I usually anchor up in an area where my fish finder is showing bait and begin to chum behind the boat with a mixture of canned sardines and whole wheat bread. You need a very good live well with a great turnover of fresh sea water in order to keep them alive, particularly in the summertime when the water warms up. You have to catch them yourself since they are not available in bait stores and the simplest way is with a cast net. Scaled sardines grow to an average of six inches and are great baits no matter what size you catch for almost all species of fish. They are distinguished by their sharply pointed, keeled belly. In other areas there could be many other names. On the west coast of Florida, we call them whitebait. One of my favorite baits is the Scaled Sardine (Harengula Jaguana). This is a great baitfish that will also give beginning fishermen a very nice tussle on super- light tackle (nice way to entertain the kids on a windy day).

Offshore, a live pinfish will often get grouper to bite when nothing else will. Hook them just under this fin and fish them with little or no weight inshore.

When handling them, watch out for the very sharp dorsal spines - they can really stick you good (that's how they get their name).

Pinfish are very hardy as baitfish go, often outliving everything else in your baitwell. You can also chum them up with catfood and bread and throw a cast net over the whole lot - `pins are fast though, and often can run faster than the net can sink. Put a little bit of bait (squid works very well) on about a #2 or #4 hook and toss it over some grassy bottom - it won't be long before the well is full of `pins. Pinfish are great bait for a wide variety of species they are easy to catch and are found all over the shallow waters of the Suncoast.

Flat black fish