Mussels

Cheers for the useful ideas all!!

Remove all the meat from the mussels that you collected. Feed all the meat the whole way up a bait needle till it's full. Bind it all together very well with thin bait elastic. Remove from the bait needle and cut the mussel sausage to desired length. Pass it onto the hook so it passes above the eye and give it a few more wraps of elastic just below the eye on the hook side to hold it in place and stop it from sliding down over the hook point during cast. I've found that if using this bait it should be changed for fresh stuff on the hook very regularly. Messy work though.

how successful is mussel as a bait? i have used it a few times but no success...

Do steam them out or boil them slightly, if u just crack em open theyre very messy

[quote="mathewsip"]how successful is mussel as a bait? i have used it a few times but no success...[/qu
Mussel is a much underrated bait and has accounted for huge bags of fish from the boat and shore. In fact in the past anglers fishing small boats from greystones for codling and coalies used nothing else, also from the shore it was a top winter bait when the codling and coalies were running so don't disregard it.

never under estimate mussels they say but also never ever under estimate the cockle either.who really has tried cockles..very good tipping bait i believe