Help with using live perch to catch dogfish

[The Quadfather]

Use herring, and keep it off the bottom to avoid crabs. We dogfish don't care if the bait is live or not. Its perfectly legal, but not necessary to use a live perch for bait.

You heard it from the Dogfish himself,:bounce: They are not the pickiest predators.

[troylangdon]

Im with Jake. Why would you use perch in the first place. Seems silly to me seeing that nothing catches doggies better then herring or shiners.

Was a suggestion from a 13 year old..After going through 2 packages of herring (to the crabs)...I just wanted my kids to catch a fish, to be honest I don't see the ferver for a basically non edible fish.

[troylangdon]

Use herring, and keep it off the bottom to avoid crabs. We dogfish don't care if the bait is live or not. Its perfectly legal, but not necessary to use a live perch for bait.

You heard it from the Dogfish himself,:bounce: They are not the pickiest predators.

How to keep it off the bottom? Bobber? The place I was fishing was 30 feet deep....Thanks....

[troylangdon]

pacific staghorn sculpin fillets work well too!

You seem to be quite the authority on the piers.. Any suggestions for a shore spot to catch these suckers? I have fished Edmonds but don't really see how you could lift a decent size fish up to the pier. Thanks for any suggestion..

Troy

[troylangdon]

Perfectly legal in the salt. Get a Sabaki rig, its a series of small hooks on a 3'-5' leader and you can catch perch a couple at a time and fill a bucket quick. As far as rigging what ever works, try a mooching leader with 1/0 hooks. 1 hook through the lips and let the 2nd hook dangle, but there is more than 1 way to skin a cat. I know some people will drop shot their bait when crabs are a problem.

Sabaki

http://www.cabelas.com/link-12/product/ ... erralID=NA

Mooching leader


http://www.cabelas.com/link-12/product/ ... erralID=NA

Drop shot

http://www.60secondangler.com/images/ar ... opshot.jpg

GPC

Thanks for the info....Will give it a shot...

[troylangdon]

Also any recomended spots from the shore? Again, thank you for any help.

Troy

If you live in Mukilteo, are you familiar with the fishing pier that is located at the Mukilteo ferry dock? At least it is a shore bound access point. I find dogfish to be in deeper water though. I guess it can't hurt to give it a try.

If you have the opportunity to get out on a boat, you cannot go wrong almost anywhere if looking for dogfish. I catch them in more of the 60-90' of water range. Think of large bait that will stay away from the flounder. Whole herring, look for various whole body fish that you can buy in asian grocery stores. I think one of them was called Butter fish.

Quad

I Have tried Mukilteo pier, but I think its just to shallow. Thanks for the info on the bait selections. I just can't seem to keep the bait away from the crabs....The only place I have found that is deep and accessable from the shore is the marina in Oak Harbor. You have any suggestions??

Troy

[troylangdon]

So I gotta speak up!! Am I the only one who has a problem with using a live fish as bait when doing "catch and release" for a crap fish. Use a bobber to keep your bait off the bottom.

Shiner perch are heavily HEAVILY abundant in Puget Sound. I see no harm in using them for bait for catch and release fishing, once the bait is off the hook it will sink to the bottom and be eaten by crabs, sculpins, flatties, and insects OR the dogfish will have ingested it and can enjoy the meal (after the scare of its lifetime).

Its no different than using dead herring for bait, they once were alive, they just happen to be dead when you are using them. Still the loss of a life.

Matt

Thanks for articulating what I was thinking. I see people catching those little fish by the hundreds (I guess to fry whole?) So me using 5 or 6 of them is not likely to dent the population!!
I thought this forum was about fishing?? Didn't know some topics where taboo...Live and learn...

Troy

[gpc]

Perfectly legal in the salt. Get a Sabaki rig, its a series of small hooks on a 3'-5' leader and you can catch perch a couple at a time and fill a bucket quick. As far as rigging what ever works, try a mooching leader with 1/0 hooks. 1 hook through the lips and let the 2nd hook dangle, but there is more than 1 way to skin a cat. I know some people will drop shot their bait when crabs are a problem.

...

careful there.

they changed the rules this year, and placed a limit of 15 for shiner perch.

limit is 10 in Puget Sound, for other kinds of perch (pile perch, striped seaperch)

bummer

oops didnt know that, thanks for the heads up.

[Shad_Eating_Grin]

...
Was a suggestion from a 13 year old..After going through 2 packages of herring (to the crabs)...I just wanted my kids to catch a fish, to be honest I don't see the ferver for a basically non edible fish.

Shiner perch are absolutely DEE LEE CIOUS