re: Live bait or artificial ? Louisiana inshore saltwater

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A lot of the marinas have live bait so most dont go through the effort. I did it all the time when I was growing up and still do it every now and then.

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Having done most of my inshore fishing in Florida and Georgia I mostly fish live baitfish. It is possible at times to buy live bait fish, especially mud minnows, but they do not, in my opinion, make as good a bait as one that was cast netted just an hour or so ago. I know for a certainty this is true of herring and shad on our lakes in Georgia. You can buy both near most COE lakes in Georgia and they will catch bait but the ones I cast net are easier to keep alive, are friskier and catch waaaayyyyyy more fish. Plus you do not have to keep 4 dozen of the fragile bastards alive....catch 25 or so, use them, change the water and go catch some more. Pin Fish, croakers, pogies and whit bait are all available commercially at times but in my experience they tend to be lethargic and fragile coming from a bait shop....especially white bait which are like crack to everything that swims and requires a live well packed full to wade through the trash fish and bait stealing bastards....

Very few people do it where I live but I flat line blue back herring and shad almost exclusively, baits that I make myself with a cast net....and I catch tons of fish compared to anyone tossing artificials and do better than people fishing bait they got at a bait shop....catching them and using them within minutes of catching them makes a lot of difference in my experience...