How to get live bait in the ocean?

Probably a trivial question, but the few times I’ve been out I’ve been dropping the sabiki here and there with no success. How do you make live bait from the kayak out in the ocean?

Depends on the bait and time of year.  Sometimes there are huge schools of bait, you can spot the birds working them and paddle around finding schools of bait on your fish finder like Anchovies. But, that wont happen until much later in the year but always be keeping your eye out for what looks like bait activity.  If there isn't any, then I like to just troll or drift for bait.  Trolling, I use a 10+oz sinker on my sabiki, let out like 30ft or so of line, and slow troll around until I get a smelt or something.  Can help to add shrimp or some pro-cure scent to the sabiki hooks too.  For drifting I do the same, but then I'm drifting a frozen bait or a swimbait on the bottom and just hoping that some bait will come along and then I'll swap out for the live bait, or send both live and frozen/swimbait down and fish both.

When halibut fishing the bay, I will often let out a bunch of line and drag the sabiki while getting to the grounds. Seems to work well enough for Jack Smelt more than anything else. For perch, I fish structure like jetty breaks, piers and/pilings, etc.

In the ocean, you can use a fish finder to locate larger schools, or watch the activity of the birds and other critters. Mackerel have larger marks like a trout or Kokanee, and sardine/anchovy tend to form bigger schools and will show up as a mass or blob on the fish finder screen. Having a line counter or system for gauging how much line you have let out helps to get the sabiki to the right depth. Sometimes tipping the hooks with squid bits is helpful, but I rarely do it.

Thanks, great info! I never thought of trolling the sabiki, I’ll definitely try that out!

I usually spend an hour trolling for live baits in the morning using 2 rods with Sabiki.  1 with 6oz weight and about 10-15ft from surface and a 3oz in 40-50ft deep.  If I see baits on the bottom then drop the 6oz rod down to the zone.

Another tip, not sure really if it works  but I like it all the same, I add a 1oz kastmaster with reflective tape to the top of my sabiki, without a hook.  Just like a little bling to attract them bait fish to my sabiki   

Chum with crushed dry cat food.

+1 for sabiki trolling

Also, smelt are often right on the very top and kingfish are on the bottom, with everything else in between, so you might try varying the depth from top to bottom when bait is hard to find...

Sabiki trolling works for me most of the time too. I usually only put a 2oz weight, and once I get moving toward my fishing grounds, I let put enough line to make the top swivel go under a little ways. Usually come up with a handful of smelt, sometimes anchovies or macks.

Errr...uhhh...anyone tipping the hooks wit calamari or shrimp?  Not sure it makes a difference but I like it.  Also chumming maybe with a bait jar on a paradord or handline with a weight in jar to keep it vertical?

I have tipped with squid or shrimp, or shrimp Pro-Cure. sometimes good sometimes bad, like if you dont want croaker, I'd avoid bait.

I have tipped with squid or shrimp, or shrimp Pro-Cure. sometimes good sometimes bad, like if you dont want croaker, I'd avoid bait.

Forgot about those miniature White Sea bass.  I forget if that's Moo's favorite tasty morsel...

I've seen the YT bros (Moo and LA) catch big lings on them croakers, but every time I've tried I got skunked 

Errr...uhhh...anyone tipping the hooks wit calamari or shrimp?  Not sure it makes a difference but I like it.  Also chumming maybe with a bait jar on a paradord or handline with a weight in jar to keep it vertical?

I've tipped the hooks, and it seemed to help a little. I don't always carry squid with me though.

I've thought about trying the bait jar thing for a long time, but haven't committed to it yet. If at a pier, chumming absolutely works wonders, so chumming and/or bait jar would have to help. Just extra stuff to get ready and extra stuff to carry on the water is pretty much why I haven't done that yet. Maybe in the bay when trying to halibut here pretty soon....

I've seen the YT bros (Moo and LA) catch big lings on them croakers, but every time I've tried I got skunked 

I've had mixed luck with croakers. I tend to get lots of shredded croakers, and not so many lings, haha. I think I like smelt best for ling bait - I tend to hook up better with those.