Cast Nets
 

I may be looking forward too soon to warm weather in the summer and livelining, and this may be a dumb question, but I am curious about this and I'm interested in your thoughts. Went fishing this spring down in the Keys. To get bait (once for tarpon and once for sails -- different bait fish), we used cast nets in fairly deep water (one time was 20ft) with good success. On a few occasions used a chum powder to get bait off the bottom.

So two questions.

1. Would this method work in the bay for spot? Say at the spot hole off Black Walnut Point. Could you actually catch enough spot this way, or any spot, or would the old reliable bloodworm or garlic shrimp still be better?

2. Is it even legal?

Nothing illegal about it. I don't think Spot school up quite like some bait fish though so you may be out throwing that thing for a good while.

never used it for spot...for me half the fun of live lining is catching the spot on ultralight, but I use a cast net all the time to catch bunker for my crab pots and usually have quite a few spot in the net. As long as it's legal you should really have no problem catching them around a dock (we are usually doing it at night under lights).
Good luck, let us know how you do!

Don't get me wrong, I like the part of livelining invloved in catching spot...it is awfully nice to hit the spot hole with the sun coming up...usually one of the nicest parts of the day. But on days when I don't ahve as much time...I was just wondering if it would work.

In that case, just follow JoeDirts lead and buy your Spot at around $3 a pop!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

:D:D that must really hurt when those little snapper blues are around

My best luck with cast netting spot is in shallow(3ft-4ft) grassy area with an 8ft fast sinking net. Any deeper than that it is tough to get the net down to them without spooking them.

I've had moderate success casting for spot at Causeway at Point Lookout.

Shallow and fairly easy. In mid bay thou, most spot are in 20 feet, or more of water and I'd find that hard to do.

The spot are bottom feeders and would be VERY hard to get with a cast net.........Gary

Ah, try it and let us know.:)

One problem could be the net getting snagged on something on the bottom.

I've seen guys use a siene net - I'm guessing about 25 feet - to get Spot for bait. They waded out about chest deep and then brought the net up on a small beach.

They got a lot but most were little. Not many of the 4-6 inchers that seem to work best.

Be careful in shallows - getting a Cownose Ray in your cast net would suck.

I'm not a big fan of live-lining because I think it's too time-consuming, but if you want to do it, there are better ways than spending hours trying to catch spot. Here's a pic of what you can turn up with just one cast with a 4' net. Rock like spot, but they can't resist bunker. Mark the bait, throw the net, hook it through the lip and drop it on the fish. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. You probably won't hear about it much, but some people have been live-lining for over a month now.

http://www.mountainsoul.net/bait

We have been live lining herring which is almost as easy to catch as bunker in a net.............Gary

Shawn and Gary...thanks for the info...may try that. Steve