Fishing Q&A
Are Sand eels a good bait to use for sea fishing off a kayak?
what are these ''spinners''? ive herd of? what do they do? will i need to go really deep in order to catch something with sand eels? many thanks is bread a good bait too?
Public Comments
- Depends what you are fishing for. Sand Eels make GREAT Striped bass bait. Also work good when you are looking for large mouth bass. American Eels can be found anywhere from 1 foot of water or more. If you put them on ice in a small cooler before hooking them on they are much more docile and easy to handle. Less slithering around your arm and wriggling about, getting less slimy and all that. I use a good sized hook (at least a 1/0) and open there mouth with the hook tip. Run the hook up through the roof of the mouth and out the sinus on their "Beak". This is not the only way to rig an eel though, there are many ways. If you are in a kayak or boat though, I would say the best result would be to hook them through the snout and let them free swim..... use a good swivel because they will squiggle a lot and can twist line. The advantage is, the eel has the most freedom of action and appeals to the fish better. They can also be sewn on, rigged to a weighted spoon through the head for trolling, and a million other ways. A search on "Eel rigs" also returns a lot of info. Spinners are essentially weighted and dressed treble hooks with a small spoon on the front that "spins" rapidly in the water. This makes a profile like a bait or food source and causes some nice vibrations in the water. Just do a google for spinner lures and you will see all sorts of examples and choices.
- Sprattoo's answer is spot on. My 2 cent's: You only have so much "space" on a kayak. Bringing a cooler full of eels, (if you could find them) might be "too much". You may want to look into purchasing some plastic "eels". Bread as bait? Then you must be freshwater fishing??? (?) Quiet a "jump" from trolling eels to fishing with "bread". What exactly are you looking to catch?
- make sure you get a rod holder for your kayak. it straps on and is a must unless you can work with unhooking and holding a rod at the same time. use spinners, as the sand eels will take up for too much space in your dry bag. ps, use airbags in your kayak as playing a fish could cause you to roll.
