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In the early or late hours of the day when boating
traffic is at a minimum, the live fish worked near the surface are a killer
for big weakfish and stripers. There are very few
times that you can purchase these fish . Normally there is not enough to
go around. Spot is found from Connecticut to the Gulf, but is most common
to South Jersey. Filet of spot can be used wherever squid would be used.
Just slab the fish out and then cut preferred sizes from the fillets. Don't
use dead fish. Clean live fish as you go and keep the unused pieces as
cold as possible. Don't try to freeze the little critters, it just doesn't
seem to work nearly as well as other frozen baits.
The spots seem to show up here in the creeks and lagoons of the Great
Bay area sometime in early August. Most times they can be caught
using any bait, but bloodworms definitely out-fish all other baits. Spot
can be kept in a floating box for one or two days, but after that they
start to get beat up by the side of the box. They can be kept in a soft
pen similar to that used for herring, but that takes a little extra expense
that most recreational anglers don't want to go through. But when the time
is right don't complain because the other guy caught all the fish. There
is no better bait at certain times for both surf and boat fisherman. Hope
this little article hit the SPOT.
- Catch NOW (August-September) to have during the Sept.-Dec. Striper Season
- Bait: blood worms catch spot best. Pieces of regular/shedder crab and shrimp work great too. ..Got them coming fast and furious, bag of worms blood worm work too, and you can catch multiples on the fake bait before they strip the hook.
- Spots are extremely hearty; they will live FOREVER in a maintained pen.
- Maintenance: clean screens, every day check for casualties and remove. There is a mortality rate; just is. Once spots have been in captivity for ten days, it's extremely low.
- WARNING Spots can overfed and choke themselves to death. Small amounts of clam bits once in awhile (every few days). This is not even necessary if there are grass shrimp in the area that can get through the screen.
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