Pinfish question
Hi all. Wanted to ask a question about pinfish. I catch them quite often in the Dania Cutoff Canal. When I catch them, what is the best way to use them as bait for bigger fish in this canal?
Thoughts and comments would be appreciated. Thanks!!!!
Thoughts and comments would be appreciated. Thanks!!!!
Replies
baitfish will.. but if you are going to freeline then you need to hold the rod and feel and feed your bait line... if you fish rocky areas a trick to do is cut off
his fins this way if he gets into the rocks you can still pull him out (I have done this plenty of times and it works)... plus you also put scent into the water..
you will still get snag it part of the game, but once you get better at feeling them and watching how he is swimming .. you will snag a lot less... I hardly
snag any now adays
A simple "Fishfinder rig" has always work for me.. it keeps the pinfish in one spot and this way you can soak him and leave your rod in a holder...
Pinfish do work just like any other baitfish... good thing about them is they can take a beating and Everything Inshore eats them... now size is another matter,
remember if you freeline to use the smallest hook possible...
Do yourself a favor and learn to fish a pinfish. In my opinion, they are right up there with ballyhoo, pilchards, etc. as far as being the most versatile bait you can fish. BIG trout love them, and a hungry schooling redfish will pancake them with reckless abandon. If you are lucky enough to fish them offshore, oh that's an even bigger treat!
they most definently eat em.. i caught a large red on a topwater on the flats on light tackle.. long fight.. and when i got him up he was regurgitating pinfish.. and his belly was so swole up he must have had a ton in there.. this was a couple springs ago when the pinfish just start to increase in numbers.. and the two he puked up were big ones..
Really?
Big trout love pinfish, and as mentioned, reds will eat them too.
The spines on the pinfish are the confidence remover for me....but I'll try butterflied pinfish on the beach sometime
I fish off our 2 docks in the Dania Cutoff Canal. What size leader should I have? 20 lb.? 30 lb?
Dania Cutoff Canal which is near Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale
katwoman you can scale your leaders to the size of bait you are using. 20ish for shrimp, 30 for pins or sardines, 40+ for bigger mullet, etc. Good luck!
Shut Up and Fish
"Common sense isn't as common as commonly thought." Me
"The unprepared man goes into the game prepared to lose." Me
What??? LOL.... if you do it enough you wont have to worry about those spines... What do you do if you catch a Hardhead?
Pinfish of any size is a good bait> live or dead
send one as far out from the beach as you can, live, freelined on a 4/0 circle ... if the water is warm, its snook and tarpon candy, if they happen to be cruising the beach
As folks have stated, the dead ones are good too. One great thing about pinners is that they will say alive for a good while. I keep them in the bait well on the boat wight just the bubbler running and they last 4 or 5 days. Good luck. have fun