Pre-baiting the swim

Has anybody any experience of pre-baiting a venue prior to fishing it? Coarse anglers do it all the time and I am wondering could it be a useful tactic in the sea, I understand that currents and wave action may disperse the groundbait. Anybody any thoughts or experience on this? Some years ago fishing whiting I chopped up about 20 mackerel and tipped them over side of the pier, about 30 minutes later I was catching whiting under the rod tip and can only presume that they were attracted in by the chopped mackerel. What if I groundbaited with 50 mackerel a day before fishing it?

Pete

hi
id presume this would work as when im finished a session i dump the left overs into the sea and the when we fish this spot next week it usually fishes a bit better

Hello there pete. I reckon its deffinitely worth trying it for some species. Conger for instance will inhabit certain parts of a harbour if they know theyre going to get plenty of offal and discards from the trawlers so I dont see why pre baiting for them shouldnt work if your willing to put in the time and build up a routine ie. prebait a fishy looking spot every day at the same time for a week to ten days, then return to fish it at the same time (as you would have prebaited) the next day.

theres a few shallow marks that hold flounder and in the right conditions mullet that i was thinking it would be possible to pre bait. possibly digging a hole at low tide - sticking in the ground bait and wait for the tide to come in...........

Was fishing Ramore head last summer catching dogs when a couple of guys threw their ragworm in afew yards above me. After they left I tried free lining a rag where they dumped it. In the next 20 min. I had pollock to 3lb and a few decent wrasse and coalies.

hi lads
this year i started using groundbait from the shore.6 minced macks frozen and then put into a mesh net. hang it from a rock but make sure that the wind and current is taking it away from u rather than washing it up beside u. mullet macks and bass will follow it right up. if u r going for mullet leave the bag work for an hour r 2 on its own and then come back to it. bass will just tend to cruise around it for a little while and then move off but the macks if they r anywhere round will give u great sport on the fly. one thing i noticed though is that the macks r very fussy and will turn from a good imatation fly, but if u catch one the other will follow it round during the fight and b much more willing to take a fly!!! not as stupid as they look then!!! conger wont travel far but if there are any close by u should get them moving.
well worth trying but as i said make sure u have an offshore wind and a current that wont wash it up at ur feet. u will see the slick go out for miles.
hope thats some use
Liam