By: Capt. Greg Polan
I hope everyone is having a great summer and doing their best to stay out of the heat by getting up early and getting out there to watch the sunrise, that’s what I have been doing on my trips and we have been doing pretty well both on the Atlantic and in the backcountry.
Shrimp in the bait shops has been scarce and when they do have them they are the size of brine shrimp, not very useful for what I am chasing, therefore, I have been catching pilchards or using any number of the realistic plastic baits on the market today. The easiest way I have found to catch pilchards is with a Sabiki. A good friend and fellow charter boat captain started R & R Tackle a 
number of years ago and his slogan is “Our tackle box to yours.” I use his rigs because they are simply the best out there and if you snoop around you will find detailed videos on how to best use the products in real situations. Below is a photo of the Sabiki that I use 75% of the time, there are about 40 options, but I make it simple and use the size 6 for most of the bait I am looking for. If that’s not working, I scale down to a size 3 and always use a dehooker to get the bait off the line and into your well.
Now that you have the right rig grab a box of chum and find the bait and when you find it the rest is pretty simple and you will catch as many as time allows and then off to your favorite spot. Everything eats a pilchard from a snook in the backcountry to a Mahi Mahi in 1,000 ft of water. If you simply don’t have time to spend bait fishing and want to be in the Flamingo area as the sun comes up for the early morning bite head down to your local tackle store and walk the isle looking for that plastic or squishy rubber bait that catches your eye, the technology that is out there today is amazing. They have everything from a fake pilchard to a flying fish, and matter of fact, I have been rigging these lifelike flying fish from Nomad Design for a Bahamas trip and honestly it makes me want to throw away every other trolling lure I own.
When I saw the flying fish lure pictured below it stopped me in my tracks and I bought all 3 sizes in 2 different colors so watch out because some of these items are designed to catch humans as well! I hope to report back that we caught a blue marlin or a big mahi on the Bahamas adventure and hope some of these tackle tips and products make their way to your tackle box as this is what you will see in mine!