Pinfish are like potato chips to snapper and other offshore fish in the summertime.
Two years of tough red snapper fishing have taken their toll on anglers who count the delectable dwellers of the deep among their favorites. Especially off of heavily pressured areas such as Grand Isle, offshore anglers are eager to use every advantage to land their share.
Capt. Rene Rice of Cherece IV Charters (985-787-2200) began using pinfish, a small fish much more associated with fishing grounds well to the east, for filling the fishbox with not only snapper but other game species inhabiting the waters off of the state’s only inhabited barrier island.
“There were days when we’d have snapper coming up full on double rigs every drop, and then at around 9 o’clock, we’d have to find something else to do the rest of the day,” said Rice, a veteran of offshore charter fishing for the past 20 years. “We didn’t always need them back then, but they’ll catch most anything out there.”
Today’s depleted numbers of red snapper — take your pick as to the causes — offer even more reason to use every advantage to put fish in the box. Live pinfish — caught entirely by the angler — are an often overlooked resource for taking not only red snapper but a variety of species.
“Back a couple of years ago when another captain was going on and on on the Internet about catching tuna on ‘mullettrons’ (live mullet), I caught one about 150 pounds, and wrote on the Internet that it was caught on a ‘pinitron,’” Rice said with a chuckle.
The veteran charter skipper’s career pre-dates most any currently in the business, and I was eager to see what his operation was all about, especially concerning his use of a baitfish much more prevalent in Gulf Coast states to the east than here in the Bayou State.
Pinfish are a widely used baitfish in Florida, where anglers most often chum for them in the vast, clean grass beds of the inland waters. They are caught commercially by bait dealers and used for any number of the Sunshine State’s most popular game species, namely snook and tarpon.
Unbeknownst to many Louisiana anglers, pinfish are available for harvest around the docks and pilings near and within the major sport fishing ports. Grand Isle is one of the most prolific, with Sand Dollar Marina, home of Rice’s Cherece IV, heading the list.
Dropping pinfish traps or tiny hooks baited with squid among the docks is a good, though not always easy, way to load the livewell with enough bait for a snapper trip.
Bait had been a scarce commodity for Rice and mate Billy Fontana when I was invited to follow up on this idea several months ago. Late spring and early summer are not ideal times for acquiring large numbers of the bait Rice refers to as “potato chips.” Beginning in late summer and throughout the early fall is best for securing enough baits to make a day of it.
“When the fall tuna season arrives, we’ve usually got plenty of bait,” said Fontana. “Right now, it’s a struggle to get what we’ve got.”
Fontana was referring to the dozen or so pint-sized pinfish swimming in Cherece IV‘s livewell at the dock. That, along with another dozen or so croakers, would have to do on this bottom fishing trip.
Inspection of the bait revealed why they were called potato chips. Small, thin baitfish, pinfish looked like they’d be irresistible to most anything in the open Gulf. Unfortunately, that meant being somewhat stingy with the bait until the right group of fish was found.
After boating a number of hardtails for catching amberjack at a close-in rig, it was on to the first platform, which proved to be exceptional for sublegal red snapper and one beautiful mangrove snapper, which couldn’t resist the wiggle of a live croaker. Our second spot was in much deeper water, deep enough to hold amberjack. And it was here that the rest of the story regarding pinfish comes into play.
A squid-baited bottom rig soon broke the sublegal snapper monotony, and up came a pinfish that had to be a full pound and a half in weight. It sported the same silvery complexion, the same blue stripes and dark spot. One of the main differences was the makeup of its dorsal fin. It was here where the pinfish got its name.
Though not as thick and stiff as the sheepshead, the fins were every bit as foreboding, so much so that I moved my sandal-clad feet faster than in years when, while inspecting it, the fish slipped from Fontana’s hands and hit the deck with a rapid fire flipping.
“They’ll get you good if you’re not careful,” said Rice of the spiny-finned fish. “Now we’ll see if there are any amberjack around.”
Rice took the platter sized fish and impaled a large circle hook in its back. All of this was done with such pragmatism that there was little doubt that it would work. It was, despite my knowledge and experience with amberjack, a bit surprising to learn that this was the bait of choice when 20 hardtails were swimming in the livewell.
“These jacks out here aren’t afraid of anything,” said Rice. “They’ll nail this thing in a second if they’re around.”
