I was thinkin' about spikein' a pole or two this weekend on one of RI's fine shores. My question is what the preferred bait is up there? Down here in NJ, everyone tends to use either clams or bunker heads. What would be my best bet up there?

Thanks!

If your gonna be chunkin some bait i highly suggest using pogys since the bay is loaded with small 3 to 6" pogys. But squid is also good as well. Also bring some light tackle 12lb test small lite rod bring a couple shad bodies and 3/8oz jigs you will kill the schoolies and maybe a keeper.

Good Luck :)

at the MDA last weekend the 41 lb'er was caught on butterfish, i like mackeral, sticks to the hook a little better. but if there is bunker in the area use it. feed em what they are eating.. good luck

If you're not slinging eels (far and above the best method - water's still warm and the fish aren't slowing down yet), try whole butterfish on one rod and bunker (fresh) if possible on the other...

I couldn't have said it better myself!
If you ain't slingin eels, give them a choice of baits. A live PORGY is a good choice. A live BLACKFISH will last FOREVER, and if you use legal size, will eliminate small fish. Bunker, Butterfish, Herring, Shad, Mackerel, Clam, Squid, just don't use the same thing on both rods. You can find interesting baits in a fish store, it doesn't have to come from a tackle shop. Although tackle shops can tell you where to soak it and fish stores can't.

Flounder

HINT: Buy a half dozen Bloodworms, and bring a light rod with small hooks to make bait. If you fish from a pier, just try each pole, and soon enough you will have live bait. Bergalls work well! Even a Sundial or a Tommycod is preferable to sometrhing that is dead. When you catch your bait where you are going to fish, you're REALLY "fishing the food chain".

Blackfish as striper bait?!?! You gotta be kidding. If your not can you chunk it? I don't really have a way to keep them alive thats why I ask. How well does it work compared to other "regular" types of bait.

..Anthony, Blackfish are one of the Heartiest fish around...they'll last a looooong time...We used to bang em' in Newport... when we'd get home some of em' would still be alive!!...almost an hour later!!

..Only problem now is, the size limit..:rolleyes: I doubt you could catch a Bass on a 16" Tautog...which is the limit in my area. Maybe a lodge choggy?? :D ...but the scup are a great bet!! ( porgy )

never used tog for bait..last year caught a good size bluefish that had bulges in its stomach. what i found inside was most of a 4 pound tog in various pieces(good size chunks too). keeping tog alive is easy all you need is a good wet burlap and a tote. keep the burlap wet.

Blackfish, Sea Bass, Porgies, and (gulp) Flounder
are right up there with Eels as great Striper bait

A legal sized 'Tog will last as long as you do,
and can be released or taken home alive at the
end of the trip. It is size selective, and guaranteed
NOT to catch a schoolie.

I would never advise anyone to use a short 'Tog
as bait, but it's done all the time.

I hear lobster tails make good bait as well.

Flounder

By the way, if I have encouraged you to experiment
DON'T put water in the bucket to keep a 'tog alive
It (they) will use up the Oxygen in the water, and
then drown! Just cover it (them) with a wet towel.
They take Oxygen right out of the air like you do.

I've never heard of someone chunking Blackfish.
While I'm sure it would work, I don't think it
would be as effective as a Bunker head.

The whole point of using a 'tog is to have LIVE bait.
You know, something that panics when a predator is near.
That "panic" plus being on a "leash" (leader)
makes your bait more desirable than a thousand
"free" ones. Hard to believe? There are times
when you can't bring a snagged bunker back in
one piece! Why that one, rather than the rest of
the pod?

USE A LIVE, LEGAL 'TOG ON ONE ROD, LEAVE THE DRAG
LOOSE, and fish the other one any way you like.
When the first rod goes off, you know it's a decent fish! Over 35 pounds for sure!

Flounder

Anthony---a bass will eat anything smaller than itself. Baby 'togs used to be a sharpie bait on LI before there were size limits. You know what else bass love? Flatties, both flounder and fluke. Now that there are size limits on them, as well as scup----another bass delicacy---they are no longer used by ethical fishermen. But, a guy out here (who holds the 16# line class record for bass, BTW) makes a lure called the "Petri-fish" which mimics a flounder.

When bass are cruising the bars and cuts scavenging for a meal, there is very little they won't eat, as long as it's fresh and not rancid. Doesn't get any fresher than alive ;)

Last week I had a 20 lber that had a 8" lobster whole in its belly.
They eat just about anything, but prefer it live to dead. But they will eat cut bait too.

My dad always fished with small blackfish and bergalls for big bass. He liked them better then eels. Take a sissor to the dorsal, get him near the bottom and hold on. This is a very producive method esp around eastern LI where I grew up. Try drifting one thru plum gut, and around the island and chances are very high you don't finish the drift without hooking up.

Bergalls are easy to catch and stay alive great in a live bait well. But get it down at the bottom, forget topwater herring-like surface splashing...getem down deep. I have never used them from shore but you certainly could.

