Best Bait

[Dclark2]

Don't know if any one will answer but what is your go to bait for the following fish:

FLUKE -

Seabass

Porgies

Triggers

[cool hand fluke]

Fluke, my preference is gulp, especially pink shine and white glow. 6 inch if Fishing ocean.

[hammer4reel]

Fluke -Gulp
Sea bass - Gibbs minnow
Trigger - squid or crab

[Dclark2]

Sea Bass for me seem to like fresh clams on the red hooks 3/0 - 4/0 with a red bead..................

Porgies seem to like the clams with gold hooks / orange bead .

[Gerry Zagorski]

FLUKE - Bucktail with gulp and a teaser 12 inches above the bucktail with gulp and a spearing

Seabass - They'll eat anything but calms on a high low rig and sometimes instead of a sinker the on the bottom I'll use a AVA jig

Porgies - Clams, squid and crabs, they all work

Triggers - Clams or crabs with a smaller hook

[Skolmann]

Fluke-Back Bays/Rivers-a single large killie. Surf-a 6” GULKP Jerk Shad. Ocean-Bucktail teaser both tipped with either a 5 or 6 inch GLUP. (NOTE-if I can secure live snappers, peanuts, mullet or spot I’ll fish them anywhere).

Sea Bass-Clams, fiddler crabs, epoxy style jigs and a plain A17/27.

Porgies-Clams

Triggerfish-Clams, crabs, shrimp.

[bulletbob]

Everyone keeps mentioning lures ,, This post is about best natural bait..

FLUKE- nothing in my opinion is better than a live or even fresh dead peanut bunker... Small fluke and large hit them readily, in ocean or bays..
Big Live Killies are close in the bays and rivers, not as good in the ocean.
A lot of guys will think I'm crazy but plain old squid strips still catch a LOT of fluke.. just not many big ones anymore for some reason.. If i just wanted action, did not care about keepers too much, squid strips or squid and spearing still catch huge numbers.. Mostly fish under 16 inches these days.. not sure why not many big fluke are caught on squid as was once the case, might be because no one uses it anymore...


Sea Bass- Clams are the standard, but squid strips are as good or better in my opinion, squid heads are even better, and peanuts are also terrific. Cut Mackerel, sea robin, and fresh strip bait from bergalls is also really good, and at times will outfish clams on larger fish, although clam and squid get more numbers typically..

Porgies,, again clams are standard, and cheap, but Porgies go mental over sandworms. Not used here in NJ as much, but they are in New England.. Too expensive but porgies love them.. small crabs[fiddlers] are also really good, but to me they are harder to hook ,and I prefer soft bait... Gerry mentioned squid for Porgy bait.. I have caught some on it, but never thought much of it as Porgy bait... YMMV...

Triggers... They seem to hit anything really, Clams, Crabs, Squid, Shrimp etc... When they are around and biting they don't seem to have a preference, but in my experience [which is limited on Triggers], I have seen more caught on clams than any other bait. Most likely because they are usually a welcome bycatch of guys fishing for porgies/sea bass.. they aren't typically targeted like lets say sea bass would be... Further south, Shrimp are the go to bait for trigger fish... bob

[hammer4reel]

Everyone keeps mentioning lures ,, This post is about best natural bait..

FLUKE- nothing in my opinion is better than a live or even fresh dead peanut bunker... Small fluke and large hit them readily, in ocean or bays..
Big Live Killies are close in the bays and rivers, not as good in the ocean.
A lot of guys will think I'm crazy but plain old squid strips still catch a LOT of fluke.. just not many big ones anymore for some reason.. If i just wanted action, did not care about keepers too much, squid strips or squid and spearing still catch huge numbers.. Mostly fish under 16 inches these days.. not sure why not many big fluke are caught on squid as was once the case, might be because no one uses it anymore...


Sea Bass- Clams are the standard, but squid strips are as good or better in my opinion, squid heads are even better, and peanuts are also terrific. Cut Mackerel, sea robin, and fresh strip bait from bergalls is also really good, and at times will outfish clams on larger fish, although clam and squid get more numbers typically..

Porgies,, again clams are standard, and cheap, but Porgies go mental over sandworms. Not used here in NJ as much, but they are in New England.. Too expensive but porgies love them.. small crabs[fiddlers] are also really good, but to me they are harder to hook ,and I prefer soft bait... Gerry mentioned squid for Porgy bait.. I have caught some on it, but never thought much of it as Porgy bait... YMMV...

Triggers... They seem to hit anything really, Clams, Crabs, Squid, Shrimp etc... When they are around and biting they don't seem to have a preference, but in my experience [which is limited on Triggers], I have seen more caught on clams than any other bait. Most likely because they are usually a welcome bycatch of guys fishing for porgies/sea bass.. they aren't typically targeted like lets say sea bass would be... Further south, Shrimp are the go to bait for trigger fish... bob

Thinking it been quite awhile since you fished here regular .
The price of crabs and clams is more than likely 5 times what you used to pay .
Sand worms are like dropping gold coins in the sea .
At this point shrimp is one if the cheapest baits , it works but many times really draws in a lot of unwanted species also .

.

[bulletbob]

Thinking it been quite awhile since you fished here regular .
The price of crabs and clams is more than likely 5 times what you used to pay .
Sand worms are like dropping gold coins in the sea .
At this point shrimp is one if the cheapest baits , it works but many times really draws in a lot of unwanted species also .

.

I know how expensive bait is, believe me.. I wasn't comparing prices, merely effectiveness as per my personal experience.. last I knew Sands were about $13 a dozen.. Killies out of sight, even lowly squid was about $8-9 for a little box last time i bought it... Thats the reason so many guys are using bait as little as possible these days, when they can get away with it.. I started buying squid at Shop rite as it was a lot cheaper than the bait shops.. Not sure thats still the case... bob

[Skolmann]

Everyone keeps mentioning lures ,, This post is about best natural bait..


No where in the original post do I see the word natural.

“Don't know if any one will answer but what is your go to bait for the following fish”.

In today’s fishing jargon, most people when they see/hear the word bait they think in terms of both natural & artifical-which by the responses is clearly evident.

[Dclark2]

All bait counts I like using jigs for the sea bass along with fresh clams if you can find them now.....

[bulletbob]

No where in the original post do I see the word natural.

“Don't know if any one will answer but what is your go to bait for the following fish”.

In today’s fishing jargon, most people when they see/hear the word bait they think in terms of both natural & artifical-which by the responses is clearly evident.

Yeah I won't argue semantics with you, but I started seeing the word "lure" being called "bait" by the southern guys on bass fishing shows starting in the 70's.. you know- "Crank Bait/Hard Bait/ Buzz Bait/Spinner Bait/Blade Bait/Plastic Bait etc etc.. never really subscribed to that sort of thing. Me personally,I call natural bait- bait. Cut Bait/Live Bait/Dead Bait/Stink Bait/Dough Bait/Strip Bait.. that sort of thing.. Artificial ""baits""??.. I call them lures, or jigs, or spoons, plugs, flies, streamers, poppers, topwaters.... Pretty simple really, but it works for me. I am not much involved with modern lexicon anyway.. Too old .