Florida Bait Fish Identification

Fiddler Crab
Fiddler crabs are great bait to use when fishing for sheepshead, black drum, and tautog and will also catch the occasional redfish and flounder. A lot of tasty inshore saltwater fish eat fiddler crabs. The best thing about using fiddler crabs as bait is that you can gather them for free. Fiddler crabs are found in many coastal states. Florida has three different species and there are 97 throughout the world. There are fiddlers along the entire Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, and the Pacific states have their own species. 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. They come out of their holes as the tide lowers and feed on small organisms that were washed in with the tide. You can catch fiddlers at the coast during months when it is not too cold. You have to locate a marsh area where they are plentiful and chase them down.
To prepare a hook fiddler crab as bait, hook the crab thorough the back. Make sure the hook point comes out of the other side. Fish don't usually hammer a fiddler crab bait like they might a piece of bloody cut mullet. Instead they often take the bait in their mouths and peck at the shell to spit it out. Sheepshead fishermen have long said the time to set the hook is just before they bite! While that is likely impossible, keep a finger on your line and set the hook if you feel anything strange.