P.S. there are big fish around, dispite what you read on this board that its time to hang up the rods. Take my word on it. Not everyone is mowing them like 1981 but they are here. This is the time of year you want to push yourself for the trophy fish. The water temp is 59 and the fat lady has not even warmed up yet. We nearly a month of fishing left, don't pack it in.


ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!


P.S. Glad to see the personal attack crap cease on this board. I almsot lost hope for this place.

jail bait !

Use eels this time of year first . Id second go with whole butterfish or bunker chuncks .

I don't think there is a size limit on a bergall. It is a perfectly good bail. Eels work great too and they cast better. I don't take anything away from the eel. Don't overlook the other stuff.

Anyone know the if you can use legally use tinker bluefish (8-10")?

There were little blues all over madaket harbor when I was in Nantucket in September and something was chasin' them right out of the water in the mornings. It was either big bass or big bluefish, I was thinkin' bass.

Anyways, I was thinkin' about livelining them if the pattern is still going next fall... is that legal?

I've geard of Tinker Mackerel, but this is the first time I've heard it applied to Bluefish.

But to answer your question ...YES!

Locally we call baby Bluefish "Snappers".
You are allowed to keep 10 by NY State law.
What you do with them is entirely your business.
In the late Summer/early Fall, a live one makes great Fluke bait.
I've never taken a Bass on one, but lots of BIG Bluefish.
I'm sure Bass eat them, they eat everything else!

Flounder

P.S. there are big fish around, dispite what you read on this board that its time to hang up the rods. Take my word on it. Not everyone is mowing them like 1981 but they are here. This is the time of year you want to push yourself for the trophy fish. The water temp is 59 and the fat lady has not even warmed up yet. We nearly a month of fishing left, don't pack it in.

I don't know what 81 was like (I was 13 ;) ) and I just moved down here so my T-day Rhody fishing has little to go on it but here's what we have not had:

No hurricanes (but we've had some weekend storms)
A prolonged cold snap
Cold Ocean temps

What we've had:

Alot of warm SW winds
Warmer air temps
Warm water on the oceanside
And I'm told some bait (haven't seen too much :( )
And still pushes of fish on the Cape and in Boston waters. There are still big fish to the north and east. If the play inshore, there is still a fair amount of big fish coming...

3 years ago when Bill got his 50, there was a 63 pounder caught 2 weeks later, in November, at the Ditch on a piece of chunk bait. The air & water temps were a lot colder than now and the fish were screaming though... Now, they're out there and it can happen...

Me - I'm more on a tight leash than wanting to hang up the rods. I'm still hoping to get out a few more times before spending some time occasionally chasing holdovers...

IT'S STILL WARM OUT THERE!!!

Case in point, right now, outside my window, It's blowing from SW to NW, moon tide with some cloud cover!!!! Go Fishing!!!!!! I'm aching here inside the house on this damn PC!!!!!! There's fish out there!!!! Conditions are near perfect!!!! Go Fishing before all the Jersey Guys get them :p !!!! Believe my INSTINCT :p ;) :rolleyes:

John looked at me funny when I said tinker blues also. I've always called the tiny ones tinkers.

The one pounders (year olds)... snappers.
1st of the year fish... racers.
Over 10lbs... slammers.
Over 15lbs... choppers.

All others... just blues.

Of course, I grew up in PA and only fished Nantucket once every couple years, so my information on saltwater fish could be tainted :)

It mostly comes from an uncle who I once thought knew alot about saltwater angling. Then I moved up here and started fishing the salt some and thought he knew a little about saltwater angling. Now, I've been doing it alot for the past 4 years and I realize that he doesn't know @#$% about Saltwater Angling!

Life is all about perspective and point of view.

But yeah, those "little" blues looked like perfect bait to me and something big was hackin' on 'em just about every morning.

Unfortunately, my uncle had the boat and he just didn't seem to believe me that we should have spent time over there. Fine. His boat. He's the captain.

Sept '02 I will be taking my own boat ;)

Live EEL's - all else secondary. Going to fish CT hard tonight, will let you guys know. Then again, who knows? May see you in RI tonight.

It mostly comes from an uncle who I once thought knew alot about saltwater angling. Then I moved up here and started fishing the salt some and thought he knew a little about saltwater angling. Now, I've been doing it alot for the past 4 years and I realize that he doesn't know @#$% about Saltwater Angling!

Yeh - and he nearly broke My Arra 1205 too....

since Bills letting some things out of the bag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

way back ---when pogie fishing was hot , yet at times you had to hunt long & far for bait, my partner and I would run to Hope Island catch tautog and then make our run to striper fish til you ran out of bait !!!!!!!!!

we use to keep a 8 ft holding car in apponaug cove for live bait, well I must have left a tautog in there in the fall, because when we beached it the next spring to clean it for buckies, yep there was this very much alive tautog//////////////////;)