From shore:

Theyre out a good distance so you make a big cast and hook one. Ok now you're in the game. There's sooooooo much bait you dont get touched what methods do you employ to make your bait stand out?

You swim your pogie for 2 hours or so and no pickups, again the bait is too thick? All the while you're hearing and watching fish pick off the edges of the school....

The only thing I could come up with is to start chunking them if the live ones arent being taken? :vamp::vamp::vamp:

Anyone care to chime in??

Go somewhere else and throw eels

chum so they come closer

Cut the pectoral fins off, cast the bait out and let it squirm around heplessly, or just put a big gash in it and let it flip haplessly on the bottom near the school, as the larger bass are likely to be shadowing the school to pick off straglers near the bottom ...

chunks can work, also add some weight so he swims deeper

never been in that situation but I'd try pulling the pogie a few yards outside the school, make him stand out more.

I'm assuming that your snagging and letting them swim - too heavy to cast. If you are bringing them in and recasting, it'd try clipping its tail and adding weight to get it down deeper - again separating from the masses and making it stand out.

also, if you are snagging and letting them swim - the bass may see the snag hook. when there's that much bait around they're not in a hurry and can really check out the bait and be selective.

obviously the bass are out deeper feeding at the edges of the school

get a yak, setup a sandspike, take chunks out to the fishy water past where you can't cast, drop bait down and your buddy onshore will be hooked up before you can get back to shore.:humpty:

use a snagging hook with enough weight to make the pogie drop below the school as it tries to swim away...pow.

call me so I can come down and analyze the situation first hand....

Clip fins and add weight

Hop on your boat and Yo-Yo a fresh one.

Hop on your boat and Yo-Yo a fresh one.:humpty:

Yo Yo A fresh one >>>>>>>> WRONG :conf:

i had this same problem while vacationing on the cape this past june. found schools of pogies every night and couldn't manage one legal fish under them. not one!

I would send ya a pm but ur full.

From shore:

Theyre out a good distance so you make a big cast and hook one. Ok now you're in the game. There's sooooooo much bait you dont get touched what methods do you employ to make your bait stand out?

You swim your pogie for 2 hours or so and no pickups, again the bait is too thick? All the while you're hearing and watching fish pick off the edges of the school....

The only thing I could come up with is to start chunking them if the live ones arent being taken? :vamp::vamp::vamp:

Anyone care to chime in??

I'll chime in.....uuhhh nevermind...Ive never had that problem....and not a bad problem to try and figure out vic :bshake:

Give him a couple of hard twitches from time to time (hopefully you've got him hooked good)...and be PATIENT!!! The twitches will open the wound more and add to the injury, force more blood/scent out of the wound and slow him down. When the school of baitfish is that much larger than the school of predators, the predator is much more selective. Also with a smaller school of predators there's much less competition so they take their t-i-m-e, you said they were " picking them off "...not blitzing right? ;)....be patient.


You said you had to "make a big cast"....so there's definately NO chance of re-rigging/hooking and casting him back out to the school to live-line. If you really want to re-rig, cut yourself off a sweet piece-a-bunka >>6oz (?), whatever you can get the most distance with (no lead to counter the cast), fresh bunker WILL sink and be PATIENT.

Thanks for all the info guys. Buddy had one fish run him off last night :wall: :wall: :wall: can you say FREIGHT TRAIN!!!!!!:wall: :wall: :wall: :wall:

Except for the distance issue, some sort of injury to the bait would help. Years ago, when I had the boat in Salem, bass would come into the harborage chasing bait up against the boats. We used to catch one and attach a big bobber. This slowed the critter down just enough to make him "stand-out" in the crowd.

use a snagging hook with enough weight to make the pogie drop below the school as it tries to swim away...pow.

BINGO!!!:kewl:

poor pogies.

paul & eben we've been using weighted trebles 4 and 5 oz. I got the answer i was looking for though thanks NIB. :kewl:

put on a big pencil if there not touchin the real stuff

had this happen last spring down here - guys where snagging and dropping and nada - I threw the biggest pencil I have and whamo.

Hop on your boat and Yo-Yo a fresh one.

i second that idea.

thanks guys but cant yoyo effectively no boat cant get vertical on them.

snag one and pull it right to the surface so its tail is pounding the water...... BAMMM!!

Because of the time of night these fish dont seem to be feeding actively its like they're just staging there and keeping an eye on the food. Every once in awhile its like someone dropped a cooler full of cinder blocks though. :hee:

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ two months later:fishslap: