Herring

[Striper1]

I fished with live bait anytime I can find it ( herring sometimes macks).

What are you folks using most of the time live bait or plugs,jigs and that stuff

I may do some topwater pluging but for me most of my time is spent with live bait.

If you are into live bait how are you getting them sabiki or net ?

BTW Do we have ice yet on the cape ?

[AnthonyN]

Well I love using plugs also i consider eels to be a plug in this. So i will go with plugs even though some of my biggest fish have come off bait. I catch far more fish with plugs than bait but my fish tend to be bigger fishing bait.

[TheSpecialist]

I love herring, , I usually net mine in Watertown. You will find me this spring at Nut Island with a tank full.

[JohnR]

I'd really have to add another choice on the poll. I use what I think is best or what I want to use at a particular time. I love live-linning macs or buckey's but at times I like to use plugs or live eels - kinda crossing the world of bait & plug

Most of the time? Eels...

[East Tide]

Herring- 5%

Eels- 10%

Eel skin jigs- 75%

Plugs- 5%

Other Jigs- 5%

-If herring were around longer and I didn't have to drive 45 min in the opposite direction (of the canal) to get them they would be a higher %.
-Eels catch more consistent 36-43" fish but the jigs did better last year and were more consitent with fish of all sizes, plus some bigger ones.
-LAST SEASON I barely touched my breaking tide plug selection because the topwater was so non-existent and small.
-I caught a couple nice fish on bucktails this fall in the afternoon, but that was because I was in the area, had a window and got lucky. Didn't use them becuase I barely fished daylight last season, why use a bucktail when you've got skins?

East Tide

[JohnR]

The best thing is really using what's best at that particular time. Odds are you'll do better with live mackeral than a mackeral swimmer but you are using them when the macs are around. Same goes for herring or menhaden. The few people that manage to keep herring alive well into July in swiming pools and such do really well when the bait has moved on . Many people plugging are using plugs that somewhat represent the live bait at the time...


(I haven't had my coffee yet, I appologize if I make no sense )

Of course, eels work just about all night all season long

BTW - I use a Christmas Tree / Sabiki Rig for macks and I net Herring at the runs - legally

[chris L]

Ill use anything to catch fish ! it depends where Im fishing and my mood . Mostly I use live eels followed by plugs . I jig and plug the ditch . I plug and eel open beaches . I eel in breachways mostly and I chunk macs and bunker in Ct waters . I fly fish and use lures on trout . also occationally Ill use worms with the kids . I also Ice fish with large suckers and small minnows and jigs .

[redcrbbr]

chunk maybe 60% of the time
eels dead or alive(prefer live) 35% of the time
plug or lures when i see em or have nothing else 5%
live bait is the way to go, just hard to come by in my neck of the woods.

[Slipknot]

Do werms count as bait?

Hey, what's the matter? doesn't anyone want to break the 2-2 tie?

[Bob Senior]

I go fishing before dawn, from March through December, or until there don't seem to be any fish around. About half the time I'll go out at sunset too.

I use plugs, jigs, cokahoes, sluggos most of the time, usually with teasers, but live line when I have something live: herring in spring, pogies, macks, baby blues, shad, small dogs, cats, tropical fish, and eels at other times. I get eels with my own pots (buy them when pots are empty the evening before), herring at the South County runs, everything else with darts, jigs, Sabiki rigs, cast net, etc.

Most favoritist: surface plugging for cows off Matunuck, Narragansett, Scarborough, Pt. Jude, East Matunuck, southern beaches, on balmy summer-fall mornings/evenings.

[jettyjockey18]

give me a basket of live pogies any day of the week...oh wait a minute, i fish mass, and i haven't livelined a pogy in over 5 years

i love candy in early to mid may but by the end of may, early june i'm sick of them...putting the livewell in and out of the truck, grabbing the nets, waders, boots, buckets, rods, basket...gets to be kindof a pain...i've tried different ways of keeping some alive into june with very limited results...i know some guys have got systems worked out to let them do this but i was never interested in dropping big dollars of lots of time on it...

i used to like eels, til i discovered sluggos...

