Fishing in the ocean, whether deep sea or from shore will produce better and tastier fish than the creatures you’d find in your local aqueduct. That said, if you’re an inland fisheries kinda person, maybe you need a quick guide on what works and what doesn’t. In this list, I’m covering natural baits that you soak in the water, as opposed to swim baits, lures or jigs. I’m partial to bait and wait type fishing as in most oceans, you can set up multiple rods and hang out with your buddies beside a Playmate cooler with amber-colored beverages inside. These are my favorite saltwater fishing baits that will work to catch sea critters.

Natural Saltwater Fishing Bait

A natural saltwater fishing bait is defined as a consumable bait. Contextually, natural baits are common prey species that the target fish generally eats. This means that the best natural bait is the thing likely hiding under the sand or found when flipping a rock. Here are my top 6 picks for natural baits that are most commonly found under your feet when surf fishing.

1) Soft Shelled Sand Fleas

The most common thing lurking beneath your feet when surf fishing is going to be sand fleas, depending on the season. Sand fleas in California can be found in mass numbers from spring to fall. When the water gets colder or more turbulent, sand fleas will go deeper and take root, usually out of digging distance. You may be able to dig deep enough to find stragglers, but the “v” shape in the surf won’t be your dead giveaway on where they are. During the offseason, I’ve had great luck finding sand fleas just behind large rocks that help reduce the amount of turbulent water they experience.

The best sand flea to use are the soft shelled bugs. Surf fish species can’t resist an easy to crunch meal.

Perch and Corbina are the west coast preferred targets and on the east coast, this favorite saltwater fishing bait will find bluefish and pompano. Many other fish will eat sand fleas, so these aren’t the only things you’ll catch.

2) Sand Worms

Also a common prey species, sand worms can be found on both coasts of North America. Gulp makes an imitation soft bait that can be used with great success, but sand worms can also be found digging. The sandworms on the Californian coast are reef-building worms known as the sandcastle worm. They can generally be spotted on rockier beaches when looking for tubular structures that look like a colony of worms have been building a network. On the east coast, they can be found in the sand under the water line in the form of a hole.

As a natural saltwater fishing bait, sand worms work incredibly well not only due to them being a favorite food, but also because they provide a lot of action in the water in the form of a long thing that begs to be eaten.

3) Mussels or Clams

Fresh mussels or clams are juicy and provide a lot of scent when used as a saltwater fishing bait. Mussels can be found growing on structure like rocks or pylons, and clams can be found by digging under the sand.

The challenge with bi-valves as fishing baits are that they are soft and come off of a hook easily. Two easy solutions are to use magic thread or to get some salted mussels from Plan Bait. Magic thread can be used to tie the bait onto the hook. Salted mussels are generally tougher than a fresh mussel and will remain on a hook much better than a fresh one.

4) Ghost Shrimp

This is a new-to-me saltwater fishing bait. I’ve heard of the term ghost shrimp but didn’t realize that these things live under my feet when I’m fishing the bay. Specifically, the bay ghost shrimp is a true shrimp that lives in non-turbulent saltwater like bays and can be harvested as bait by digging for them. They’re not easy to spot and are fast when in the water, but work great for varying species of croakers that are cruising the bay looking for a meal. Their holes can be spotted from the surface of the water when looking down while wading through the water.

Ghost shrimp are also known to be difficult to manage on a hook and magic thread is another great solution for keeping this type of saltwater fishing bait from being stolen.

An alternative to ghost shrimp that provides a similar scent is the Plan Bait Dehydrated Shrimp fishing baits. These are nice because they work in both saltwater and freshwater.

5) Squid

Everything eats squid, from the largest of sea mammals to turtles and fish. Squid is a universal jack-of-all-trades bait that will work in most conditions for a wide target of fish species. I sell dehydrated squid as well as salted squid that I use when fishing and they have caught a variety of both sand and reef fish like Calico and sand bass.

6) Cut Bait

Lastly, many fish are opportunists and will not skip out on an easy scavenged meal like your choice of stinky cut bait. My preference, here on the west coast, is mackerel. I’ve had so much success with mackerel in both saltwater fishing and freshwater fishing that I’ve packaged Salted Mackerel as a Plan Bait product.

Cut bait is literally a chunk of fish that has been cut off and placed onto your hook. Mackerel is a great choice for cut bait for many reasons, but the most prominent reason is the oil content in the meat. This leave a nice trail of scent for scavenging fish to trace towards. The downside to most cut baits is that they’re best when frozen to help keep them on the hook. I’ve found that salted cut baits work much better than frozen chunks of fish as a means to keep them on the hook.