Originally Posted by 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
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