Last week, the first of the this years poggies showed up on the beach. This is always a special time, as with the arrival of the Poggy Pods, also means summer is here. What is really the importance of summer being here? This means many things, such as: NO MORE COLD WEATHER, the summer weather patterns have started, west winds in the early part of the day and south east in the afternoon.

The main thing about the poggy pods is the arrival of bait, that is by far the best bait for most fish that live near the jetties, BIGG Reds, Cobia, Big Yellowmouth Trout, Kingfish and everyone's favorite, Stingrays.

Now is the time to get out your big cast net and make some practice throws, as the six and seven footers that we throw in the creeks for mullet, will not work to catch poggies.  The net of choice for me is a 10 to 12 foot Fitec Super Spreader or Fitec Pro Select, in 1/2 inch mesh.

I like the big net because the area of coverage difference from a six foot to a twelve foot is four times the amount of area. That's right, the twelve foot net covers four times the area that a six footer covers and the twelve foot net will sink about 3 to 5 times faster than the six foot net.  These two differences will make the difference in you catching poggies and NOT catching poggies. This difference is especially true when the poggies are in water deeper than about 15 feet.

Here is an example of the differences in the two nets. Last week I went to the beach to catch poggies and messed up. I grabbed a net, I keep mine in buckets, and picked up the six footer by mistake.  I threw that net about thirty or forty times to catch three dozen poggies. The next day I brought the 12 footer and threw it twice and had all of the bait that I needed for a day of fishing.

Now, would you rather throw your 6 foot net for two hours or the big 12 footer for five minutes.

Poggies are not like mullet or shrimp and you cannot put them in a small or square live well. They need a great amount of water circulation and MUST be place in a round or oval live well, OR THEY WILL DIE.  For this I use a KeepAlive portable 20 or 30 gallon round live well with the KeepAlive Oxygen Infusor.

Here are a couple of ways to use your poggies now.

After your live well is full make a short run down the beach and find more poggie pods.  Tie on a 1/2 ounce Jaw Jacker lead head jig in Chartreuse, run the hook through the nose of one of your poggies and throw the bait in the middle of the bait pod. You might want to hold this rod "tightly" as there are some big things under those pods. You might catch a 40 to 50 pound redfish, a big jack, a shark or my favorite, a cobia. 

You cannot do this with your creek fishing rods as they do not hold enough line for the big boys that live in the ocean.  Here is the outfit that I like:  I start with 50 pound test PowerPro line, (12 pound mono diameter). I spool that on a Shakespeare Medallist BG6600 reel and attach that to a 7 foot, medium heavy, Ugly Stik Rod. Now you have enough line and an outfit that will hold up to anything that might be lurking under the bait pods. When you hook up be prepared to chase these fish down, as most are pretty big.

Here is something else that you can do with your poggies. Go to your favorite redfish spot at the jetties or inlet, put you anchor down and send them down as you would a mullet or a shrimp. If there are any reds in the area, you will catch many more than anyone around you that are using other bait. Redfish love poggies.

The rig for this can be the same Shakespeare outfit except from the end of the PowerPro slip on a weight, heavy enough to hold bottom, then a barrel swivel, then a piece of 50 pound mono leader and for the hook, a Daiichi 8/0 Circle Wide. After you have done all of this, put the rod in the rod holder and wait until it doubles over. Then pick it up, DO NOT SET THE HOOK, and the battle is on. When I say do not set the hook, this is because the Daiichi Circle Wide is designed to do that for you and if you do set it, sometimes you will loose the fish. Let the hook do the job that it was designed to do.

Visit Jim at his web site, http://www.hammondfishing.com or drop him an email at [email protected]

Jim Hammond