Fish ? Eel ?

[mstolte617]

Sitting at the dock and seeing these going wild. Caught one just to check it out. Any ideas? Sandworm?

[HighHook94]

Picture is a little blurry, but looks like a sandworm to me.

[bulletbob]

can't determine the size from the picture, but if you saw a lot of them swimming/swarming around, and it was in an area with a mud bottom, I would be inclined to say its a cinder worm, not a sandworm. I just thought cinder worm swarms were earlier in the year, but I might be wrong about that.. In any case, my guess is its a cinder worm.... bob

[mstolte617]

Bob- yes. Definitely Cinder worms. Thank you. And thank you google. They were everywhere at the marina. They caught my eye because how quickly they moved and looked like goldfish... How are they for bait? I see a few lures trying to mimic its look. I'm reading that stripers love them, much like sand worms. Always learning.

[TheFishSlayer]

Bass candy

[bulletbob]

I suppose, if you could net a bunch of them with a fine mesh, they would be great bait for anything that eats sea worms, which is just about everything that swims in NJ/NY waters... bob

[NJ Dave]

I've fished cinder worm hatches 3 times with teen size bass on em. This is what they are keyed in on and that's it. Artificial flies lures won't do it. It's cinders and cinders only. They move super fast in the water and quickly die when hooked. It's like a liquid center which leaks out when hooked.
My experience fishing in em was more frustrating seeing the fish rolling on em and there is nothing going you can do.
It's like pulling up to a sand eel bite and trolling spoons

[bunker dunker]

go to a good fly shop and they will have the cinder flys that will catch the stripers.fish the fly rod at low light times of the day{early morning & dusk}.
slow presentation on floating line with lite floro tippet.

[torchee]

I've fished cinder worm hatches 3 times with teen size bass on em. This is what they are keyed in on and that's it. Artificial flies lures won't do it. It's cinders and cinders only. They move super fast in the water and quickly die when hooked. It's like a liquid center which leaks out when hooked.
My experience fishing in em was more frustrating seeing the fish rolling on em and there is nothing going you can do.
It's like pulling up to a sand eel bite and trolling spoons

TRUE!

they can kill a bite, one track mind