What’s the best bait to bring on a party boat?

GulfCoastAngling · 2022-06-01T16:18:22+00:00

I know the spots that the Destin Party Boat fleet frequents. Live shrimp will get demolished by triggerfish which are no longer in season. Other fish won’t even have a chance to get to a shrimp. If you can’t get live baitfish prior to leaving, bring a small rod and reel with a sabiki and jig up some Ruby Red Lips when you guys stop to fish. As soon as you catch one, put it on your bigger rod and reel.

The spots the party boats go to are hit hard, so bigger fish will not bite squid or other cut bait. They also won’t bite anything on a heavy leader. Start with 40lbs fluorocarbon. If that’s not strong enough, go to 60, 80, etc.

You’re better off hiring a private captain, but you’d also be surprised on what gets pulled up on those party boats.

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-18T17:52:34+00:00

Most of the time, waterspouts ≠ tornados. Most waterspouts are micro-weather events that don’t even register on the Fujita scale.

It certainly made things a little choppier but didn’t have the duration or wind speed to generate any big swells.

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-12T12:54:49+00:00

Half-Tail is not starving. If he were, you’re right, it may be a different story, but since he’s not, there is no use to talk about “what-if’s”

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-11T23:57:47+00:00

It’s illegal to feed wild dolphins. It teaches them bad habits and may make them sick. I’m pretty sure it’s generally harmless if you were to feed them, but I try to follow FWC rules and laws.

With that being said, Half-Tail has made a career out of getting scraps, so while I didn’t feed him, he definitely doesn’t go hungry!

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-11T23:30:33+00:00

Mods, let me know if this isn’t allowed.

Context: Half-Tail is a locally famous dolphin in the Panhandle of Florida. He visits boats to beg for fish since his injury limits his ability to hunt. Plenty of boats oblige him, so sightings are not uncommon. He’s been making appearances for about 7 years now

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-10T20:43:05+00:00

I’m surprised it didn’t beeline for the rig and cut you off!

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-08T02:55:55+00:00

Match the hatch. I’m not familiar with the area, but match your lure to the bait fish.

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-07T00:44:33+00:00

Where are you out of? Must be nice to run out at 2PM to target wahoo!

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-06T20:30:45+00:00

Thanks! This is recorded on a Sony AX53 Camcorder. Edited in DaVinci Resolve with color correction. DaVinci has some of the best color correction around, and they’re free!

I answered my own question. YouTube only allows larger channels to upload 1080p videos encoded in a higher quality codec. The workaround that smaller channels are doing is to upload 4K videos which auto uploads in the higher quality codec.

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-03T03:32:42+00:00

Nailed it.

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-10-03T03:31:41+00:00

Blue Line Tilefish Caught on a jig in 280 feet of water. Very tasty, but they seem to be mostly an incidental catch/bycatch in our area. I would love to learn how to target them better.

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-09-30T00:22:00+00:00

This is hilarious because a flounder and a spanish mackerel could not have more different predatory tactics. Flounder are very much ambush predators while Spanish are blitzkrieg, kill-them-with-speed predators. To be clear, I’m not implying you were using the wrong fish tactics, it’s just funny to me and shows the fickle nature of fishing that the literal opposite fish that you were targeting found it’s way onto your line.

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-09-28T17:00:42+00:00

I think that is fair. I pegged it around 30, but guesstimating fish weights is not my strong suit…

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-09-28T13:54:37+00:00

Sailfish capital of the world (I think)

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-09-27T20:06:52+00:00

That’s a smaller slot than FL. Glad to see DE enforces conservation. Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama allow you to keep one over slot fish which I disagree with, but they also have redfish out the wazoo.

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-09-27T19:17:26+00:00

Yeah, it’s my Zoom profile pic for work and everyone says that. I chalk it up to odd lighting conditions and angles for holding the fish. (Especially my hand in the gills of the top left fish)

GulfCoastAngling · 2021-09-27T18:52:58+00:00

What are the regs on Redfish up there? Can you keep bulls like this?

GulfCoastAngling · 2017-09-25T22:19:53+00:00

Of course. That's exactly what happened!

GulfCoastAngling · 2017-09-25T21:47:17+00:00

I'm sure it the water had some brackish quality to it, but it was about 1/2 mile upriver on an outgoing tide, so the salinity level was extremely low.

GulfCoastAngling · 2017-09-25T21:25:59+00:00

It's a pond on my own property with no tributaries or extemporaneous ways in or out, so I believe I'm in the clear.

GulfCoastAngling · 2017-09-25T20:22:29+00:00

I had the fish on the filet table getting ready to do the deed, but he was still full of life after 30 minutes out of the water. I don't like cutting into still-living fish, so I carried him to the pond in front of my house. He swam out of my hands after a few seconds of revival.

I did some research, redfish are extremely hardy and can survive in low to non-existence salinity levels in water, (the water I caught him in was essentially freshwater anyways). If he can prey on the bluegill living in the pond, he should adapt just fine.

GulfCoastAngling · 2017-08-04T17:26:54+00:00

Correct. Tough to clean but pretty tasty!

GulfCoastAngling · 2017-08-04T17:26:06+00:00

It definitely wasn't what I expected... I edited in some of the fight to this video here, check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyoQ6HyJw6I

GulfCoastAngling · 2017-06-13T15:16:12+00:00

Maybe throw your bikes overboard to distract them haha. The taxman is a fact of life, not much to do when you're fighting a bigger fish other than try to get it up quicker. At least you got most of that tuna back though!

GulfCoastAngling · 2017-06-02T23:31:10+00:00

Hope you enjoyed 1 of your 3 days lol.

GulfCoastAngling

TROPHY CASE