We think Green Crabs work best this time of year.

What do YOU think?

Same as you. Lots of people swear by sand fleas or clam though. Some people have also been using Gulp! baits with success the last couple years.

I've never used sand fleas before...what are those?

I believe that this is it. the "mole crab" http://www.assateague.com/mole-cr.html

By blackfish, do you mean black drum, if so I have caught quite a few this time of year off of fresh shrimp or sand fleas ( we call them sand fiddlers)

Any plastic with garlic on it and chicken necks work very well. I'm asumeing you are talking about a Bowfin.

Blackfish a.k.a. Tautog or just Tog. Saltwater species that lives on wrecks and obstructions in the atlantic. Hard fighters that taste pretty darn good.

Yeah you're right Slomoe sand flea/mole crab are the same thing.

TOGS baby!!! Fat, ugly and yummy!!

Green crabs are ALWAYS a good bet.  What we do is we fill a small onion bag with them and smash them on the rocks a few times.  Drop that down on a rockpile (lighthouses are great for these) and jiggle it every now and then for 10 minutes or so.  Now drop down a livey and WHAM!

Chum bag/chum pots are a huge benefit for catching Togs.  Here in RI, we have the port of Providence where tankers come in to dispense their bounty and fill up[ again.  The wall these boats dock against is over 100 ft deep but the Togs hug the wall for some weird reason.  So,...mark them on your graph and make note of the depth they are at.  Now slide that bag down the side of the wall to that depth and you'll be there for the rest of that tide, catching CONSTANTLY.

So yea,...green crabs,...they're alright  ;D

*If having a difficult time finding the crabs, use clams.  Prefferably the big chowder cannonball type.  Smash these a little better as the insides are mostly muscle. (yes, black muscles work too,lol)

Well, there you have it! Thanks guys! I never thought about using actual shrimp before. Seems sort of mean. No?

Not at all, in the south, they use the same kind of shrimp that we pay $8/lb for in the super market,lol.  Up here, we use grass shrimp for schoolie stripers in the spring.

I do not think we have Tautogs this far down in SE North Carolina. And LBH is right we do use Shrimp for bait around here. I make the analogy that we pay $6 to $7 for a pound of shrimp to go catch a $2 Spot or a Croaker.

We have togs, you just have to get offshore to a deep ledge to catch them. AHH saltwater fishing, only two more months til bluefin are in, hopefully I can fill my wallet this year.

blackfish taste good?? those things are ugly...!

Jeremy- where do you fish out of? (Giants)

We usually go out from Morehead city NC, there was a pretty good run last year. It just took a day or so to figure them out.