# Large LY's as bait?



## baldona523 (Mar 2, 2008)

What are hand size LY's good for? Kings? Grouper? I netted a bunch in the Choctaw bay but never used them that big. I know smaller ones are good inshore. I have a ton frozen now I'll just use for chum if nothing else.


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## TheRoguePirate (Nov 3, 2011)

whats an LY?


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## PAWGhunter (Feb 3, 2010)

TheRoguePirate said:


> whats an LY?


Menhaden.

I would freeline some big live ones...big kings


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## MrFish (Aug 21, 2009)

alewife, menhaden


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## TheRoguePirate (Nov 3, 2011)

thanks PAW, not sure how you get LY from menhaden 

agree with PAW, they were the superb bait of choice for big kings back in carolina


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## billin (Oct 14, 2007)

*Pogies*

Great bait for kings grouper etc and also make great chum 
For live bait the bigger the better.

Not sure where ly or the other name came from it's only used around here.
Everywhere else they are called pogies or menhaden until you get north of the Chesapeake bay then they are called Bunkers the rest of the way up the coast


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## MrFish (Aug 21, 2009)

Most likely, someone kept mispronouncing "alewife" and somehow it caught on.


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## TheLooney1 (Jul 2, 2009)

Gator Trout


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## retired (Jun 24, 2009)

Freeline for tarpon


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## Capt. Delynn (Oct 4, 2007)

Ly's are completely different from Menhaden. Alewife or something like that is called an Ly around here. Mendaden are more in the bays and ly's are smaller baits around the passes and beaches. Both have there own place in the bait world. Menhaden are a little harder to keep alive but can also be a much bigger bait. I net them in Orange Beach often for bait because other bait can be hard to come by. Not my favorite bait but can be very good at times.


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## weedline (Aug 20, 2011)

the true Alewife is a northern bait fish that has infiltrated most of the great lakes and major shiping tribuitarys on northern east and west coats 
next we have the scaled sardine it is the commonly caught silver shad shaped baitfist that tends to darken the water under some panhandle piers caught on sabikis or ribon rigs if they are legal, these fish are called lys from myself and most locals
now we have the atlantic menhaden a completly different fish that has for years been sold as lys over around the big bend these are the slimy stinky ones u get up in the bays or out in the gulf in november these are what u fill the net with at times


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