Thread: Eyes out--Hole in head??

Last year (late June) I had moderate king/spanish success on my annual vacation on the pier. I use the sabiki rig to catch bait.
It seemed that on every second or third rig, my bait would come back with the eyes chewed out...which was really wierd to me. I asked a fellow beside me and he said it was crabs....another said it was other baitfish. I assume this is common...but what critter does this? Also, is there any way to rig the bait which would make it less prone to being eye-balled?

Grasping at straws here but I seem to remember someone saying remoras do that. But I could be way off base and if I am, I fully expect to have that fact point out to me. (sarcasm)

Spadefish are the notorious 'peckerheads' or 'head peckers', eyeball eaters, whatever.

Dang, I wasn't even close!

Yep, definitely spadefish. It most frequently happens to me when my bait is dying and swimming fairly close to the pier.

Originally Posted by Pier#r

Spadefish are the notorious 'peckerheads' or 'head peckers', eyeball eaters, whatever.

Yep, Spades are definitely the culprits! They will also gut cigs that are close to the pilings.
This was not really additive, but I couldn't sleep tonight if I didn't reply to a thread titled "Eyes out--Hole in head??"