Houghtaling says you have to find the birds that eat pilchards and then chase them down. So Houghtaling uses binoculars to scout birds diving on pilchards and has a fishing companion drive the boat while he stands on the bow with a 12-foot cast net ready. The driver speeds up to the school of pilchards, quickly stops alongside them, and Houghtaling throws the net immediately. On a good day, he can get all the bait he needs in two or three throws. If there are no pilchards to be found, Houghtaling recommends using live shrimp.
Pilchards are more than a mouthful for many larger fish, and thus weed out the little stuff.
But even without GPS, a boat's depth recorder will show the spikes and holes where the reef sticks up, surrounded by flatter bottom. Many anglers make the mistake of anchoring the boat directly on top of the patch reef. That means nearly every bait will be snagged on a sea fan or dragged into a crevice by a tricky grouper. Houghtaling recommends heading upwind and upcurrent of the patch and anchoring so that there is 100 feet between the boat's transom and the reef. The bait flits around the bottom, as the angler leaves the reel's bail open, keeping light tension on the line and feeling it with a finger.