Found a bait ball... Now what?

What’s your methodology when you happen upon a decent school of bait in the bay? Any “go to” approaches you’ve found to increase hook ups that you could share?

Same school, a few seconds later, down scan image.

My idea would be to find the edges of the ball and make sure the bait I drop down amidst it is differentiated from the rest, something that catches the eye of said predator...02 cents

My idea would be to find the edges of the ball and make sure the bait I drop down amidst it is differentiated from the rest, something that catches the eye of said predator...02 cents

Exactly! Blast your bait where you see those separate pink blotches. Those are probably Striper. Put bait in middle of bait then cruse it out from there and wiggle it like a mad man.... Good luck! hope there are hungry fish

My idea would be to find the edges of the ball and make sure the bait I drop down amidst it is differentiated from the rest, something that catches the eye of said predator...02 cents

Makes sense to try and stand out. “Match the Hatch” probably gets lost in the background.

My idea would be to find the edges of the ball and make sure the bait I drop down amidst it is differentiated from the rest, something that catches the eye of said predator...02 cents

Exactly! Blast your bait where you see those separate pink blotches. Those are probably Striper. Put bait in middle of bait then cruse it out from there and wiggle it like a mad man.... Good luck! hope there are hungry fish

I circled the bait, (best possible), and no takers with frozen  anchovy, or herring. I noticed the probable stripers seemed to be attacking from the top, so I cranked a Rapala across the top, no good. Tried white/blk, pearl white and then chartreuse swim baits, nothing....

Dynamite, it wasn’t that deep 

Dynamite, it wasn’t that deep 

That woulda done it

I'd be careful---looks like there might be a T. Rex down there in that second picture...

I've been around a lot of bait balls in the past and not all produce. I agree with Eddie to work the edges of the ball to make your bait the outliner.

Scattered bait balls, with holes and fragmennted pieces is a much better tell of feeding fish. Solid balls of bait better than nothing tho.

Drop a sabiki and pick up a live bait.  Or give em something completely different, bright color Swimbait or bucktail.  Looks like you were located, sometimes it just takes some current or or tide shift to get em to go, I would have stuck all day till they got hungry. 

I'd be careful---looks like there might be a T. Rex down there in that second picture...

 

I've been around a lot of bait balls in the past and not all produce. I agree with Eddie to work the edges of the ball to make your bait the outliner.

Scattered bait balls, with holes and fragmennted pieces is a much better tell of feeding fish. Solid balls of bait better than nothing tho.

When I switched over to down scan imaging, I could see larger sonar returns moving around, so I was hopeful.
They probably didn’t like what I was presenting, or how it was presented. Practice, practice, practice..., and patience 

Drop a sabiki and pick up a live bait.  Or give em something completely different, bright color Swimbait or bucktail.  Looks like you were located, sometimes it just takes some current or or tide shift to get em to go, I would have stuck all day till they got hungry.

Really wanted to make some bait, but left the sabikis at home in a separate tackle bag. Need to consolidate!

Drop a sabiki and pick up a live bait.  Or give em something completely different, bright color Swimbait or bucktail.  Looks like you were located, sometimes it just takes some current or or tide shift to get em to go, I would have stuck all day till they got hungry.

Really wanted to make some bait, but left the sabikis at home in a separate tackle bag. Need to consolidate!

Grab one of these..... it holds three of those..... I have 9 of those boxes right now set up in sets of 3 for what I’m targeting and simply grab the 3 for what I’m fishing for.... now salmon is a whole different box cuz the gear won’t fit in these or those! I only bait fish for salmon but a guy could easily get two days worth of tackle in those unless he likes catching reef more then fish, then you could run out of tackle.