I use artificial almost exclusively now, but that's more out of laziness
than any proven fact. The really big "specks" are still being taken on
small live croaker but it's just cheap and easy to walk out on the pier and
fling plastic. Our fishing on Galveston has improved so much that for me,
it's just too easy to catch "pretty" nice fish rather than spend the effort
to chase after the big ones with live bait. I guess I'm getting complacent
in my old age but hell, I'd rather catch 22" reds than 30" reds anytime,
simply because they're better to eat. It's a kick to fight a big one now
and then tho'.
Quinton
"Gene Kearns" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 22:01:50 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 16:51:02 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:
I'm going to try to give up using "live" bait or fish chunks (bait that
was once live) and concentrate on using hard lures and plastics. I
started thinking about doing this last season, and started making the
transition towards the end of the year, going back to the lead-headed
jigs with plastic shrimp, and some of the other larger plastics that
served me so well in NE Florida. Last season, from August on, I
experimented in the Bay with the usual dead fish bait one buys at the
bait stores and with plastics, and the fish-caught count was about even
most days.
I might still use chum bags as an attractant, though. Yes, chum is
formerly live bait. But, then, the life of a fisherman isn't binary.
Interesting.
Around Narragansett and environs, you might say it's about 60/40 live
to artificial. If you want the monster stripers, live is the only way
to go, but last year, I hit a 40 inch striper on a salmon streamer
fished off the bottom as a teaser about three feet up from a 24 inch
tube. My biggest on live eel was 30 inches and a rather light fish at
that.
An awful lot of huge stripers here are caught off umbrella rigs with an
array of artificial lures. I've caught my biggest stripers here trolling
a big Mann's artificial plug.
Actually, there seems to be a trend on the TV "fishing shows" to use
more artificial bait. IF the goal is to catch fish and they'll bite
on surgical hose.... go for it...
--
Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Southport, NC.
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