To rake or not to rake...

Thanks streakdome. Looked for them around here, but sadly only found the kind for catfish. May have to pick some up once I get there.

I bought some Fishbites on the internet before driving down, because one thing I hate having to scramble to the store to get when I arrive is bait. The Fishbites stuff doesn't seem to go bad at all unless you get water in the package and let it soak. I think I bought white and pink varieties on Amazon. Make sure that you have something to cut it with, because it's really tough. I keep a small pair of scissors for line cutting in my tackle box, and that worked great.

This last trip in mid-June, I would catch sand fleas by hand or with a little dip net (not as good as a rake, since it doesn't get down in the sand much, but it's still somewhat effective at grabbing them right where the waves roll at the beach). I bought a 2-hook "pompano rig" at J&M tackle, and baited each hook with a piece of Fishbites and whatever bait I could catch. Sometimes sand fleas, sometimes whatever minnows were unlucky enough to land in my net. Using a 2 ounce pyramid sinker and casting out around the first sandbar (not on top of it, but on the front or back side).

I never caught a single pompano, but we did catch a couple of catfish, a ladyfish, and a pretty nice redfish (a little over 4 lbs by my scale). The catfish were on squid & fishbites, the ladyfish was on a minnow, and the redfish was on sand flea & fishbites.

J&M has a good selection of Fishbites, not every style, but a good enough selection. I've had good luck with the Orange and Chartreuse shrimp caught Pompano, Whiting, hardtail, and ladyfish, no catfish yet, thankfully, got skunked twice with the pink squid. I just picked up the orange crab from J&M last week and will try it soon. Feels like product testing!:)

Pink Shrimp is what I caught the spadefish on. Havent had time to test it on whiting yet.

I keep the pink and green Shrimp in my box, they've been so successful that I haven't even bothered to try the Squid or Crab.

We used the Orange ( crab ) in May. Bumpers (?), ladyfish, catfish, whiting, and two pomps! They were really terrific out at Ft. Morgan to catch whiting. Most of the Pompano were caught at High Tide,(+-3hrs.), on top of the first bar, using live sand fleas. I personally landed three 15 in. Pomps in one morning, the very best I have ever done; they were all caught with live 'fleas. Buy a rake, it won't eat much room, and last many trips.

I have used a small plastic buck with holes drilled in it and it works pretty well.
Good luck

Bass Pro has a large selection of fishbites ranging from $4-$6 a pack, go by the one in Daphne if its on your way.

If you can't get the spades to bite try clear gummy bears...no joke, they resemble the little jellies they chow down on and it's worked for me more than once.

Here's my take on the rake vs. no rake question: Before I lived here I wanted every second I spent on the sand to be productive time with bait in the water. That meant that I wanted to spend as little time as possible to catch the bait I would need for that day and do so efficiently s I could get them on a hook and get them in the water. Can you catch fleas with a colander or some other kind of improvised scoop? Yes. Are you going to do it very efficiently? Probably not. So my rake that I bought years ago from Fish-N-Mate made the trip in the car with me every couple of months to the Gulf because I didn't wanna waste my beach time getting soaked and sifting out sand fleas with my hands and a homemade contraption. The handle unbolts from the rake head and does not take up enough room to be obtrusive and it's worth its weight in gold during the colder months.

So my vote is to buy a rake and pack it with you. I like the Fishbites products but have struck out with the Gulp fleas twice so they now stay at home in my office.

I've had great luck with the white and Fishbites for Flounder, I stick them on a jig, either them or cut bait