Drifting Easy By Sue Foster

            “What kind of bait should I use?” is probably the most asked 
question in a bait and tackle store. If you have never salt water fished 
before, the list of bait can seem as confusing as a wall full of rigs!

            Many people want to use “live bait.” Live bait available in our 
area are live minnows, bloodworms, night crawlers, live eels, green crabs, 
sand crabs, live spot, alewives and live finger mullet. Some live bait can 
be bought in a tackle store while some must be acquired by catching it 
yourself.

            Live minnows are readily available at most tackle stores and are 
easy to keep alive for a day.  They are great for flounder, but will also 
feed bluefish, stripers, and trout. To keep minnows alive for the day, buy a 
couple dozen and keep them in a bucket of salt water. If they start to swim 
to the surface pour out the water and put in some fresh salt water.  To keep 
them alive overnight, you need to buy a yellow “flow troll” bucket and keep 
them in the water. If you don’t have access to water overnight, you could 
also buy a battery-operated aerator to keep the oxygen flowing in a regular 
bucket. In the summer, it is worth buying an insulated bucket and throw in a 
couple ice cubes once in a while. This will help keep your minnows alive. 
Cool minnows are happy minnows!

            You can also keep minnows in a cooler tray within a cooler. 
Place ice in your cooler as usual.  Wet a paper towel and lay it on the 
bottom of the cooler tray. Put a layer of minnows on it. Then wet a paper 
towel and lay it over the minnows to keep them damp. They will also live 
overnight this way, as long as you do not put over one layer of minnows in 
the tray. Hint:  Don’t put the tray in the refrigerator. It is too cold.

            “How do you hook live minnows?”  Hook the live minnows under the 
chin and up through both lips. You can also add a strip of squid to the same 
hook. If you do this, cut the squid into an attractive tapered strip 1 ½ to 
2 inches long and half an inch to a quarter inch wide. You can also buy the 
pre-cut squid available at most tackle stores.  When flounder fishing, 
always put the squid on with the minnow if you are using squid.  Hint: You 
do not have to use squid with your minnow. Minnows alone are quite effective 
for flounder. But if you want to catch other fish such as croaker, you want 
to use the squid.

            “I want to catch flounder, but don’t want to use live bait!”

            Frozen shiners are the next best bet. In fact, some days they 
are better. To use a frozen shiner, simply hook it through the eyes and then 
add a strip of squid to the same hook if you like. If you don’t use squid, 
you can put two shiners on a hook. (Don’t do this with live minnows.)  Lots 
of fish like frozen shiners besides flounder. Sea bass, bluefish, trout, and 
croaker all take shiners. When using live minnows or shiners, use a size #2 
to size #2/0 wide gap style hook.

            Worms! Almost any fish will take a worm. If you are fishing for 
Norfolk spot you almost have to use some kind of worm. If you just want to 
take the kids out on a pier in North Ocean City or in the lagoon behind your 
place, you need to use worms.

            Bloodworms are the best, but yes, they are very expensive. And 
sometimes, they are not always available. Ask the clerk what day the 
delivery is if the tackle store is out and be sure to keep an extra dozen in 
the refrigerator if you want to have bloodworms for later. Bloodworms come 
in a bag with green grass. If you keep the bag in your refrigerator and turn 
the bag over 2 or 3 times a day, the worms will live longer. You can also 
put the plastic bag inside a brown bag and they will live even longer. The 
colder the refrigerator, the longer they will live.

            When you go out to the pier or to the surf (bloodworms are very 
good on the surf as well) put the worms in a freezer lip lock bag and place 
them in a cooler. Do not put the worms directly on the ice, but in a cooler 
tray. If you just have a small cooler and can’t do this, put the plastic bag 
of worms inside a zip-lock, and then put the zip-lock inside a brown bag. 
This sounds like a lot of trouble, but if the bloodworms get fresh water 
from the ice melting on them, they will die.  (If you are fishing for one 
afternoon and know you aren’t saving the bait for another day, don’t worry 
about all this.)

            Use worms on small hooks in the summertime. Size #8 or #6 is the 
hook size of choice when using worms. If you are fishing in the surf, buy a 
“kingfish rig” that is made with size number 6 hooks.

            There a couple kinds of night crawlers available that will also 
work for spot and other fish. Even a flounder will take a night crawler. The 
Canadian night crawlers are big fat earthworms that will work for spot and 
other fish such as croaker, sea robins, and little sea bass.  For the little 
fish, you need to cut them into pieces and thread them on the hook. For 
larger fish, you can use them whole.  There’s not much you need to do to 
keep Canadian night crawlers alive except to keep them cool.  Since night 
crawlers are really a fresh-water worm they will “wash out” quickly, so you 
need to change your bait often if the fish aren’t cooperating. The good news 
is that they are relatively inexpensive.

            There is a new worm around this year called a Dutch night 
crawler. These are a little redder than a regular night crawler and are much 
smaller. You need to thread a whole worm on the hook. These are imported 
from overseas and are sent to us from North Carolina where bloodworms are 
very hard to get in the summer. They seem to work fine for spot, though they 
are not as bloody. They are also relatively inexpensive. They seem to live 
in the cup with or without refrigeration. The only thing you should not do 
is put half a worm back in the cup as if you don’t use it, it will die and 
mold.

            “Who would want to fish with a live eel? Yuck!”

             A lot of fishermen fish with live eels for stripers. You keep 
eels alive with or without water exactly like you would live minnows. Like 
minnows, if you put a lot of eels in a small amount of water with no 
aeration, they will run out of oxygen and die. You need to change the water 
occasionally, or simply keep them cool and damp in a cooler.   They live 
just fine this way.

             Live eels are used mostly at the inlets and on the Route 50 
Bridge at night.  You don’t want to bother trying to use a live eel unless 
you are fishing the deep swift waters near the inlets.  They are a popular 
bait to use a night. The best way to hook a live eel is to take the #4/0 to 
#5/0 Octopus or circle hook under the bottom lip and out through the eye 
socket.  You want to use a single leadered hook set up on an egg sinker rig 
or a fish finder rig. (Don’t try to fish two eels at the same time on a top 
and bottom rig.)  If you are fishing at night at the inlet or Bridge and the 
tide is slacking, you can actually fish with no weight at all. Cast the eel 
up current and when you feel it hit the bottom jerk it up just a little so 
it doesn’t get you in a snag.  As the tide increases, add a 1-ounce egg 
sinker to your rig. When the tide increases, go to a 1 and a half.  When you 
have to go to a 3-ounce, it’s usually time to go home or switch to a lure.

            Next week, more on live bait…. 

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