Live Bait, Dead Bait, Metal Jigs, or Soft Plastics

just want to see what is most popular, who knows what is best.

clydeb

For Hali it's definitely live bait.  For RF, I use Shrimp fly (some time tip the hook with dead bait) above the Metal jig or lead head swim bait.

Everything sailfish said...

All my catch this year has been with Live bait for Halis and Shrimp fly with strip of squid for RF.

I have yet to land any fish on artificial other then foul hook fish.  I'm always amazed by skills of others to catch good fish on artificals, someday I hope I can too.

yeah actaully all of the above...

Hali's live is #1 dead is #2
RF....big lings and cabs on jigs with large grubs/scampi or swimbaits (3+ oz). blue, blacks, etc ususlly on a smaller 'shrimp fly' type rig. Both can be enhanced with squid strips.

This year for RF I stuck with one set up and did well. Jigs with either white or rootbeer scampi Attached to a 3 way swivel. the short leg of the swivel had a 2/0 pre snelled hook that I threadded on a smaller grub. Killed it all season. The nice part is if you are getting to many schoolie fish you can simply cut off the small rig and fish the big bait. Also with snags, if you need to break off you only are out 1/2 of your rig.

  For rockfish I use a 1 to 3 oz lead torpedo inside a hoochie(squid skirt) tipped with squid and except for the jigging being a lot of work, I think it works as well as anything. Live bait excluded.
 I rig  with 7 or 8-0 hook. Put a whole squid head or half a squid body or more on there, nothing like a big glob of squid.. Surprisingly I don't miss many dink rockfish with the large hook.

  For rockfish I use a 1 to 3 oz lead torpedo inside a hoochie(squid skirt) tipped with squid and except for the jigging being a lot of work, I think it works as well as anything. Live bait excluded.
 I rig  with 7 or 8-0 hook. Put a whole squid head or half a squid body or more on there, nothing like a big glob of squid.. Surprisingly I don't miss many dink rockfish with the large hook.

thanks casey, thats a sweet set up. i was going down the same path with an idea i had, but that seems more simple and effective.

For Hali it's definitely live bait.  For RF, I use Shrimp fly (some time tip the hook with dead bait) above the Metal jig or lead head swim bait.

i added shrimp fly to the poll. some times i put a shrimp fly on a dropper loop above a swimbait, tip it with a little dead bait for good measure.

Shrimp flys seem to catch the small schoolies.  I like a small lead jig with a singe shrimp fly tipped with squid or a small scampie about 1 foot above the jig.  Get lots of lings on the teaser hook.  I think they try to take it away from the small fish (jig) on the bottom.  Live bait works well, but is almost too much hassle for RF.

I haven't used live bait for rockfish in years... I just try to make my lures "look" alive and like an easy meal.

Gue/LP

swimbaits for all (most of the time)

I hate the slime from live and dead baits....

 When i'm on the boat i only use lures for the rockies, during the off season i use bait from shore

When it comes to rockfish, I'm all about weedless plastics both from the kayak and the shore.  The few trips I made out of Trinidad this year had me using a 7 watermelon ZOOM fluke on a 5/0 offset worm hook, with a 4/0 hook tied a foot or two above rigged weedless with a tube bait.  I almost never snagged with this rig, and was able to hop my fluke along the bottom without having to worry about snagging.  Lings, cabs, and rockfish gobbled up both baits.  I hardly ever use real bait for rockfishing, only when the water's too dirty for artificials.

i generally use a 1.5-3 oz bullet head jig and hammer the bottom with a 6 inch white single or double tail.  about the only other color i have used was a rootbeer colored single or double tail.  I had pretty good luck with the blacks with this set up, caught a couple lings and one red verm out of trinidad.  no luck on the halis with live, dead or plastic yet.  can't seem to figure them out yet