Chandeleur Fishing w/ Live Bait

People use croaker during the summer months around dropoffs and underwater structure.

You can always bring a castnet

Any palm size baitfish would work well (croaker, pinfish, mullet, menhaden)

I wouldnt fool with shrimp. Plastic shrimp under a popping cork or freelined would work just as well probably

Croakers can be worth the hassle if that’s what you want to use, but I wouldn’t waste my time with any shrimp.

Artificial is the way to go in my opinion, especially if you are going to hop out the boat and wade the flats (which is how you get after the big ones, in my experience )

You are going to get hammered by trash fish with live shrimp, but if you can weed through them you will catch Trout, Reds, Flounder.

Artificial cuts way down on untargeted species

quote:

---

wouldnt fool with shrimp

---

Agreed. No need for live bait. If you're not catching on artificial, keep moving until you do.

quote:

---

would think just bringing a couple extra large lures to target bigger fish

---

Can certainly hang into some beast jacks and reds with plus size baits

Im not a big believer in throwing super large lures for trout. Mirrodine XL and 5” straight tail soft plastics are the upper end of what I may throw.

quote:

---

I get bringing shrimp in a bucket for an afternoon of fishing, but you’d need like 600 shrimp a person if you wanted shrimp for a 3 day trip.

---

This would be the biggest issue I think and would make it not worth it. Nothing worse than burning through live shrimp on a pile of trash fish

With nowhere to restock when that inevitably happens I would pass on the live shrimp

I was only thinking of getting 10 dozen or so just for me and maybe whoever ends up in the skiff with me. I will forgo the hassle and stick with artificials, just not popping corks and doa shrimp. I think you catch more fish that way but not the quality fish. I'll stick to coastal brews, z man ballerz, slick lures and I also have a plethora of marker 54, live target, nomad design and vudu shrimp.

No topwaters?

The only trip I made out there on a crew boat with the flat bottoms staying multiple nights, I brought a cast net and fished Carolina rigged with live bait. Pinfish were better than croakers. Reds, trout, and the biggest shark I’ve ever brought to the side of the boat. Hit in the surf, had to hop back into the flat to retrieve my line. 9 footer. Got a nice pic from a disposable underwater camera. When it came up on the side of that flat, I felt like I was in a kayak

Bone colored topwater and Norton pearl with chartreuse tail sand eel on a jighead.