How and where Do you find pilchards? Went out of St Marks last Sunday. Tried cast net for pinfish, but no luck. I put out a chum bag with white marsh chum. Also threw handfuls in the water. No luck. I was in 3-4' on grass bed. I ended up catching 1 @ time on sabiki w gulp bits. Took way too long.
Advice anyone?
Finding pilchards & pinfish
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Dockwilson
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Re: Finding pilchards & pinfish
For pinfish a trap is your best bet. It really needs to be put out in an area you know holds bait, and let soak for at least 12 hours. As far as chumming and cast netting pilchards or pinfish, I have found that hamburger buns mixed with sardines in soybean oil, and maybe some kozy kitten fish based cat food works well. I usually mix 1 can of sardines to 2 buns and usually mix 4 buns 2 cans of sardines and one small can of kozy kitten, if I can find it, if not, sardines do fine. If I'm using anything else for chm, it will be Purina Tropical Fish Starter. It's a brown powder I was tured on to when living in Ft. Myers. It's what all of the guides use. Just mix a little water with it and make a paste out of it, and chum away.
As far as where to find pilchards, I have never been able to find them in the St. Marks area, granted I haven't looked that hard. If I were to really try to find them over there, the first place I'd look is the area around the the sand bar at the bird rack in front of the lighthouse, if not there, I would try the shoal in front of Live Oak Island, it's actually kind of southeast of the island, but its a shallow area adjacent to deeper water and that's the kind of area I've always found them. I would get in about 3' of water in an area with sandy pot holes and anchor on a sandy hole. This helps you actually see the bait and keep as much grass out of the boat as possible. When you anchor make sure where you're chumming is actually carrying the chum away from the boat, not back under the boat. Also, when you're chumming, it's very very important to keep movement in the boat to a minimum, this keeps the boat from swaying back and forth, which causes a larger area of chum. The idea is to concentrate them in one small area. Once you're set up,broadcast some chum out there, not a lot. But enough to stink up the water and get the bait n the area coming to the smell. Go ahead and get your net ready before the bait shows up, once the bait shows, keep chumming n that same small area, and get them balled up. You'll usually get a mix of pinfish and small grunts with the pilchards, but if the pilchards are in the area, with a couple of throws of a good net you should get a couple of hundred baits. If there are only pinfish around you'll get maybe a couple of dozen per throw at best. The pinfish are VERY fast and will get out from under the net. I use an 8' Black Pearl with 1/4" mesh and 1.6 pounds of lead per foot. For such a small mesh it sinks quickly and I can get quite a few pinfish if the bait is balled up thick.
Hope this helps. I tried to cover everything, but getting live bait is tough at times and with experience you will figure out what works best for you.
As far as where to find pilchards, I have never been able to find them in the St. Marks area, granted I haven't looked that hard. If I were to really try to find them over there, the first place I'd look is the area around the the sand bar at the bird rack in front of the lighthouse, if not there, I would try the shoal in front of Live Oak Island, it's actually kind of southeast of the island, but its a shallow area adjacent to deeper water and that's the kind of area I've always found them. I would get in about 3' of water in an area with sandy pot holes and anchor on a sandy hole. This helps you actually see the bait and keep as much grass out of the boat as possible. When you anchor make sure where you're chumming is actually carrying the chum away from the boat, not back under the boat. Also, when you're chumming, it's very very important to keep movement in the boat to a minimum, this keeps the boat from swaying back and forth, which causes a larger area of chum. The idea is to concentrate them in one small area. Once you're set up,broadcast some chum out there, not a lot. But enough to stink up the water and get the bait n the area coming to the smell. Go ahead and get your net ready before the bait shows up, once the bait shows, keep chumming n that same small area, and get them balled up. You'll usually get a mix of pinfish and small grunts with the pilchards, but if the pilchards are in the area, with a couple of throws of a good net you should get a couple of hundred baits. If there are only pinfish around you'll get maybe a couple of dozen per throw at best. The pinfish are VERY fast and will get out from under the net. I use an 8' Black Pearl with 1/4" mesh and 1.6 pounds of lead per foot. For such a small mesh it sinks quickly and I can get quite a few pinfish if the bait is balled up thick.
Hope this helps. I tried to cover everything, but getting live bait is tough at times and with experience you will figure out what works best for you.
Last edited by Sun Daze on June 27th, 2013, 3:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Finding pilchards & pinfish
Good info there SD.
I wondered where you picked all that up until I read the FT.Myers deal. I have fished down there a good bit and it's all about the whitebaits. Around here it is rare to see a cast net being thrown, except on the back side of DI.
I wondered where you picked all that up until I read the FT.Myers deal. I have fished down there a good bit and it's all about the whitebaits. Around here it is rare to see a cast net being thrown, except on the back side of DI.
“It's hard to measure almost.....because almost doesn't matter”
― John Dutton
― John Dutton
Re: Finding pilchards & pinfish
rockyg wrote:Good info there SD.
I wondered where you picked all that up until I read the FT.Myers deal. I have fished down there a good bit and it's all about the whitebaits. Around here it is rare to see a cast net being thrown, except on the back side of DI.
Actually Rocky, I learned all of the from my moms ex-husband. He taught me most of that catching pilchards behind Dog Island. As for the purina fish food, I did pick that up down south, but the rest is local knowledge. Well kind of, moms ex is from Bradenton.
BTW, this is Jared, in case you didn't know. Haha.
Re: Finding pilchards & pinfish
Jared......so that's you.
We need to go fishing so you can teach me to throw that net.
We need to go fishing so you can teach me to throw that net.
“It's hard to measure almost.....because almost doesn't matter”
― John Dutton
― John Dutton
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ontiltttttt
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Re: Finding pilchards & pinfish
With all the rain that we've been having, the salinity in St Marks has dropped way down. However, I was able to get out on Monday and got a bunch of pins using the tried and true "salt cured shrimp" method that's been circling around the forum for a while. Just put a pea sized amount on a small hook and we filled the live well in no time; too bad the only thing that was around to eat 'em was a 4' Alligator Gar 
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Dockwilson
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Re: Finding pilchards & pinfish
Great info, thanks a lot!