Fishbites as Bait for SoCal Piers

[tbae]

I've seen a lot of YT videos on how well Fishbites work but all of them seem to be on the East Coast and mostly for surf fishing. Have any of you tried Fishbites around SoCal piers and what's been your experience? Also which flavors seemed to work as well as not work?

Thanks in advance.

 

[evanluck]

I’ve used them with mixed success at San Clemente and Cabrillo Mole in Catalina: it can basically be thought of as a scented artificial bait with almost no action. So it attracts with color and scent. You can use it small piece to tip a hook that has some
cut bait already on it or use it on its own.

I have found it useful when I was dropping in waters with lots of bait stealing fish. They have a much harder times taking the fish bites so the activity of the smaller fish picking at the bait coupled with a bait that will stay on the hook can help you hook a bigger fish in those specific tricky conditions.

I wouldn’t use it on a day with a slow bite.

 

[jungfisher]

It works. I use tiny bits on tiny hooks to catch bait usually. Couple weeks ago caught two healthy yellow fin croakers

 

[bassfanatick]

It works, I have used it, the white squid flavor to catch Mackerel here at Oceanside pier. The product is not perfect, if you leave it too long in the bag the bait will dry up and turns yellow.

 

[TheFrood]

I haven't been super successful with it but I like the strings/whatnot that are in it to give extra durability to the bait...

 

[AppleSauce]

I haven't had much luck with the longer lasting shrimp (orange color) this year since the water hasn't been warm enough. I think I had better luck with the Bloodworm variety as I caught some yellowfin croaker and sand dabs on them. Also, I mainly used them at night so the color didn't help to attract the fish. The longer lasting varieties require higher water temps it seems. I tried the quick acting formula in shrimp and it only seemed to really catch baitfish.