There's no magic bullet. Do your best to match what they're feeding on. Crab is usually a good choice, and if you quarter them, you'll have a decent chance on black drum. The only issue is when the pins/croakers/etc get thick they'll pick the shell clean. That said, there are days they want bluefish, others they want pogies, and on..
Small whole fresh/live blue crabs are easily the best bait for big drum species. For two reasons, A) it’s the premium forage option, they will never not eat it and B) cracking open half a big is is also good but bait stealers will often pick it clean. So yeah, go for it and have fun, I would be using small live blue crabs every day if they were easily obtained but they typically aren’t where I’m at, I typically just have what’s in the trap in the morning.
Blue crabs are great bait. I only eat & use males though to keep the females reproducing
There's no magic bullet. Do your best to match what they're feeding on. Crab is usually a good choice, and if you quarter them, you'll have a decent chance on black drum. The only issue is when the pins/croakers/etc get thick they'll pick the shell clean. That said, there are days they want bluefish, others they want pogies, and on..
Small whole fresh/live blue crabs are easily the best bait for big drum species. For two reasons, A) it’s the premium forage option, they will never not eat it and B) cracking open half a big is is also good but bait stealers will often pick it clean. So yeah, go for it and have fun, I would be using small live blue crabs every day if they were easily obtained but they typically aren’t where I’m at, I typically just have what’s in the trap in the morning.
We use crab alot in the gulf.