Live bait V dead bait

I'm sorry to report that i may have grown a conscience in recent times and I think I'm going to try to give all live baits a miss for a while.

I have always felt better popping a sliver of mackerel on a hook than feeding the same hook to a rag/lug worm. Last week I got that urge to put in a few hours on a local rock mark and I secured 20 fit looking rag (in a plastic box) from a tackle shop. They were put in the boot of the car until kick off. It was a hot day and sadly for me and for them, kick off was delayed due to family commitments. By the time I had a chance to have a look at the poor sods they were in a bad state and not very happy looking. They would have been useless as bait and would not have survived a return to their natural habitat. I decided that the most humane thing to do would be to put them in the deep freeze and this is what I did.

This got me thinking. How much would it affect my results if i decided to avoid the live stuff all together? I've no problem with mackerel or other fish baits. They go from being fish to dead bait in a very short time and consequently the level of suffering is minimal. This cannot be said for rag, lug or indeed live sand eel.

I'm not certain if I'm right or wrong on this and comments would be appreciated. I'd be interested to know if any other anglers out there have had similar thoughts on the topic.

Stephen.

lets face it your putting your bait live or dead, down on a hook to drag a fish from his home, if your getting a concience take up knitting

I'm only asking.

Well Stephen im only replying

Get a good cool box The worms will be happy until you impale and then drown them

You got me very worried reading your post and you might find this information here very helpful
http://ezinearticles.com/?Symptoms-Of-L ... &id=155856

Testosterone levels naturally begin to go down as soon as an adult man reaches about 30 years of age;
The symptoms can range from small, barely perceptible changes in attitude to overwhelming and sometimes devastating shifts in desire and habit.

Sorry, couldn't help it...

Hhhhhhmmmmmm I can't say I feel too bad for worms to be honest. But I tried using live small flatties for conger and I wasn't a fan of it, nor did it work. I prefer to put my fish back or give em a swift knock in the head and bring em home and cook them. When the macks are in I'd prefer to kill em asap rather than have a pile of gasping fish on the ground beside me. But rag and lug etc, they're not being missed by their families or anything. Worms is worms. Flatties seems to prefer manky lug so you could've kept em.

OK, for the laugh I'm going to give live bait a miss for the whole month of July to see if that affects my paltry results. I'm doing more lure fishing at the moment anyway.

It's the lures I feel sorry for

OK, for the laugh I'm going to give live bait a miss for the whole month of July to see if that affects my paltry results. I'm doing more lure fishing at the moment anyway.

Thats fair enough, it's supposed to be enjoyable and you can't enjoy it if your feeling guilty
Plenty of fish to be caught on lures like Pollock, coalies and Bass and also you can try freshwater fishing for Pike or Perch if ya wanted

Stephen, I wont use live bait either and havent for many years now. Dont notice any difference in catch rates. Thinking intelligently about your fishing is a far more important factor, and you dont get that from knitting patterns or testosterone shots.

for me it has to be the freshest live bait all the way think about it when u sit down to eat a steak do u think were the cow came from no i dont think so heheheheheeh

Have to say I feel the same but I haven't been fishing long and find the more I use live bait the less i think about it. Still I much prefer using dead bait and would be interested in hearing how you got on? by the way is mackerel any good for flatfish?

the best cure for this stephen is to let the king rag nip your finger and let it hang on for at least 1 minute... it will instantly relieve you of all guilt.
I hear alot of people are playing golf this time of year!!

I do know people that are seriously scared of using fresh peeler crab.. lmao lol lol... ''i dont like the way they walk sideways'' aahahaaa

Have to say I feel the same but I haven't been fishing long and find the more I use live bait the less i think about it. Still I much prefer using dead bait and would be interested in hearing how you got on? by the way is mackerel any good for flatfish?

mackeral strip can be amazing for flatties, out fishing lug at times for flounder and the turbos tend to only go for the fish baits in anycase

Has anyone tried out the tubs of Barkley gulp alive artificial scented baits,very curious to know how they perform.......

Has anyone tried out the tubs of Barkley gulp alive artificial scented baits,very curious to know how they perform.......

waste of money

macka1 wrote:
Has anyone tried out the tubs of Barkley gulp alive artificial scented baits,very curious to know how they perform.......



waste of money

I concur. They are brutal.

Have to agree about the gulp stuff. I've had quite a bit of success recently with the sidewinder sandeels though. A few nice pollock so far with them.

Has anyone tried out the tubs of Barkley gulp alive artificial scented baits,very curious to know how they perform.......

With no hope of picking up rag and no time to pick any smallish crabs for wrasse, i decided to try a pack of the gulp immitation rag, stank out the tackle box and they were useless.