Up your keeper to short ratio by fishing peanuts this September.
It was the month of September in a back bay area a couple of years back. I caught a mess of shorts already and had a keeper or two in the cooler so felt I’d had a successful trip. Small curlytails on the back of a jighead and on my teaser hook got the job done for me. While making a drift, another boat pulled up to the quiet location and proceeded to send down an offering that I didn’t get a good look at. Right away he was doubled over and I saw the net go in the water and come up with a sizable flattie that was well into the keeper range. Of course my first though was that he landed his bait right on this fish and this could happen to anyone. The lone angler set up on another drift, but this time I was a little closer and saw him reach down into a livewell and put a small fish on the hook. Once again the net was going in the water within minutes and another sizable fluke hit the deck of his boat. Now this is when I paid a little more attention and noticed that the angler was using live peanut bunker as bait. As you would have guessed, the third drop drew a similar result.
I watched this fisherman catch his fluke limit in a short amount of time and without any shorts involved either. The whole trick was the use of these live peanut bunker which is what the bigger fluke are typically keyed in on during the month of September. Obviously I went back armed with a small cooler, aerator and cast net just to see for myself how effective this would be. After spending a small amount of time in the creek catching peanuts, I was armed with plenty of bait to go fluking. The results were very similar to the show I’d just wtnessed. I was able to use live peanut bunker to put together a limit of fluke in short order.
Before you go out and try to do this, the first thing you have to be willing to learn how to do is throw a cast net. This is the easiest and most effective way to catch peanut bunker in the creeks. Last year The Fisherman Magazine shot a how to video with Capt. Greg DeMello explaining what goes into throwing one. You can find the video here: https://youtu.be/4FUWgQtGaUg.
Once you have some bait secured, the next thing to do is keep it alive in a livewell. Some boats have the luxury of having one built in, while others don’t. For those who do not, you have to get a little creative. I have gotten away with a cooler and a couple of aerators before and this has worked pretty well for me. Engel also makes a live bait cooler with rechargeable aerators up to a 30-quart size that will get the job done. One word of caution, do not to overpack the cooler with peanut bunker. Too many baitfish will take the oxygen out of the water quickly and they will end up dying in a short amount of time.
For my rig, I have been using a fishfinder; a 3-foot leader of 25-pound monofilament attached to a 3/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook and a barrel swivel on the other end. Above the barrel swivel I’ll use a heavy enough egg sinker to keep the bait swimming along the bottom. If I’m using smaller peanut bunker, I’ll scale down to a 2/0 hook. You will want the bait to stay alive as long as possible and using lighter terminal tackle is one way to ensure that. The best way that I found to hook these fragile baits is by running the point of the hook in one nostril and out of the other.
Typically a larger fluke will inhale a peanut bunker. When I feel some weight, I like to give the fish a few seconds to make sure they have engulfed the bait before setting the hook.
Tides also play a role in success for this type of fishing. I found that if the tide is running too hard, the bait will twist unnaturally and deter any suspicious fluke from biting. My preferable tide choices are the last part of the flood and the beginning of the ebb. Slack tide with the help of a trolling motor can also be productive.
If you’re looking to up your keeper to short ratio this month, try to get ahold of some peanuts and send them down for a shot at a few more for the cooler.
