Gulf Coast pan fish

[sleek]

When that happens switch to squid. You would be surprised to find you are the only one catching. You probably feed them too much shrimp yesterday and they want something different.

[chamookman]

In Florida, always used to fish them with fresh Sand Fleas caught right in the Surf. Bob

[Chief RID]

We were catching some pretty nice Bull Whiting at night off Flagler pier just north of Daytona. No one else was getting any bites. The wise fisherwoman I was fishing with had figured out if I caught some ribbonfish during the day and we cut them to some pretty good chunks and used them we were golden for that evening. Fresh, shinny, stinky, small large pieces, night , day, move it, let it lay, hold your mouth right, keep your worms warm, blaaaa,.

Fish can be picky. Thanks goodness I get lucky every now and then.

[Dakota Kid]

I remember being out in the perch boat last summer and ,boy, we were on um. Hooking doubles and triples as soon as our rigs hit bottom. There was only one other boat out that day and they seemed to be getting closer every time we looked up . We saw they weren't catching anything and flagged them over. We were close to our limit and willing to give them the spot. They anchored up right on top of us. We could've high-fived between boats if we wanted to. They dropped the same type of bait fish on the same style rig we had and they couldn't get a hit. We limited out after another 10 minutes or so and lifted anchor and drifted away. As we fired the engine and took off they were just starting to catch a few. They must have had their bait within 6' of our feeding frenzy and those fish were so keyed in on our bait they never noticed. Another time we went out they'd only hit the shiners if we cut them in half, wanted nothing to do with live or even whole dead ones.

I've also seen steelhead in the creeks pooled in the deep holes by the hundreds. Guys are jammed shoulder to shoulder tossing every bait imaginable and the fish ignore all of it. Then one guy will put on the last fly in his box, the one he's never fished with before and wasn't ever gonna. Sure enough the comatose fish turn into 2'+  piranhas. Anymore, when I tie for steelhead I only do variations on classic patterns. A majority of the time they just want something different, especially if the fishing pressure is high.

[mullet]

Just goes to show ya, you need to wash your hands when you go to the bathroom.

[sleek]

Or after a hard days fishing, befors you go to the bathroom.