Whether fishing natural or artificial baits, there are plenty of ways to target a variety of gamefish during May.
Story and photography By Danno Wise

As spring continues to transition to summer, patterns on the coast are transitioning as well. The early spring’s hatchlings quickly becoming “eating size” for speckled trout, redfish and various other gamefish, and now is time to use shrimp or crab to tempt these predator species.
While using shrimp and crabs for bait is a simple enough prospect, there are actually a variety of ways to rig them. As is the case with most types of fishing, the more versatile fishermen are, the more their odds for success increase. So, while anglers may have a preferred method for rigging and fishing crustaceans, it behooves them to be familiar with as many as possible so they can adapt to a variety of situations and conditions.
Live Bait Rigs
Free-line – As simple a way of a rig as there is, a free line setup usually consists of just a bare hook or a hook and barrel swivel. At most a split shot may be added to a free-line rig in order to hasten the sink rate of the shrimp or crab (or other live bait).
However as simple as a free-line rig is, it can take some adjustment to get used to fishing live bait in this manner. To start with, casting such a light rig requires a spinning reel along with a deft touch.
Secondly, anglers need to be able to keep slack out of the line in order to feel bites, especially since many pickups on a free-lined bait are subtle. However, you don’t want to reel too fast or keep line too tight as that will alter the natural appearance of the bait as it swims through the water. Because of this, it is often impractical to fish a free-line rig on windy days.

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