Bait
 

Newbie here, so excuse the stupid question. I read in a lot of these threads about guys catching their own bait, greenies, spanish etc. Can someone please explain to this new salty how you go about catching your own bait. Are there certain areas to look? Is it a different rig?

Mahalo

I am not sure exactly where but you will have to find those bait fish with your fish finder.
Then you will use sabiki rig (store bought with small hook and artificial lure attached, usually comes in 6) to catch those bait fish.

So you want to catch
 

your own bait. Ill give you my preferred bait in order live Squid, sardine, pacific "greenback" mackerel and spanish mackerel.

Catching live squid is for another day so the rig you need is a sabiki. I like the hayabusa sabiki in size 8. it is best to cut them in half and pinch the barbs, add a 1-3 oz weight and your ready to catch bait.

Look for bait in and along the kelp line. also watch for a disturbance on the surface usually it is bait, cast into it. Bait like to school with their own kind so if you don't find what you want keep looking. Sometimes the seals will lead you to the bait. A fish finder will help find schools below the surface and help keep that sabiki out of the kelp.

Good luck,
Eli

If I'm having trouble making bait I usually add tiny pieces of shrimp to the sabiki with the barb still showing.

You don't have to do that, just paddle/pedal around until you meter balls of bait................keep it simple ;)

Depending on your sonar smaller schools of greenbacks will usually appear as a dark ball on your screen, with Spanish macs the screen will be a little more pixelated and and they usually travel in larger schools.........at least that's what I've seen. As far as squid goes.....those are a little trickier to identify, on my screen they tend to look like broken up pieces of kelp.

sibiki pole
 

I finally got a sibiki rod!!! Soooo worth it!! I hated getting that sibiki tangled or hooked on something in my kayak. So clean, and makes things much simpler!! Not saying you have to get one, but it's definitely worth the investment (about $65 for the rod).

if you don't have a FF like i do at the moment. i just cast my rig as far as i can and just jig up and down for them. you'll eventually find enough, its pretty easy.

4oz weight on sabiki dropped 10'-15' down while I cruise to a spot usually picks up a few on the way. Or I just leave the sabiki down while I'm fishing a spot to usually get a few too. Toss the rod in the rear rod holder and when I feel the back of the kayak vibrating, I just reel em in :p

Thanks for all your input.

I made a sabiki rod out of a length of electrical conduit. It works ok, but kind of top heavy. I want to get the real deal.
Anyhow, my FF is on its last leg, so I generally don't bother using it much. I just get out near where I want to fish and work the edge of the kelp with the sabiki. Try to get a visual on some macs and start jigging it up and down. Sometimes fairly aggressively to get their attention. I've even done it with no sign of them and if I don't start seeing them, drop it a little lower and try again.