How to Throw a Cast Net for Bait in Florida

Part of Core Skills · All fishing tutorials

Jump to: Choosing a Net: Size and Mesh · Loading and Throwing, Step by Step · Where Bait Schools Show in Florida · Caring for the Net · The Rules for Cast Nets in Florida

Live bait catches Florida fish that artificials sometimes cannot, and the cheapest way to fill a bait bucket is to catch your own. One good throw of a cast net over a school of greenies, pilchards or mullet can supply a whole morning of fishing — and save you the bait-shop run and the bait-shop bill.

Throwing a cast net looks like magic the first time you watch an old-timer pancake one over a bait school, but it is a learnable sequence of loading, coiling and turning. This guide covers choosing a net, the throw broken into steps, where bait schools actually show up in Florida, and how to keep a net working season after season.

Choosing a Net: Size and Mesh

Cast nets are sold by radius: a 6-foot net opens into a 12-foot circle. Bigger nets cover more water and sink over more bait, but they are heavier, harder to throw well, and illegal in a few tight situations where a smaller net is the sensible tool anyway. Most Florida beginners should start with a 6- to 8-foot net — big enough to be useful, small enough to learn on. Save the 10- and 12-footers until your throw is automatic.

Mesh size decides what you keep. Fine mesh (around 1/4 to 3/8 inch) holds small baits like greenies, pilchards and shrimp without gilling them, and it is the right choice for most inshore bait. Larger mesh sinks faster and suits mullet and bigger baitfish in deeper water. Real lead weights matter too: cheap nets with light, coated weights sink slowly and let fast bait escape out from under the rim before it closes.

Loading and Throwing, Step by Step

There are several good ways to throw a cast net; this is the method most Florida anglers learn first because it works without putting the lead line in your teeth. Practice on grass until the net opens flat most of the time.

1. Tie the hand line to your wrist or belt loop. A cast net thrown without the line secured is a cast net donated to the bay.
2. Coil the hand line neatly into your non-throwing hand, then drape the net over that same hand so it hangs to about your knees.
3. With your free (throwing) hand, reach down and grab the net about halfway down its length, lifting it so you now hold the net in two gathered bunches.
4. Take the lead line in your throwing hand at one point along the rim, and hold a second point of the rim in your non-throwing hand, so the net is spread between your hands like you are holding open a hammock.
5. Turn your body sideways to the target, then rotate through the throw — swing both arms in a smooth arc and release the throwing-hand side first, letting the net’s own spin pull the rest out of your other hand.
6. The net should land flat and round, like a pancake hitting the water. Let it sink until the weights settle — a few seconds in shallow water, longer over a deep school.
7. Pull the hand line in slow, steady tugs. The drawstring action closes the bottom of the net into a pocket. Haul it up quickly at the end, and empty your bait straight into an aerated bucket.

Where Bait Schools Show in Florida

The throw is only half the skill; the other half is finding something worth throwing at. Grass flats hold pinfish and shrimp — shuffle slowly and watch for the flickers and nervous water that give a school away, or chum lightly with a bit of cat food or jack mackerel paste the way old Florida bait-catchers do and let the bait come to you. Bridges and causeways concentrate greenies and threadfin herring around pilings and light pools; at night, bait gathers in the lit water under bridge lamps. Beaches and passes host mullet schools that show as dark patches and V-wakes moving along the shore, plus pilchards over the nearshore bars in summer and fall. Marinas, dock lights and seawall corners are also reliable — anywhere small fish gather over structure, your net can reach them.

Throw at the edge of the school rather than its center, move quietly, and never throw blind into water you cannot see into: submerged oyster bars, dock pilings and old crab traps eat cast nets.

Caring for the Net

Rinse the net with fresh water after every saltwater trip and hang it to dry out of direct sun — ultraviolet light is what makes monofilament brittle. Store it in its bucket with the lid off so it can breathe; a net sealed up wet will mildew and rot its drawstrings. Pick out every twig, shell and bit of grass before it dries into the mesh, check the lead line for broken weights, and mend small tears with a netting needle and twine before they spread. If the net comes up feeling stiff and lifeless after a season or two, a short soak in water with a splash of fabric softener relaxes the monofilament and brings back its soft, flat throw.

Finally, keep your bait alive longer than the ride to your fishing spot — our guide to keeping live bait alive covers aeration, crowding and Florida-heat tactics that start the moment the net comes up.

The Rules for Cast Nets in Florida

Cast nets are legal recreational gear for catching bait in Florida saltwater, and you need the appropriate Florida fishing license for the water you are in. The fish you catch in one still follow their own rules — for example, mullet have their own limits — so a net full of bait is not automatically a bucket you can keep. In freshwater, bait taken by cast net is limited to golden shiners of any size and nongame fish under 8 inches, with a maximum 1-inch stretched mesh. And some piers, parks and preserves ban cast nets locally, so check posted rules before you throw from any deck or boardwalk.

Regulations checked against the FWC — October 2026. Rules change; confirm at myfwc.com before you fish.

Species This Helps You Catch

• Striped Mullet — the cast net’s classic Florida target, both for the table and for cut bait

Free Florida Fishing Tools

Not sure which license covers the water you plan to throw in? The License Cost Builder prices out Florida fishing licenses for residents, visitors and every combination in between, so you buy the right one the first time.