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Can anybody give me an idea of the best way to pick up some live pin fish? I'm a little new to saltwater fishing down here. Can you buy them live or do you have to catch them while your out there?

It's very easy to catch them. If you want to catch a bunch, a pinfish trap is the way to go. But we usually just find a grassy area on the flats and fish with small hooks and cut bait such as squid, or even better fish bites. Chumming gets everything started faster and will usually get other species of bait fish close, such as pilchards and ballyhoo, so you can cast net them.

Thanks for the info Tom. I have been a faithful student of this site for a few months now and have learned a ton about fishing in this area. Can't wait to put all the knowledge to use this spring. Keep up the good work!

One more question. How do you hook the pin fish? Through the back, lip...?

Depends.

Drifting the flats with a trailing pinfish under a cork, through the lips from bottom to top.

Anchored, under a cork, behind the dorsal fin. This makes the fish swim away from the boat.

Anchored, free lined, just behind the anal fin. Makes the fish swim up and away from the boat.

OK, now I gotta ask. What is the best chum for Pins??

Canned cat food will work

Joel

Next time you get a white soft plastic torn up save it. When you want pin fish, rig a #6 or 8 hook on a light spinning rod with a split shot 8-12" above it. Cut a narrow sliver about 3/4" long from your white soft plastic and hook it one time through near one end. You won't have to cast this rig much at all. Just lower it to the top of the grass as you drift across a flat and jig it a little. The pins will come up out of the grass to grab it.

this weekend i just used a small hook w/ some old freezer brunt (scaples-spelled wrong i cant spell ) and caught all i needed and i got a glass minnow ... it was like 4 inches long i put it in the live well and even the pinfish were eatin him and i got some pig fish

We fish with chicken gizzards, not 2 messy and 1 usually lasts through the day. we buy a batch and freeze them about 2 in each thing, take one along, should last for awhile.

How to pick-up pinfish:
Try at a singles pinfish bar. Or, another way is, "very carefully", 'cause they ain't called pin-fish for nuttin'.
If I really had the hots for pinfish to use for bait, I'd use one of those BassPro, "Bait Sticks" which are what most people call a sabiki rod (they safely store the sabiki rig inside the rod and can be whipped-out at a moments notice, the rig tossed overboard and catch pinfish (in the grass flats) like crazy, the rig reeled into the rod and put away for the next time you need to pick-up pinfish without having to wait for the bar to open.

Add very small pieces of squid to your 6 hook sabaki rig, freeze you some chum made from catfood, hang over back of boat in chum bag, drifting is fine, shake occassionally, you usually can catch them 3 , 4 ,5 at a time , they will follow the boat up on the land if you keep the chum flowing, and be sure to put what your learning to use this fall, this fishing is awesome all over the area ( nov, dec ) fine months