ground bait

hi all ,any body out there try ground bait like you would in coarse fishing..balls of bread crumb with bits of fish,worms, mussel,etc. if so did it make a differance to your normal catch rate.it certainly couldn't hurt mine :?

About 20 years ago, just before the start of a summer match in the river Tyne (NE England) I seen a guy (Top Angler, England International) empty a large bucket of ground bait right in front of his peg, you could see the tide take it upstream as it was sinking. The guys to his left almost all blanked him included, the others to his right (upstream) got bags loads of fish.

I once seen another angler throw a brick of frozen old bait scraps into the river right in front of his peg, that floated out with the tide, boy did he get some stick for all the other anglers laughing and taking the piss out of him.

I'll bait my hook in the old fashioned way, thanks very much :lol: :lol:

Tom.

hi rockhopper. i will take that as leave ur balls of ground bait at home. :)

Barto,

That's only my opinion 8) some may disagree and even prove that ground bait works. A better idea seems to be some of the things talked about on the swim-feeder thread on this forum.

One of the last links shows a little long mesh bag held to the trace body, between the top and bottom hook snood, that would stay where you want it and would attract fish to the area of your hooks I'm sure.

Not sure if it would be legal in comps though, don't hurt to ask :wink:

Tom.

rockhopper . the tide were i fish does not run that hard , so i taught maybe spread bait on the beach on a rising tide and fish it back. :?:

Barto,

If you lay an weighted onion sack with bait inside at low tide mark it for something and wait for the flood, that would keep it in one place.

IMO it would be better to freez whatever you put into the sack, that way it would give off even as it thaws out.

Tom.

When fly fishing i always use a bag of minced frozen mack for both mullet fishing and rock fishing. makes a massive difference. ozzies swear by it and i would tend to agree. even if u r rock fishing and there r mussels on the rocks it makes a difference to kick a load of them into the sea

I've heard tell of mixing a pile of chum and burying it at low water in front of where you intend to fish - a handy trick if fishing from LW up. Mackerel guts, oil, bran or bread was the mix, buried about 8 inches into the sand in a couple of piles in your target area.

Always wanted to try it, never enough time.....

I have had a fair bit of experimentation with the Ground bait, with mixed success overall, have tried making up ruby dubby style mix and chucking in a spoon every now and then, and freezing blocks of old bait..not sure if they added anything to my catch rate. Tired the ole weighted onion sack with minced mack’s..that worked well with in an estuary. I once tried using a frozen Mack as a lead (after I read it on here somewhere) bloody thing floated! All in all a lot of extra work without any amazing results. Tide and currents make it hard to build up any lasting scent trail.

I think overall the best method is directly attached to the trace, but don’t bother the extra money to buy the feeders or even the time to make them, just whip any scraps and old bait on to the lead with a bit of bait elastic. its the easiest cheapest way and seems to work as well as any other..

Geeezas!! ya cant see the tree for the forrest :oops:

To wrap a load of old scraps around a breakaway lead is one of the best tips I've head, fecking nora! :lol:

Thanks mate.

Tom.

the secret is to build a constant trail with no breaks. The best way I find to do that is with a bock of frozen minced mack. 7 or so macks frozen should last about an hour and a half r 2 hours. for me it is the only sure way of catching mullet and it helps for bass macks pollock and garfish too. Many times using it have seen the fish in the slick. Now how many times will you actually see the above bar bass and mullet in your swim? one important point is to have an offshore wind to ensure the slick is not just washed up on the shore beside u

i have tried the mussel trick on the rocks before (had a load shelled and all before i left home) and it drew in the coalies and wrasse and held them there all day, then drop in a lively ragworm with a hook in it and enjoy the sport!!
must give your trick a go this summer liam!

I know the guys who fish some of the piers in Florida use an intravenous drip hanging in the water to give off a steady flow of oil...they say it works a treat for sharks. Not quite the same in the suds though, to much commotion.

Tom.

I heard of the trick sandman mentioned when you bury old bait in the sand and then fish the returning tide as the sent is release into the incoming tide. It worked for the flatties apparently....just my two cents

Hi

I think with groundbaiting you need to know when to use and when its just going to be a waste of time.

anywhere with a fast tidal pull or where you have to cast long obviously limits its usefullness. if the tide disperses it too far and wide then there will be no real trail to get the fish going and the scent will be all over the place. and with long casting there is no real way to reach your fishing area. so i personally never use it on beaches.

Where i do use it to good effect is when fishing close in on rocks and piers and in marinas and harbours.

For conger in sheltered pier and marinas we use brown crumb and some liquidised bread to make the mix sticky and add mashed fish (sardines, mack etc) fish flavoured catfood, oil, fishmeal pellets etc (anything smelly) and red dye sometimes. some gets balled in and some goes in a feeder beside the hookbait. if the venue is deep i mix some gravel in and this will help sink the lot. but if its calm or sheltered there is no harm in letting it cloud and fall slowly.

We have had some great sessions for congers using this, with straps swarming over the bait at times and best shore conger using this method we have had is 30lbs 6oz. and doggies and thornies will come onto it too. i feel it has helped the fishing on more than one ocassion.

the other species i use it for are mullet (covered already) and wrasse/ pollack from the rocks.

for rock fishing it needs to be a bit sheltered or calm and i find the method works best when im float fishing. the basic mix is crumb/ bread as above and i add some mashed fish again for smell and also chopped up prawns, mussles, crab bits, old worm etc (depending on what i have). you can use gravel as above but if its calm and not too much tidal pull and if the water is say 20-40 feet you can let it cloud a bit and fall slowly with your hookbait falling in among it.

again have had some good sessions doing this and last summer between two of us we had a three hour session landing 25 wrasse, three over specimen size to 5lbs 1oz and a 8lbs pollack. again i feel it does help and certainly does no harm, it personally gives me confidence that i am doing all i can to get the fish going so i am happy to use it.

i coarse fish a lot too and there are some crossovers from the two branches of the sport , little tricks that can sometimes land an extra fish or two

thats my two cents.

Adam

I agree with all above apart from the tidal run bit. I think it helps alot to have a tide race so long as it is not too windy r choppy and that u have a scent trail with no break. the bigger the tidal race the further away fish will sell it and follow it up to your bait. We often just chum up and leave it for a few hours in a sea with no fish in it and come back and mullet bass and macks are all over it. The one other tip I would have is to set it up where you can fish so that the fish cant see you, might sound obvious but how many times do we just steam in without spending 5 mins looking at the swim to c whats in there already and if we can catch them

Hi

I have found that when the tide is really moving (and i do mean fast) that the trail breaks up so much that the particles are mixed up all over the place and that there is no longer a concentraion gradient leading from where you are fishing as the trail is just swirled about all over the place.

I noticed a drop in results when my groundbait behaved like this. having said that it may not be the case in cleaner venues. i tend to use it from rocks where bigger runs mean more water hitting off rocks and currents swirling all over the place.

from the boat at anchor a rubby dubby bag will sometimes work at its best in a stronger tide as the scent of the contents (and your baits)is getting carried further downstream quicker to pull more fish in.

if you try using the swimfeeder idea some the shore, mix some sand into your groundbait as this will help keep the some of the mix and scent along the bottom, and not rise straight up in the water as most oily attractants do.