Florida Gulf Coast Bait Fish
You can read more about the requirements exemptions and specific information on freshwater and saltwater fishing licenses on their website.
Florida gulf coast bait fish. Term used by fishery managers to describe several species of fish that tend to live and are frequently caught on reefs. Kingfish are in the mackerel family. Skip to navigation skip to content. Well named the kingfish is indeed one of the most regal fish in the sea.
If you charter a boat to take you farther offshore you can fish for numerous grouper species including gag red and black but also for other fish like king mackerel cobia amberjack mahi mahi and wahoo. Everywhere they occur fiddler crabs are great bait for certain local fish fiddlers live in salt marshes where they have holes burrowed near the grasses. However these fish are not pushovers. Kingfish prefer warmer temperatures usually within 68 to 84 degrees.
This is a perfect time to come to mississippi s gulf coast. Three species of menhaden are common in florida but all are similar in size and appearance and interchangeable in their bait appeal. Pinfish are my second choice in terms of the best live bait. Florida sport fishing is owned and operated by south florida sport.
They are a schooling and migrating fish that can be found off the coast of florida during winter before heading into northern waters in the spring and summer. Just about anything you can target inshore and even offshore will eat whitebait. We use whitebait to catch our redfish snook trout cobia tripletail and even tarpon. The atlantic menhaden shown here is slightly larger than its gulfside counterparts the gulf menhaden brevoortia patronus and the yellowfin menhaden brevortia smithi.
Checkout our fish id page which will show you the most common florida fish. The waters within interior salt and brackish marshes across virtually the entire gulf coast hold red drum throughout most of the year. There are fiddlers along the entire atlantic and gulf coasts and the pacific states have their own species. Florida has three different species and there are 97 throughout the world.
The florida fishing and wildlife conservation commission is the go to resource for all of your florida gulf coast fishing q a.