i need help catching fish in my canal?

Question

i live on a canal in miami. i love o fish in it and all i can catch is snapper and grunt. ive hooked tarpon and seen snook and baracuda. can u tell me how to catch snook, tarpon an barracuda in m canal.
bait(live, frozen, lures)?
techniques?
times?
any other tips u can think of, thanks

Answer 1

I grew up on a "brackish-water" canal in Jacksonville, FLA. We had a tidal influence of 6-7 Ft twice daily.

Here are some hint's for canal fishing:

CHUM it UP!: Go to Walmart & get some Salmon/Fish-flavored DRY catfood and MIX IT with Brine shrimp ,(from the pet section in Walmart), and mud from your canal. Make "balls" of chum with this concoction and distribute it every 4-6 FT down the shore of your property, AT LOW tide.

Chumming helps to "concentrate" baitfish, shrimp, & gamefish near your property. Your odds of catching better/bigger fish go UP when all the fish in your canal are swimming in front of your property! If you chum twice a week, Game-fish will start showing up even when you DON'T throw out "Chum ball's".

Try to fish the first 2-3 hours of a"flood tide" & the last 2-3 hours of the "out-going tide". Those will be your best "times". Slack tide will be the worse.

If your canal bottom isn't covered with shells to "snag" you, TRY throwing a CAST-NET for your bait. If you use a cast-net wisely, you can always be assured to HAVE bait AND know exactly what any gamefish in your canal is "hitting on". Fresh Pogey's, Shrimp, & 4" Pinfish/Mullet are easy target's for a cast-net and make EXCELLENT bait. If you need baitfish and don't want to "cast-net" them, either go buy some live Mud-Minnow's or live Shrimp, OR get a "scoop-net" and catch "Grass Shrimp" from under your "floating" dock. Use the Grass Shrimp to catch small pinfish and then use the PINFISH to catch anything ELSE!

If you have the time, and want a "project" to improve the fishing on your canal, make fish attractor's. An easy fish attractor is made from PVC pipe, put together into a 4 FT 3D "pyramid". Fill the PVC pipe with concrete cement ,(to make it sink), and cover it with 2-3 layer's of heavy gage chicken wire. Sand down the PVC to make it "rough",(Oyster's find it easier to attach themselves to "rough" surfaces), and submerge in an area that will not obstruct boater's. When I was a kid, we made these and put them on either end of our property line so we had attractor's in either direction.

Rules to Know: Live bait work's best for gamefish, PERIOD. Lures would be a close second. And dead bait LAST.

If you use dead shrimp, cut bait or squid on a Sinker/Sinker-Slide Rig in a canal, your odds on catching something "good" are next to nil. Saltwater Cat's, Crabs, 'Ray's, Grunt's, Sailor's Choice, Toad Fish, small Mangroves, Etc, will be what you catch 90% of the time. You CAN catch gamefish on dead bait, but your odds go UP 80% if you use fresh LIVE bait.

Live bait should be on a "Float Rig" of your choice,(I like the new "Popping Cork" system, but any float rig will do).

A good idea is to have a Live Pogey, Mud-Minnow, or Finger Mullet on a Float Rig sitting in a rod-holder. THEN, you would be casting LURES with another rod : white Cotee 1/4 OZ Jig-head with Berkley Powerbait saltwater Power Grub in "Glass Minnow". Or a 1/4 OZ white Cotee Jig with Berkley "Gulp" 3" "Pogey" in "Smelt" or "Anchovy".

"Gulp" lures sometimes out-fish BAIT! That's how GOOD they work.

Yozuri "Crystal Minnow's" & "S.S. Minnow's" that mimic Mullet and Pogey's work WONDER's on Snook & 'Cuda. Make sure to "sweeten" your hard-plastic lures by spraying them with Saltwater Fish attractant, (like "Scent's of the Sea" Pogey & Shrimp spray, which you can find at Walmart & K-Mart).

If you have to use a "wire" leader, use "Low-viz" wire.

Above all, just enjoy being outside and getting to go fishing!

Good luck! Hope this info help's ya out? Later.

(PS: Check my "Starred Question's" for further info regarding FLA saltwater fishing.)

Answer 2

the tarpon try some live crabs
the snook try some live shrimp free lining no weight
the barracuda i would try live fish probably on a bober
lures rapala makes some good ones like the rapala broken back, or a regular black an silver rapala about 6 inch will probably work on all 3 fish, go for the snook at night near a light the like to lay off in the edge an catch fish an shrimp that go thru the light, the light should be about 4 foot above the water.theres also some good saltwater fishing websites that might help, good luck an make sure you have a snook stamp on your fishing license or you could pay some big fines, also snook make a popping noise when feeding

Answer 3

There are mainly perch , roach and pike . Try and find a shoal of perch or roach , the can be found near structure , reed beds etc , you could ground bait with bread , sweetcorn or maggots . worms and maggots are good bait for perch as are small spinners , roach like maggots and bread , you could fish with a float or weight using small hooks 12 to 16's . Pike can be caught using spinners and other lures or a dead roach slowley drawn back or static , you will need to use a wire trace to stop the pike bitting of the bait , my friend caught a 7lb pike near Polmont last week , its all trial and error . Good luck and tight lines .

Answer 4

That's a good question!

Answer 5

It depends..