[Crafty Angler]

As strictly a shore guy, I'm a die-hard plugger but I always have my ace in the hole with me which is a soft lunch cooler with a half a dozen live eels in it. I never leave home without 'em.

This past year I found eels were the only thing they'd hit consistently after going thru my bag and giving all of the old reliables a good shot at it. But I always start with plugs.

I rarely fish chunks, although I'd be the first one to tell ya that fresh chunks - after live-lining - are gonna drop the biggest fish. I just can't make myself sit on a bucket of pogies that long and though I may fish bait once or twice a year, I didn't fish bait at all this past season. It's usually a desperation move for me to pull out of a batting slump.

Joe and Bobby at Edwards always do a major double take if I go into the shop for pogies instead of plugs.

This coming year? I've got some eel-skin jigs and plugs that are finally gonna get a work-out, I'd love to live-line herring but my schedule at that time of year makes it tough for me to catch and maintain 'em. The missus is already pretty good about my eel-grooming and the patio live-well.

Oh yeah, and this coming year I'm gonna try flyfishing - picked up a custom Loomis 10 wt. and an old Battenkill for a starter set-up - plus 2 dozen flies I won, so I guess I'm good to go.

It's gonna be interesting, being a complete rookie at something on the backside of the half-century mark.

[Clammer]

Chris, I have 500 hundred xtra large mummies, {alive } your more than wecome to some ,if the ice comes, anyone else that ice fishes and cann.t get shiners ,or this price is too high let me know / they are just swimming around in holding pots ////

[mikecc]

sence no one else answered this in their posts. there is no ice on the cape .

[JohnR]

My poll answer - Both...

[Got Stripers]

If available, I'd take a large bunker over any live bait and I think the big stripers would too. The problem is there haven't been any adults in Mass Bay for years, at least not in any numbers that would make it worth chasing them for bait. Next in line for me would be macs and my best day last year for large was on dead tinker macs. Personally, I wouldn't and haven't wasted the time necessary to even try live herring. I've almost always got a live eel dragging during the pre-dawn hours, but I have to say that live eels last year produced squat. I'm definately going to fish down south a little earlier for stripers and blues with the live hickory shad. Those fish not only give you a nice fight on the freshwater gear, but then you can slap them on a larger outfit and expect some more fun.

[bloocrab]

...My first choice would be live Pogies~ Second live Scup ~ Third live Eels~4th live Mackerel.......then live Herring ......my order changes from year to year, so don't hold me to it

...do I chunk ? yes, didn't chunk much last year but I chunk...its usually the pole sitting to the left/right of me...with the drag adjusted properly...I will usually chunk when I plan to stay in one spot for a length of time.....which didn't happen much last stripa semister ....I like to walk, sorry JohnR... even though I have a boater'r body too....


...hey GS, I often fart around with the Hickories in Pt. Judes pond...and they're huge.....around 18" What a battle on light tackle .... What size Shad are you catching/using?...Due to the size of the Shad I've caught, I ruled them out as far as livelining...always felt they were too big ?..I've chunked them with no results, cept the occasional cousin crab...gettin a free bee....

[jettyjockey18]

hickory shad too big??...i used to think so too til i caught a 30" plymouth bass on a 16" hick...my biggest bass to date (29lb) took a hick even bigger than that...don't underestimate what a bass will eat, and the big bait will keep the schoolies away...

[Canalratt1]

Clammer did you say CHUBS! I can never get the big ones any more, they work great on the Cape when there is ice! Oh the Poll, depends I have been getting away from bait fishing but if I want fish when the bite is slow give me a cooler of pogies or macs and I set up a chum line in the Ditch that will always get me some action!

[Clammer]

BOTH!!!!



Canal, I:ve got all you need ,let me know if you need some
P>S> gonna feed them some flounder this afternoon !!!!