish, black drum, sharks and catfish that nobody wants.

When the fish are chasing, artificial baits cover water faster than anything alive.

• Gotcha plugs are Captain Jarrod’s favorite for Spanish mackerel: cast long, reel fast, pop the rod tip and hang on.
• Silver spoons with treble hooks flash like a fleeing baitfish and get eaten when the mackerel are busting on the surface.
• Paddletail soft plastics on a jig head are the workhorse for snook, redfish and trout: bounce them along the bottom or swim them over the grass.
• Topwater plugs at first light and last light for the most exciting bite of the day.

Spanish mackerel, snook, redfish, trout, jacks and ladyfish.