May 19, 2012 – Pogies are easily available for anglers and are a hit with gamefish.
While there are times when other baits might produce more or bigger fish, if there is one live bait all Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia coastal anglers should learn to love and fish with, it’s the menhaden.
Known by many colloquial names — pogie, moss bunker and bunker — the menhaden is not only a bait for all seasons, but it definitely is a bait for almost all marine gamefish on the First Coast.
Offshore, everything from sailfish and kingfish, to cobia, blackfin tuna, cudas, sharks, tarpon and wahoo greedily eat menhaden. Inshore, flounder and redfish go nuts for pogies. Sea trout at times go for them (especially big trout). Even bottom feeders like black drum, whiting and croakers can be drawn to a fishing spot by using ground menhaden as chum. Plenty of drum are caught with strips of fresh menhaden cut from large baits.
There are other baits that produce marine sportfish in Northeast Florida, like mud minnows, mullet and cigar minnows. But for availability for anglers, and desirability for gamefish, menhaden are numero uno. Period. Exclamation point.
Read the article at The Florida Times-Union.