JIM HUTCHINSON

One aspect of fishing that many anglers do not get involved in is catching their own bait.
Most people fish for recreation and the opportunity to spend some time in the great outdoors. Catching your own bait can be a continuance of both of the above.
In addition to the fun involved in actually gathering the bait, there are a couple of other tangible benefits. First, you will be cutting down on the expenses of buying bait that sometimes is always not available.
Secondly, you will be assured of fishing with the very freshest bait. You will be using bait that is either still alive or same day fresh.
In considering the freshness factor, it is important that a bait gatherer take proper care of any bait he catches. If the goal is to use live bait, then there must be something available to keep the bait alive and healthy. If freshness is desired, then some form of cooler stocked with ice should be on hand.
Perhaps the easiest bait to gather yourself is a supply of live minnows for flounder fishing. Live minnows have long been a preferred bait for fluke, and gathering them can be a relatively easy task. One or two minnow traps and a bait bucket to keep them in is all you really need.
The actual task of catching minnows involves baiting a trap and placing it in an out of the way location where minnows are likely to be present. The bait can be squid, old fish parts, bread, or even human food such as bacon. The trap can be dropped off a dock or bulkhead or placed in one of the streams or ditches in the marshes.
Minnows, as well as spearing and grass shrimp, also can be caught with a seine net. A seine is a long net with wooden poles for handles at each end. This is a two-person operation as two people pull the seine through the water catching everything in its path.
The minnows should be kept alive, while the spearing, which die immediately after leaving the water, should be placed on ice. It can be interesting to look at the various creatures that may be caught in the seine including small crabs, baby fish, jellyfish and even seahorses.
Most local fish eat fresh clams, and they make great bait. Although you need a license to harvest clams, it is an easy task to catch a couple of dozen clams for bait.
In the spring of the year, schools of mossbunker swim by just off the beaches of Long Beach Island. Often striped bass and large bluefish will be feeding on them. Savvy anglers use large treble hooks to snag the bunker and use the swimming fish as bait.
Late in the summer large schools of baby mossbunker, called peanut bunker, invade our bay waters. A cast net is an effective tool to quickly catch a large number of peanut bunker when a school is spotted swimming on the surface of the water. Peanut bunker can be difficult to keep alive, but they do make good late season bait for large fluke and weakfish.
Other anglers use clam chum and light fishing tackle in the late summer to catch small fish called spots. The spots are kept alive in pens in the water until the fall migration of striped bass. Live spots are called bass candy.
Virtually all fish love to eat grass shrimp. It can be difficult sometimes to find live grass shrimp for bait. A long-handled scoop net with very small mesh in addition to seining can be used to catch these small shrimp. Just run the net along pilings and bulkheads to catch a supply of shrimp for bait.
The one drawback to catching your own bait as opposed to purchasing it at a bait and tackle shop is that you lose the opportunity to ask questions about where the best fishing is. However, if you know where you will be fishing, catching your own bait only adds to the enjoyment of fishing.

Courtesy of App.com