Washed up Mussels

Found a shed load of mussels washed up in a rocky inlet in Wexford today. Do you think they will be alright to eat or will I just use as bait? There was a lot of empty shells there as well but loads of closed ones, some where attached to small rocks. They must have came in after the rough spell and high tides. So do I eat them or fish them?

Thanks

Tommy B

dont chance eating them tommy but defo keep them
for bait

go on tom get your shelling knife out .the cod are comming

I wouldn't risk eating them Tommy, keep them and use the for bait. The good thing about them is that you can freeze them down after a session and bring them out again when you need them. They can get pretty smelly though so depending on what you are going to be fishing for it could either attract a fish over or scare them away!

Boil up the closed ones. If they open it's a maybe. If they stay closed bin em.

Cheers all bait it is!!
Gonna freeze them without their shells is that the best way?

They can get pretty smelly though so depending on what you are going to be fishing for it could either attract a fish over or scare them away!

Just out of interest, on a scale of "extremely" smelly through to "fresh" mussel, which species would be attracted over, and which would be scared away

Tommy, from my own experince, I'd shell the larger mussels, but the smaller ones I'd part - boil for a minute or so, then shell and freeze. This should help when baiting up as it toughens them a little, however as with any cooking process you may lose a bit of the scent.

Once you have them shelled, load them up onto a baiting needle, making a kind of sausage, then wrap with bait elastic, then slide off the baiting needle, wrap in clingfilm then freeze, repeat as necessary for how many mussel you have - these sausages then can be cut into hook size pieces when your on the beach.

HTH