UTER
Photo: NOAA Photo Library, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Harengula jaguana · also pilchard, whitebait
How to catch Scaled sardine in Florida
Scaled sardine feed in 0–0°F water and bite best at 0–0°F.
Bait · in the book, no points
About
Whitebait: the small silver sardine that everything inshore eats, and the bait that turned Tampa Bay snook fishing into a sport. Netted by the thousand at first light and chummed to the boat.
How to fish it
Chum a grass edge or a bridge at first light until they flash, and throw a 10-foot quarter-inch net on them. Keep the well full of moving water.
What it eats
chum: wet oats and menhaden oilthe cast net
Getting it, rigging it
Getting it
Cast net over grass edges and around bridges at first light; chum them up with a wet mix of oats and menhaden oil. Keep a lot of water moving in the well — they die fast.
Rigging it
Free-lined or under a cork, hooked through the nose on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook. The one bait that catches everything inshore.
What it's for
SnookSpotted seatroutTarponMangrove snapperSpanish mackerelTripletailJack crevalleYellowtail snapperLadyfishBluefishCero mackerelGreat barracudaLane snapperMutton snapperMahi-mahi (dolphin)Blackfin tunaSailfishWhite marlinLittle tunny (bonito)Horse-eye jackBar jackYellow jackRainbow runnerAtlantic bonitoSchoolmaster snapperDog snapperMahogany snapperBanded rudderfishSkipjack tuna
What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itHook#8–#1
Braid10–15 lb
The rule
not confirmed hereBait rules — confirm at MyFWC.
The current rule at MyFWC →