# Question about bait



## cmg76 (Jul 5, 2014)

New to sharking. Put some really nice bait Down in the sound hoping to snag a bull or something but the damn crabs are eating my bait before a shark can. Any advice on how to stop this from hspoening. Of course I'm using a weight to keep bait down which of course is where the crab are. Is there a way to keep bait off bottom? I'm using Spanish mak by the way. Advise please


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## southern yakker (Jun 25, 2012)

Change bait. Sometimes the crabs will tear anything apart, you could balloon rig it to stay off the bottom or use baits like stingray that they don't mess with. The softer the flesh of fish the more likely it is to get torn apart.


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## sharkwrangler (Sep 29, 2013)

That's just the nature of the beast when using fish as bait. If I'm using any type of fish as bait, as a "rule of thumb" I change it out every 2 hours. I have heard stuffing the bait in panty hose will prevent the crabs from devouring your bait, but personally I've never tried it. Most of us use fresh stingray. They retain blood for hours and the crabs won't pick it apart.


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## Justin618 (Aug 18, 2013)

Use rays. They will last hours. If using fish then it's just the way it is like sharkwrangler stated. Can't do anything about it.


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## cmg76 (Jul 5, 2014)

Anybody willing to sell some rays? In ft Walton preferred


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## MoganMan (Feb 24, 2013)

sharkwrangler said:


> That's just the nature of the beast when using fish as bait. If I'm using any type of fish as bait, as a "rule of thumb" I change it out every 2 hours. I have heard stuffing the bait in panty hose will prevent the crabs from devouring your bait, but personally I've never tried it. Most of us use fresh stingray. They retain blood for hours and the crabs won't pick it apart.


x2 on the panty hose. Have tried it myself with old frozen bonito, makes a huge difference!


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## Justin618 (Aug 18, 2013)

cmg76 said:


> Anybody willing to sell some rays? In ft Walton preferred


Go to pier or bridges etc and drop squid. Fight through catfish but you'll get a lot of rays


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## Bravo87 (Jun 19, 2014)

Justin618 said:


> Go to pier or bridges etc and drop squid. Fight through catfish but you'll get a lot of rays


+1 

Plenty of them in the sound as well. Sandy flats with some squid and ya got em!


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## armyguardus (Feb 1, 2010)

Fighting through the catfish is the hard part.


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## cmg76 (Jul 5, 2014)

gotta besomebody who sells rays?


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## Justin618 (Aug 18, 2013)

cmg76 said:


> gotta besomebody who sells rays?


Tight lines sells cownose. Not sure if they still do. Be my guest and go spend about $20 per ray or spend an hr on any bank, pier or bridge and grab a ray.

They arent hard to catch. And your chances will go up with a fresh ray you catch over a freezer ray


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## cmg76 (Jul 5, 2014)

wow didnt realize 20 a ray looks like ill suck it up and catch em---gonna try the panty hose thing first got 2 beautiful spanish maks that need to be shark bait!


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## Justin618 (Aug 18, 2013)

cmg76 said:


> wow didnt realize 20 a ray looks like ill suck it up and catch em---gonna try the panty hose thing first got 2 beautiful spanish maks that need to be shark bait!


Just throw out a carolina rig/pomp rig with squid when sharking. Might get cats too, but you can get a ray like this.


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