Bottom Fishing on a Budget

[Frogsauce]

Money is tight right now, what do you guys use for bottom fishing (20'-40') on a budget? I thought maybe getting some artificial blood worms or using a 3" fatty with a jig spinner on it.

Targeting mostly white perch, spot, croaker, etc panfish.

[Shady]

Fishbites bloodlworm work well

Sent from the water.

[Longtrav]

Perch like Beatle spin. They have them at Tyler's. Squid last a long time. I also by shrimp when it goes on sale or is sell today special and take 2-3 each trip and freeze the rest.

[YaknBass]

clam strips work...grass shrimp work better then the clams....small spoons can work very well jigged...also you can add weight to get 40' deep. jig heads with curly tails as well.

[kevinfry]

Cheap and super effectve....nightcrawlers with a very small peice of fishbites. One bag of fishbites lasts all summer. Croakers and perch hang on to the meatiness of the night crawler. Grass shrimp are usually free I put them on a power grub and catch more perch than just the grub or shrimp alone. But the crawler and tiny fishbite is my #1 bait for croaker. .. and i've never caught a skaate on it (though I have caaught mini flounder).

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[Redfish12]

Night crawlers for perch works great. We also used to cut the first perch into strips and then continue to strip smaller ones till we had enough for dinner. Worked well. I think I got 2 keeper rock trying that last year too!

[Frogsauce]

Wow, a lot of great ideas guys, thanks.

[J.A. Veil]

I have a buddy who lives in Ches Beach. He drives to the shoreline of the local creek near Abners and scrapes grass shrimp off the bulkheads with a net. This gives him plenty of bait for a trip. He primarily fishes shallow water and suspends the grass shrimp under a bobber.

[john from md]

You can collect grass shrimp for free at Jonas Green and Sandy point with a small tropical fish net. Scrape under the rocks at JG and scrape the pier pilings at SPSP.

John

[jhoss]

The gulp bloodworms win my vote. I've only seen them at fisherman's. They last forever on the hook, seem to catch all manner of bottom fish, and a bag last a season or two. (I keep all my gulp baits in a box in the second fridge. Keeps them from getting rancid)

[hookmeup]

Start a compost pile if you can in the fall with all of your leaves. Add coffee grounds (free at any coffee shop. Bring your own 5 gallon bucket. Kitchen vegetable matter is good. Do not add grass. Add your leftover bait nightcrawlers. I did this about 10 years ago. I always have easy to get nightcrawlers now .

Nightcrawlers work on some saltwater species as mentioned above and for tipping tube and worm.

[MrT]

Yes seen them catchin perch at piney point md w grass shrimp and you cant buy them anywhere.amazin how perch can see this tiny shimp

[Frogsauce]

I thought about netting for bait too, but the plastics seem like less work. A tackle box washed up on shore yesterday that had some tackle in it too. A few chartreuse plastics and a couple jigs. So that's a win.

I think I'm gonna give the gulp bloodworms and the fishbites a try. They should last me the rest of the season and into the next if they work well for me.