How do you know what the fish are eating?

[kevinfry]

Sunday both my fish had minnows and small crabs in their stomachs....when fishing breakers (like Bill and I did in Sept) I have had them so full of bait that I couldn't imagine why they bothered to bite.
I think sometimes rockfish...like other bass and bass-like fish...cough up their stomache contents trying to expell the hook.

[chex]

vibration, scent and contrast.

Do the scented plastics actually help?

[chimo]

chexone, Scent does help but mainly when fishing slow like dragging a carolina rig or pitching jigs, helps them locate your bait and hold on longer when they do bite imho. Not sure how much the fish can pick up on scent if you are cranking the bait through at a pretty good clip.

Chimo

[Pinch]

Ive had trout and flounder throw up on me

[mmanolis2001]

Ive had trout and flounder throw up on me

Haha I hate bluefish for that very reason.

[Memory Maker]

Last Monday I fished from another angler's boat. We found vast flocks of birds diving on bait. The previous day, I found a bag of bright pink Gulp 3" squid in a clearance bins at Anglers. For $1.99, I decided to give it a shot. When we were in the midst of those birds, I used the pink squid on a 3/8-oz jighead. Even though the squid did not have any floppy motion like a twister tail, nor is bright pink a natural color or are squid a typical mid-Chesapeake Bay prey species, the rockfish loved the little pink squid lures that day. I caught at least a dozen rock up to 20".

Don't rule out a bait because of color. I think that size and how the lure is presented to the fish have more importance, and of course, finding the fish before throwing out your line is paramount.

Color and shape doesn't matter with gulp ....... it's the chemicals that make them bite gulp ....... besides, pink is a good color it shows from a distance ......... gulp is great stuff

[chex]

Oh what fun... I spent about an hour at BassPro last night picking out some lures based on your recommendations. Got a whole lot of good stuff (I think). Now if I don't catch anything this weekend, my girlfriend will make fun of me big time!

[surfdog]

i like to put some pro-cure menhaden goop on hard and soft lures and give them the whole gambit, sight, vibration and sent. not needed on gulp but you do need to recharge the gulp once in a while.

[kevinfry]

Hey Chex......you'll never spend enough!! The good thing is that the shopping is great even if the fishing is slow!

[chex]

haha, so true. if things really get bad, they've got that big aquarium at BassPro that's full of plump fish... drop a line in there and see what happens!

[kevinfry]

LOL....now watch it, you'll make the children cry!

[Southerly]

don't feel bad about spending a little money on fishing.

as of october 15th, i estimate i probably spent just under $1.4M on fishing this year. it's been a rough season and a lot of this gear seems to have been accidentally dropped overboard or busted.

ps - my 2nd camera which replaced the one at the bottom of honga river, got wet inside, and stopped working. i returned it to fujifilm about 3 weeks ago,..., and received a brand new replacement in the mail today!!!