For most anglers fishing for bones, a good chunk of the day is spent catching bait. The better you are at catching live shrimp and other small baitfish, the faster your day will be. Much time can also be saved by being efficient in your fishing methods. Here's a little advice on how to find good bait and use them as effectively as possible.
Choose Right Fishing Bait For Bonefish
Catching Bait
Good bait is key to catching fish, fortunately it can be found all around you if you know where to look. I have caught bonefish with shrimp drifting down from the mangroves above me, to grass shrimp in the flats below me, to mullet that have been swimming right next to my feet.
Of course not all places are created equal when it comes to good bait fishing. Mangroves are one of the best sources for small shrimp imitating lures like the MirrOlure Chug Bug. The key is finding where the mangroves end and the flats begin. The line between these two zones can vary greatly but you'll know you're there when your baits start getting smashed by small pinfish.
The next best place to find small shrimp are around schools of grunts. Grunts usually hang out in relatively shallow water so look for them on a shallow flat or inside the mangroves. Once you find the grunts, it's hard to miss them with your polarized sunglasses because their bodies reflect light making them very easy to spot.
Once you find the grunts, they will probably be in schools so cast away and let your live shrimp drift into the school hopefully catching enough pinfish for bait.
Using Bait Once You've Caught It
Some people think that the only way to catch bonefish with shrimp is by using a popping cork, but that's just not true. I have caught many more fish on a Carolina rig, drop shot or even still fishing than I ever have on a popping cork. The popping cork is a very effective tool in areas where bonefish are spooky and that's about it. If you're fishing in an area with little or no wave action, then popping corks can be extremely effective. In other areas however, they get hammered by bonefish too frequently to make them worth using.
Using a popping cork will get you bites because bonefish love shrimp, the problem is that many of these bites will be missed due to the cork's sporadic popping. If fishing mangroves or other areas where fish are spooky, then use a popping cork, but if you're in an area with decent visibility and not too much wave action I would advise against using them.
My favorite way to fish for bones is to wade in shallow water and use a Carolina rig or a drop shot, which can be fished very slowly. This method works great because you'll catch smaller bait fish too like grunts and pinfish which make better baits than the larger fish. For example if I'm standing waist deep on a shallow flat, I'll cast out about 30 feet and slowly drag my bait back to me. This approach will yield pinfish which are the best baits for bones in many areas.
Next time you plan on fishing for bonefish make sure you have enough live shrimp imitations because it's almost impossible to catch your own. Many of these baits will be wasted and eaten by predatory fish, so make sure to bring a lot of 5 inch MirrOlure Live Shrimp for optimal fishing.
