Live bait or artificial ? Louisiana inshore saltwater

I mostly use artificial and really only use live bait if I can catch it with a cast net.

I use a lot of Matrix Shad and Vudu/Marker 54 Shrimp. Hard top water baits and gold spoons as well.

I used to be mainly live but have switched to more artificial as well. Nothing worse than paying 50 cents a pop for shrimp only to burn through them getting on some trash fish

The price of live shrimp these days really is a turn off

How many shrimp are you buying?

I fish mostly artificial but if live are available I will grab $20 - $30 worth as a back up.

I know there are fancier artificial baits out there but I throw matrix shade and TKO shrimp for the most part, I keep a gold spoon handy also. Usually if they are biting on the more expensive, newer shrimp baits they are going to bite the TKO and shrimp colored matrix baits. I like to throw a mirrolure from my dock but I think its too big a PITA for boat fishing. Sometimes I will throw worms or crickets off my dock and have hit drum and trout of both of those too! We might have a good mix of salt and freshwater fish off our dock, just not huge numbers most of the time.

Shrimplets!

If any of you need some 3" swimbait bodies let me know. I have a big overage from a recent order. Dirt cheap. Electric Shad color is the best color I have ever used.

20% Tiger Droppings discount


ryan@lanierspots.com

I fish artificial 75% of the time however I have started bringing live bait with me on summertime trips as the water temperature elevates and the fish can get a little more resistant to the plastics. I have definitely had occurrences where the live bait makes a difference. On a trip this year they just wanted live croaker. About 5 boats began closing around us and apparently none of them had live bait as they weren’t catching all while creeping closer to us, like we had some kind of magic spot. We continued to catch until we had a limit. We tried throwing plastics but they wouldn’t touch em.

Non summer fishing I only use artificial.

I fish exclusively artificial.

Downsouth
Lil Jon
Sand eel
Sparkle beetle
Matrix shad
Corky
Catch 2000
She dog
Coastal brew darts

ETA:gulp for flounder

With rising bait cost and reduced creel limits, Im surprised more people arent cast netting. I mostly kayak fish, but a buddy from Mississippi coast got me into cast netting. I havent bought live shrimp in a couple of years. Even when we take boat out, if we run out we just find a spot, cast net a bit, and fill back up. Most of the time we can find some bait.

After reading through this thread it seems that y'all don't regularly cast net shrimp for bait? Just not available or not legal? If you can bait shrimp and cast net them it is a simple process, at least in South Carolina...its not allowed in Georgia. I know folks in SC who have baited the same areas so long that they can catch enough bait for a days fishing in a couple of tosses almost any day of the year. Its actually easier, where allowed, than finding and cast netting most bait fish....at least consistently easier. I would think that most of the water in Louisiana is lousy with bait shrimp and cast netting them for bait would not only be legal but pretty easy. Y'all do have a helluva seafood industry though so it wouldn't be surprising if they haven't lobbied against it....thats why we can't do it in Georgia.....not that it keeps anyone bent on doing so from doing so....baiting them is one thing but 8-10 good pancakes will usually produce enough shrimp and mud minnows to fish a long time in most of Georgia...I have never known anyone keeping 50 or so shrimp for bait to be cited for it, I am sure it happens but I have never known anyone who has had it happen to them....