Thread: What bait is best

I've searched the forum and I couldn't find anything about this but I was wondering what bait do the red fish like the best?Thanks in advance.

When the big schools of bull reds come through a flip-flop will work just fine. Other than that live or fresh dead shrimp will work.

Seen them eat a banana peel one time. They will truly eat anything that gets in front of them.

Louisiana captains have said when they clean a big bull red in the fall, it isn't uncommon the find ducklings in their stomachs. They will eat just about any thing. I've caught them on bull minnows, gotchas, looney jigs, live skrimps, etc. They will destroy a live shrimp in the shallows early on the morning, if they're around.

Got to go up fishing 200 miles north of Winnipeg a couple of times and we joked about using baby ducks for Northern Pike bait...

Haywire, just sent you a pm.

Aside from the weird baits, ordinary baits are cut fish, such as mullet, Spanish, etc., or whole baitfish, alive or dead (I prefer alive) such as LY, pinfish, croaker. I've caught several bull reds this year on fresh dead shrimp while fishing the surf for pompano, but the little scavenger fish tend to be a nuisance. Good luck.

Have not seen much about the "running of the bulls". Seems like it was a regular occurrence on past mid may trips.

Love the running of the bulls. My record was catching and releasing 3 in about 15 minutes last year using my cone rod and jig.

Yep, when a big school comes thru, anything in the water gets eaten... Anything.

When I clean Reds their stomach contents are whatever is the most common prey.
I've seen them stuffed full of LYs, shrimp, crabs, croakers and more, sometimes primarily one type & sometimes mixed.
Most times they've hit on my bait, I was offering something different from what they'd been eating.
Reinforcing the fact that they'll eat anything, very opportunistic feeders.