Amberjack, of course, are among the most aggressive species in the Gulf, their bravado exceeded only by their brute strength. But this bait was huge and formidable with needle sharp pins on display across the top of the fish, almost daring anybody to mess with them.
But at least one hanging around GI 116 dared as the big rod quivered spastically, dipped and then slowly moved toward the pilings. The angler dutifully waited five seconds while the fish pulled line from free spool and then engaged the reel. The fish never stopped pulling until it was in the barnacle-covered pilings.
“You try to tell people about that, but they’ve really got to experience it for themselves,” said Rice while re-rigging. “Everybody’s got to feel that first amberjack before they really know what they’re dealing with.
“This area — the shallow (less than 250 feet) West Delta rigs — is one where they just prefer pinfish. That hardtail over there hasn’t had a look,” said Rice, pointing to a rod on the other side of the boat. It had been sent down 20 minutes earlier.
Though that had been an immediate strike, it proved to be the only look of the day for the giant pinfish. The hardtail would redeem itself soon after, but in much deeper and cleaner water on the edge of the Mississippi Canyon.
A few more stops proved that patience can be a valuable commodity when seeking red snapper these days. The same small fish pestered everybody’s lines for a while, then suddenly keeper fish began coming up in spurts. Though many were measured right at sixteen inches, the crew was happy to be putting fish in the box.
It was time for the pinfish test, as Fontana baited up one of the patrons’ lines with a pinfish and sent it to the bottom. The first fish didn’t give the angler time to reel up the slack before slamming it and loosing itself almost in the same motion. The point was proven right there but driven home a drop later when a 6-pounder, one of the biggest of the day, came topside.
“The bottom fishing has been really tough lately and these baits can really make a difference,” said Rice. “People ask me on days like this, ‘Why didn’t you come here first this morning?’ It’s just that these fish are on the move so much that it’s hard to keep up with them.”
We neared our limit of red snapper with the help of the live baits, which tended to weed out the waves of smaller fish that would dominate the cut bait lines from time to time.
Catching pinfish suitable for snapper and other offshore species other than the brutish amberjack entails work that can vary greatly from day to day.
“There are some times when you can come out here and catch plenty of them,” said Fontana. “September and October, usually around tuna season, is the time when they’re most common. You can expect to catch 30 or 40 in a few hours that time of year.”
Earlier in the season, pinfish are much more challenging. Fontana often spends several hours scratching out a dozen or so baits in between the croakers and hardheads. Using a tiny sabiki rig tipped with tiny pieces of squid, he fishes them amongst the pilings on the northern side of Sand Dollar Marina.
The small, bait-sized pinfish come and go for unknown reasons during the hot months, but usually a good many can be had with some persistence and the right tools. Fontana also uses pinfish traps to capture the smallest of the baits. Baited with whatever he can come up with, the traps are placed among the same pilings across from the gas dock.
“Any kind of fish scraps are fine for bait. They really like pogies,” said Fontana. “The biggest problems we have with the traps is the otters. They can really tear up the traps when the break into them.”
Otters don’t limit themselves to raiding traps. Fontana said he was about to flip a nice sized pinfish from the water on a sabiki rig when an otter grabbed it and dove for the pilings, stripping line like any other fish would before breaking it.
Cast nets can be a more efficient alternative when the bait is present in good numbers, but anyone who has thrown for any length of time knows it can be an exhausting process as well.
Fontana related another story about unknowingly casting over an entire school of hardhead catfish one day which were probably cruising the pilings waiting for the electric knife to begin humming at the fish-cleaning station again.
“I just let it go back in the water. I could barely lift it off the bottom,” he said.
Cast nets are most effective when used at night in the shadows of the lights that are turned on for speckled trout fishermen. Many anglers don’t know that those expensive live shrimp are being devoured by pinfish when fishing under the lights.
The ideal-sized bait for tuna fishing — they’re fished on an unweighted leader just like hardtails — are 3 to 4 inches, while snapper candy are just a bit smaller than that. There are no special rigs for the baits, simple long mono leaders with live bait hooks with a weight fixed between the main line and leader.
Putting one’s time into acquiring bait is not always what draws anglers to resort areas like Grand Isle, but for tough times for red snapper, it can be time well spent. And time spent staring at 6-pound line next to a piling can translate into quality time at the cleaning table later.
