For Carolina inshore saltwater anglers who like to use live bait there is no excuse for not knowing how to throw a cast net. Cast nets are invaluable for gathering baitfish, shrimp, and crabs and will pay for themselves many times over in value as you save money on live bait.
As local inshore saltwater anglers prepare for spring fishing and peruse through Charlotte’s boat shows, tackle expos, fishing seminars and the big tackle stores a quality cast net should be at the top of their list of equipment to purchase.
When buying a net beware of cheap imports that will not last less than a year. A solid well-made cast net from a top manufacture should last ten years or more. If you would rather know you are getting a quality net and have it shipped to you without store or boat show markup you can look at my recommended cast net page on Surf and Salt.
The best way to learn how to throw a net is to have someone teach you, although there are videos you can watch and many different ways it can be done. Nets are sold by radius, with a five foot net having a ten foot span.
A five or six foot net is a good one to use for inshore baits when after fish like flounder, although how skilled you are (and how tall) factors into the size of net you want to throw. Also, throwing and retrieving a lead-laden net repetitively into and out of the water takes a lot of energy, and the larger nets take more.
Depending on exactly where you go, you can catch mud minnows in your cast net, but you can also catch many other baits that might come through when mud minnows aren't producing. One of the best is the finger mullet, small jumping mullet that roam in big schools through the waterways and along the beaches during all the warm months and become a virtual horde in the early fall.
Every predator out there chases mullet, be it fish, crab, or bird, or all three at once. Finger mullet won't stay alive in freshwater like mud minnows will, but they are hardy on the hook and everything loves to eat them. They are great bait for flounder, specks, red drum, and all other game fish. If you are catching flounder, you will usually need to give the fish a little time to take the bait, as flounder often tend to chew on a mullet rather than gulping it down. Bluefish are famous for biting mullet in half, while specks will try to inhale the little guy.
Other small fish make good bait minnows. Small menhaden, or pogeys, are a delicate but much desired bait that predator fish love. Small pinfish, croakers, and spot are all great flounder bait, and they tend to take larger flounder, especially around structure that is where these types of little minnows congregate. A particular type of mud minnow, the striped killifish or tiger minnow, can be found in the creeks and is among the most frisky and hardy of minnows you can find. This striped minnow is one of the best flounder baits.
For info on how to hook your minnow for flounder check out my flounder fishing page.
Live shrimp are available in the creeks, though catching them in any numbers may require you to get onto the land or get your boat far enough into a creek at low tide to reach them. Shrimp congregate in the pools and channels of the tidal creeks at low tide; so that's when you want to be there. Usually cast netting for shrimp at mid-to-high tide will just be an exercise in frustration, so wait for low tide.
Live shrimp is the best of all baits for speckled trout, and all the other gamefish hit it. However, it is difficult to use due to the presence of bait-stealers like pinfish in the warmer months. In colder waters it can be effective fished under a float to keep it up in the water column, or the same effect can often be achieved by fishing it with very little weight in a moderate tidal flow. Usually, you will need a lot of shrimp for a few hours' fishing. When the pinfish are not thick, live shrimp are a very solid flounder and redfish bait.
For info on how to hook live shrimp for speckled trout check out my speckled trout page.
Some crabs caught in your net can be used as bait. Common blue crabs are regulated by size so small ones should be returned, but other kinds of crabs can be used as baits for sheepshead or black drum. Large blue crabs can be cut up as bait for these species, or red drum who hit blue crab chunks fished around docks or pilings.
Many of these baits can be frozen for later use. Shrimp can be saved, of course, and shrimp caught by you and quickly flash frozen will be better in November than the stuff you buy frozen on the pier. Although frozen finger mullet are not a top bait in the spring or summer by late fall they make a very good alternative when flounder fishing.
Cast nets are not prohibitively expensive these days, and with the price of bait like live shrimp factored in, there is no reason not to use one. Plus, it is fun getting to fish with bait you have gathered yourself. There is nothing like catching something off of something you have already caught.
For more information see my book Surf and Saltwater Fishing in the Carolinas
For the latest fishing reports and articles check out my blog A Dash of Salty
Comments