How to Catch Bait in La Jolla? How to Sabiki?
 

Hey guys, I'm new to ocean fishing / kayak fishing. How do you catch bait for fly lining? Do you just troll a sabiki behind your kayak or do you drop a sabiki near some kelp. Do you jig the sabiki or just let it sit on the bottom?

I went out yesterday and dealing with the sabiki was a pain in the butt, is a sabiki rod worth it?

Much thanks!

Fish finder will help spot them. Otherwise drop a sabiki tipped with squid or even fish scent goop. Drop deep and reel in slow. Drop tip of for up and down. Or drop and go... paddle around til you find them.

Sabiki for me are best when only 3 hooks are used. Minimizes tangles and easier to handle. I use a bass rod vs. Sabiki rod for bait.

If there is bait, they will eat the sabiki. Ravenous little bastards.


Oh no, not this again!

I think it is worth it, and there is thread about it.

So anybody who needs to know can review that thread.

Fish your sibiki on a setup that can catch a yellowtail! No biki rods or bass rods. You're not looking to have a challenging fight against mackerel. I could never figure out why people use light tackle to catch bait.

Also use a heavy weight! 6oz or more is necessary, otherwise mackerel will swim up against the weight and wreck your sibiki.

I end up with more doubles and triples with a heavy weight (1lb) than if I only use 1-4 oz. I use the YT rod, just all around easier get em on and crank em in with the larger line.

There are so many things that can help you find bait without a FF.

1. Birds - look for birds that are circling, diving, or just lingering around in groups
2. Seals - look for seals that are thrashing around or sticking to a specific area. It's not uncommon to see seals that are munching on a mackerel, when you see that happening there's a really good chance that there is bait in the area.
Water surface - on days when we have calm/flat conditions look for ripples in the surface of the water, large schools of bait that are on the upper column make the surface look like the water is boiling
Splashing bait - keep your ears focused on bait that may be splashing on the surface, sometimes it may be splashing behind you or on your right/left side. As soon as you hear the splash and you know where it came from you need to immediately cast into that area.

Sabiki rod - personally, I believe these things are a complete waster of money. Get you oldest light action rod and marry it to a small bait caster, that's all you need.

Dehooker - get yourself a dehooker, as Tony (fulrac) says, "this is a critical piece of equipment" and i completely agree with him. Getting the bait off a sabiki is extremely easy when you use a dehooker, much much easier than having to grab the bait with your hand and don't worry about dropping the bait on your kayak, nothing is going to happen to them. I've had bait sitting on my kayak a few minutes and they survived an entire fishing session. Also, I would suggest you bend back the barbs on the sabiki hooks, this helps tremendously when you're shaking them off with you dehooker.