Greenies / Greenbacks

I've caught plenty of snook on live ones, but what do you use the frozen ones for? Chumming inshore or offshore?
You mentioned Mangs, are you using livies or frozen for them?

 

I like em live inshore but use dead or alive offshore - nothing like a live greenie or dead greenie as chum or bait or both. There are a few baitfish that are just plain great and the lowly greenie is one of those.

 

I plan to use the frozen ones as Chum off-shore.

They are an excellent live-bait inshore. Which is how I use them for Mangos.

However, they are very soft while alive, so can't image they would be much good after being frozen.

 

Thanks, David! I have noticed that they're a bit soft, can't keep too many in the live well at a time!

 

I have a 10-gallon bait saver system (a small garbage can with a pipe thingy that delivers air bubbles) and it will keep 50-75 3-inch baits as long as I keep up with water changes periodically. I also have a 20-gallon garbage can livewell rig that keeps bait extremely well - gets new water and old water flows over side...

If you can get new water going into the bait well, there should be no problem keeping them indefinitely. That includes using a 5-gallon bucket to refresh the live well every hour or so.

 

I've thought about doing the small garbage can. Anybody have any luck rigging one with a battery-powered pump to keep bait alive overnight?

 

I REALLY LIKE Sam's kayak Livewell Set-up - that's a great concept and they have larger containers too...

Never liked the bilge pump and cooler set-ups, always blew the scales off my mullet and such. They used to sell bilge pumps with suction cups and a PVC pipe that would stick up straight and the water would shoot down in a spray to all sides - it wasn't a bad thing... Used to get gummed up with the fish scales it would knock loose.

When they came out with the battery and 12 volt powered bubbles, it helped. I also have a 12-volt, 35-gallon Mr bubbles that I run to whatever live bait I'm using - 2 air hoses so I can have 2 buckets of bait, or 2 in one bucket. My boat is a 17 CC with limited floor space and no livewell or such - it gets cluttered and I'm hoping to fix that some day.

My history is that of a northerner - we used to use xtra large pogies (call em bunker up there), Atlantic mackerel, and smaller bluefish for bait. The bait was kept in a garbage can livewell that was fed by a piece if L shaped pipe attached to the transom, pointing up the bottom of the boat towards the front. When at speed, water is pushed in and fills the garbage can to your overflow point - thru hull fitting attached to garbage can and hose out over the side or back of boat. We would do drifts - 30 minutes or so per drift, then fire it up and run up-current a mile or two along the rips and reefs, refresh water in garbage can... Used to use 2nd garbage can for fish - big blues, stripers, weakfish.

Down here I have a similar piping set-up for water feed that comes of a plastic L pipe and another that comes off a bilge pump mounted outside on the transom. There is a ball valve on the pipe feed, so I can stop it from flowing if I don't have a need for it. Offshore it is a 20-gallon garbage can with the overflow just high enough to go over the side of the boat. Maybe 15-gallons of water. There is a hardware cloth screen in front of the thru hull fitting to keep dead fish/weeds/etc from blocking flow. It gets fresh water when running, when slow trolling can feed off bilge pump on transom, and also gets bubbles. Rarely lose bait if I don't overcrowd them.

The 20-gallon garbage can is a "low-tech" livewell and not pretty. I only use this for offshore cause it is big, bulky, in the way, and IMO, not necessary inshore - overkill.

Inshore - use my 10-gallon bait saver set-up and can highly recommend it. Not a bad size - 10-gallon garbage can with lid pretty much. Change the water with a 2-gallon bucket. The big Mr. bubbles will make this water look like it is boiling. Rarely lose bait.

Will prefer to use a 5-gallon bucket if just using shrimp - a bubbler and 5-gallon bucket is a perfect combination. You really do need a lid of some sort if keeping live finger mullet in a 5-gallon bucket - little buggers jump out. Throwable cushion works in a pinch.

We fish 2 folks most of the time - have 2 air lines in boat - one goes front, one goes aft. A bucket of bait for each...


Would I rather have a formal live well? Yes - boat is just too small and not configured to accommodate that concept.