[c-hawk23]

2 weeks ago I was out of OI. There was a school of spade fish around the boat maybe about 50 fish 3-4 pounds just guessing. Water temp was 69-70 F. The seas were 3-4 ft, steep and white capping. we set out light spinning rods with floats ranging from 4' to 15' deep #12 line 1/4 & 1/2 oz weights. #1 hooks baited with clam. I even tried free lining at 20' with not the first nibble. If those spade fish had hands I sure know which finger they were holding up when they swam past my bait. There were a lot of aj's below them. Can someone tell me if the water was to rough or just mabey what the heck we were doing wrong.

Thanks for any help, c-hawk23

[Flippsbigcountry]

Sounds like you did everything right??? I don't know sometimes those pesty Spades can be aweful picky and finicky. I usually use just a small #1 or 2 hook and come up about 20-24 inches or so and place a small split shot up to about 1/8oz at the heaviest and feed it down the the depth that the fish are schooling. It is also good to chum up the water to get the spades in a competion type feeding mode and they may be more abbot to bite. Hope this helps some...Flipp

[pop]

2 weeks ago I was out of OI. There was a school of spade fish around the boat maybe about 50 fish 3-4 pounds just guessing. Water temp was 69-70 F. The seas were 3-4 ft, steep and white capping. we set out light spinning rods with floats ranging from 4' to 15' deep #12 line 1/4 & 1/2 oz weights. #1 hooks baited with clam. I even tried free lining at 20' with not the first nibble. If those spade fish had hands I sure know which finger they were holding up when they swam past my bait. There were a lot of aj's below them. Can someone tell me if the water was to rough or just mabey what the heck we were doing wrong.

Thanks for any help, c-hawk23

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Try using shrimp. Was at Sandbridge pier today set up with 3 hook bottom rig one with shrimp, one with BWFB and one with clam FB. Shrimp was their choice.
Fred

[cuhollow]

Around here by July the water temperature warms up too much and they start eating jellyfish. The water is probably already to warm for clam there. Down there they eat the harder jellyfish that we don’t get up here (I have forgotten what they are called). If you saw some of those I hear that is the preferred bait for spades to the south of us. I have never tried this advice.

[peejcj8]

I cant draw at all, but they look like a big angel fish. There are pictures of them all on this page.

Ive seen them act like that late season at the CBBT, frustrating. Ive never fished for them at OI.

[P-2]

2 weeks ago I was out of OI. There was a school of spade fish around the boat maybe about 50 fish 3-4 pounds just guessing. Water temp was 69-70 F. The seas were 3-4 ft, steep and white capping. we set out light spinning rods with floats ranging from 4' to 15' deep #12 line 1/4 & 1/2 oz weights. #1 hooks baited with clam. I even tried free lining at 20' with not the first nibble. If those spade fish had hands I sure know which finger they were holding up when they swam past my bait. There were a lot of aj's below them. Can someone tell me if the water was to rough or just mabey what the heck we were doing wrong.

Thanks for any help, c-hawk23

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ground clam chum would have probably helped out too. When they stop biting we either shake up the chum bag or add some more fresh chum and usually that is all it take. The AJs might have been making they me nervous too. Try fishing a little deeper next time too. Rough water doesn't help either.

[Harley Rider]

Just a thought.

I have never even seen a Spade fish besides here on this site but I do know fish prefer fresh bait. I just did some Cod fishing off Cape Cod and used fresh clams I bought off a clam boat at the dock prior to us going out. Long story short I had to give half the clams to the guy who owned the boat and his buddy since me and my buddy were the only ones hooking fish.

If the bait was refrozen or old this might very well be the cause of the lack of hits.

Good luck

[c-hawk23]

Thanks Guys for all your feed back there were a lot of smallerjelly fish about a mile where the fish where. think I might try to chum next time, sound likes that helps produce.

Thanks Again, c-hawk23

[c-hawk23]

Sounds like you did everything right???  I don't know sometimes those pesty Spades can be aweful picky and finicky.  I usually use just a small #1 or 2 hook and come up about 20-24 inches or so and place a small split shot up to about 1/8oz at the heaviest and feed it down the the depth that the fish are schooling.  It is also good to chum up the water to get the spades in a competion type feeding mode and they may be more abbot to bite.  Hope this helps some...Flipp

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I was going to try a split shot but could not locate in my tackle. Oh well failure makes me want to fish harder next time.

Thanks for the help, c-hawk23

[short comings]

I went out to the 4th island 2day and we slayed them. I'll have a report up later tonight.