Is it legal to use live bait in the ocean?

[ElectricDyck]

I've been watching all these NZ and Florida fishing shows where they cast net a bunch of bait fish, chum the water with chopped up parts and then hook a live one on..

I read the regs and couldn't find anything saying you cant in salt water...looks like its not a problem to cast net...

I was talking with another guy and he said it doesnt work well for catch and release because the fish usually swallows the bait deep..

 

[Islander57]

It's legal to use live bait. I sometimes use live herring when mooching or fishing lings.

 

[Waterwolf2230]

I wonder if you could chum up salmon like they do Tuna etc...I'm sure it would cause a feeding frenzy with the Dogfish though lol.

 

[seadna]

I wonder if you could chum up salmon like they do Tuna etc...I'm sure it would cause a feeding frenzy with the Dogfish though lol.

I've heard of people chumming coho but it's not legal in Washington. I can say that I've trolled near party boats that had 20-30 people mooching with cut plugs. One time when I was running low on bait, I started using the herring heads (which the party boat was tossing over the side). I did quite well with just those on a hook behind a banana weight.

 

[Dogbreath]

The thing about Chumming is that most people put far too much meat in the water-a chunk every 30-60 seconds or so is lots.

 

[paguy]

My dad ran out to his spot one morning and started pre cutting a dozen herring cut plugs, Throwing the heads out the back of the boat. Got his cut plug herring in the water and didn't make it 100' and a nice king inhaled it, Got the fish home and found eleven herring heads in its gut.

 

[california]

Mooching Live Herring used to be a standard technique in many areas. They used to sell them in Horseshoe bay, up in Pender harbour, Quadra Island and other places. I don't know if there are still any places selling them, now you would maybe have to jig or rake them yourself. As the salmon numbers declined and downriggers became available covering lots of water with trolled gear became the most common technique. We used to get salmon doing it, but dogfish were a common catch too. Nowadays it might just be dogfish!

 

[ElectricDyck]

Hmmm thanks for all the replies..I think i will order a cast net for fun and huck it out there when Im in the middle of a big surface bait ball and hook one on for fun..

I doubt this is legal but heard a story of a guy catching a small pink trolling giving it a light bonk and then nose hooking it and sending it down for halibut and big lings..said it was a done deal everytime..

 

[Dogbreath]

..I think i will order a cast net for fun and huck it out there when Im in the middle of a big surface bait ball and hook one on for fun...

Throw that net on a school on deep water and they'll sink out of sight in less time than it takes to talk about it those nets are usually used in very shallow water so that bait is trapped by the net on top and sand/mud on the bottom and as the net is drawn up bait becomes entangled.

So first off you need to learn how to throw the net (usually on the lawn lots of vids on youtube) then you need the right mixture and quantity of fine Chum and sand to scatter over the school so they are feeding/don't notice the net dropping down on them-much easier said than done.

 

[wishiniwasfishin1]

Or you could just get a sibiki rig and cast the the herring - pretty easy and you can get 3 or 4 per cast sometimes...