anybody ever prebait area

[taz]

just wondering does many people pre bait a area before they fish and do they think it makes much of a difference

[The Austrian]

When you are after Mullet it certainly makes sense or when fishing from a boat for sharks a nice scent trail from a rubby-dubby is essential, from a beach or location with strong tides, currents I don't see much point for prebaiting. Seabirds and other wildlife could be a nuisance too but in sheltered locations, eg near pier walls, conger do respond very well to prebaiting and I'm sure a few other species will be attracted by the activity of smaller bait fish as well. Worth a try IMHO.

[evan699]

I'd agree with the austrian on this. Groundbaiting for mullet works very well. For congers i always ground bait when fishing off the shore. It does attract alot of small fish to the area. When fishing for conger off a pier in daylight, we groundbaited the area well and as we were fighting congers on pulley rigs, we could see ballan wrasse trying to bite the beads off the line. It also brings in hoards of small fish like whiting and coalies. This can be handy when fishing for congers as you can drop a line of sabikis and catch a pile of live bait. And when using dubby off a boat you can catch mullet, garfish, scad and god only knows what else feeding in the slick. Freeze your old left over bait in old take away cartons. Throw the blocks of bait into the swim frozen and as it thaws it will release a nice steady stream of bait and scent.

[taz]

i was wonderinng if many people bury bait guts heads etc in the sand on low water i know it would be pointless to launch out bait and let the tide take out to sea or down the beach and the gulls would have a field day

[weedave]

i was wonderinng if many people bury bait guts heads etc in the sand on low water i know it would be pointless to launch out bait and let the tide take out to sea or down the beach and the gulls would have a field day

hi,

i recently cleared out my old bait from my chest freezer- old mack/sandeel/lug/squid/crad etc etc..stuck it into the blender and added bread too. i poured the lovely mixture into small containers you'd get from a chinese and froze the block with some string in them. i then stake two out in the sand with a small wooden peg at low water and bury them sligtly. then cast to that area as the tide floods. it seems to be doing the job of attracting fish but its early days yet for me to be conclusive on it.

hope thats of some use.

dave

[taz]

Hey Dave

well i have a couple of blocks of mack guts wrapped in newspaper i used to bury them in the sand on low i got mixed results alot of small fish but more bites than usual from the amount of replies i'd say its save to savenot many do it

Dom

hi,

i recently cleared out my old bait from my chest freezer- old mack/sandeel/lug/squid/crad etc etc..stuck it into the blender and added bread too. i poured the lovely mixture into small containers you'd get from a chinese and froze the block with some string in them. i then stake two out in the sand with a small wooden peg at low water and bury them sligtly. then cast to that area as the tide floods. it seems to be doing the job of attracting fish but its early days yet for me to be conclusive on it.

hope thats of some use.

dave

[dan belfast]

I don't really prebait from the beach due to strong tides but I sometimes I use a feeder on top of my rig stuffed with old manky bait. Have had some decent results in the past.

[sully]

I once spent three mornings in a row ground baiting Fenit Marina. Considering I was working the nightshift and the ground baiting was occuring at 530am I was really looking forward to the 4th morning as it would be fishing time I arrived on the faithful morning and again started to bait the area. Again the mullet started to feed almost immediately..... I got the gear together at the car made my way down to the edge bursting with excitement........ then the big tug boat arrived and emptied its Bilge pump cue mass mullet exodus and my first and last ground baiting session had come to an end!! Seems like it is certianly a tactic worth trying out..... beware of tug boats though

[jerryfromkerry]

I once spent three mornings in a row ground baiting Fenit Marina. Considering I was working the nightshift and the ground baiting was occuring at 530am I was really looking forward to the 4th morning as it would be fishing time I arrived on the faithful morning and again started to bait the area. Again the mullet started to feed almost immediately..... I got the gear together at the car made my way down to the edge bursting with excitement........ then the big tug boat arrived and emptied its Bilge pump cue mass mullet exodus and my first and last ground baiting session had come to an end!! Seems like it is certianly a tactic worth trying out..... beware of tug boats though

I have witnessed the same scenario as yourself, Fenit mullet are very spooky. Since the ban on fishing in the Marina area I have given Fenit a miss altogether.

[corbyeire]

i often gather all the old used baits, mack heads, guts etc. and freeze them up after a few sessions then the next time fishing on a rising tide on a beach i lump the lot out

it definitely causes a scent trail and brings other fish in nosing around - most of the flounders i catch after doing this have big fat bellies on them stuffed with all the old bait

another time i did so on a beach in wicklow and a mate caught a good bass an hour later on mack - he took it for the pot and found it had been eating all the chunks of mack head i had been ground baiting with

2 things - gather all your spent bait and guts and then ground bait next time out
just make sure its defrosted so it sinks and you wont have trouble from the gulls

what have you got to loose

[baitdigger]

I prebait for conger, huss and wrasse. My only tip would be to cut up what ever you are using into really small pieces.This should mean that there is a good scent around but any fish will have to work the area(especially rockmarks)very hard to get a good belly full.

[gerryl]

you can buy or make a small bait bag (2 x4'') which is attached to the lead (via a clip swivel) they recommend that bait is chopped and frozen in the bag then attached 'still' frozen on casting...have bought a few so when get round to using then shall post up date... ...3rd pic down the web page

http://www.worldseafishing.com/baits/sa ... iting.html

[Al and Jordan]

for shore fishing on beaches with small surfs i keep the mesh bags you get with washing tablets. fill them with chopped up left over bait that has gone mushy and attach it to the lead clip on a flapper rig. always seems to work well and i have half a mind to invest in a blender to puree the left over bait and freeze it down for the bag. that way a better scent trail would be given off.
in the summer when we are rock fishing for wrasse i keep any bait robbing crabs to one side and give them a quick crush under the foot to get the juices flowing and drop them in just below where we are fishing as groundbait. when the water is clear you can see up to as many as a dozen wrasse attacking them at any given time. class to watch and if the mark happens to be particularly snaggy at distance as it saves a lot of terminal tackle as the wrasse come to you

[thebigman]

Might be worth trying one of these to get the groundbait out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zOo4LSkKTM

Would only be trying it on marks where there's not much tide otherwise others would be getting the benefit.