The Perfect Bait
 

The skittish Sardine, the frantic Mak, or fluttering Candy.

What bait gets your juices flowing, click, click, click the line is running anytime now - Wait for it -Wait for it-Wait for it.

:grouphug: Just wondering?

They are all perfect baits depending on what you are fishing for and when.

Squid are not a real reliable bait source, usually. I like deens the most but they do not last near as long on a hook as a green mack. Deens are also more fragile in the bait tank. Depending on your bait tank you can fish longer with macks than deens. Although they haven't been around lately, bonito and cuda can maul your deens about as fast as you can get them in the water. They will usually leave larger macks alone so you can actually target YT. Mike

I haven't seen much of a difference with the three

caught a WSB on a live squid
caught two wsb on fresh dead squid
caught halibut on sardines (dead and live)
caught halibut on squid (dead and live)
caught halibut on live chovies
never caught anything on a mak

I've used big greenbacks for bait, and caught nothing. They are huge in Newport harbor, I've caught smaller in la jolla.

I just I stalled my fish finder, hopefully now I can find the smaller guys

I had a 1lb. mak on as a bait of last resort only to be rewarded with a 9lb. yellowtail.

I personally like small macks for bait, next would be sardines. I have caught a WSB on a trolled mack and have been oicked up several times trolling one of those, most likely by T's. I catch most all of my halibut on sadines. I have yet to catch anything on dead squid, and I would use live squid but I dont have the know how to find them... yet.

in Punta Abreojos I had one bait left in the baittank.....a freakin monster greenback. I sent it out thinking big bait, big fish.....but I usually wouldn't choose this big of a fish for bait. Within a few minutes I was hooked into a 30lb YT (my biggest to date)...so now I will send them back without a second thought.......squid is great when it is around and I haven't put much effort into fishing with the sardines.

Abreojos is a special place, would love to get back down there.

x2

Amazing place for sure! Very narrow fishing window out on the reefs when we were there due to the howling offshore winds...but then there was the estuary which was pretty well protected from the wind.

Most of the 30lb.+ yellow tail are caught off jigs. Just wondering if anyone has caught a wsb or yellow tail off a 1lbs. sardine.