Everyone I talked to had their own opinion about how to attract merfish. One old salt from Portugal told me "it's not how deep you fish em, but how you wiggle your bait." The general consensus is that merfish are way too smart to be caught with a hook and line, or a net. in fact many fishermen told of having exotic merbaits taken off the hook and replaced with such oddities as rubber boots and sea cucumbers. We left no shell unturned in our search to find someone who had actually caught a merfish and with my conversations with fisherpersons who knew someone who had, I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't warn you to a man they couldn't tell me who caught who. "Sam had seen this mermaid a couple of times, we were walking on the beach late one afternoon. I heard this soft singing and looked, sure enough she was playing in the surf. Sam said I'm going to go say hello to Morganna. He just kept walking out to sea, we never saw him again. Didn't even turn around to say goodbye. All merfish love music. Seamen have know this for centuries. No strategy for attracting a merfish is complete without it. The ageless choice is classical chamber music featuring violins and cellos. If your in the tropics you might try Mexican guitar band or steel drums. I hear the California valley merfish have been known to show up for Beach Boy music. But you know how it is fishing, if something doesn't work, try something else.