Bolstering bait tactics

CENTRAL COAST

Jamie Robley

Pick up any fishing magazine or take a quick look around the internet or apps these days and it seems that lure or fly fishing are perhaps more popular than using old fashioned bait. If you’re not using lure or fly you must be so last century it’s not at the top of the evolutionary intelligence list, but they’re a creature that’s not always easy to fool.

As we move away from the warmer months and head into winter, most of our popular angling targets like to feed up before the water gets too cold. Some will continue to feed right through winter, while others migrate elsewhere and some slow right down to an comes to success with baits. Regardless of where or how you fish, simply going to good spots at the right time is a good start. Researching your local area or a potential holiday destination is probably the first logical step to take. Being mindful of the weather, moon and tides is also greatly beneficial. More specifically, for the sake of this particular article, let’s focus more on two nitty late model 4WD vehicles, loaded up and heading to popular fishing destinations, with cheapy, low budget rods and reels secured to the roof racks or rod holders. If you can afford a new Hilux, Ranger or Navara then surely spending another few hundred on a couple even funny! Well, most of us know that’s not entirely the case, but let’s face it, chasing fish with artificial offerings definitely gets a lot of attention.

Bait and bait. These freshwater mullet were caught on small bread baits suspended under a little Styrofoam float. The author then used the mullet to catch bream at a nearby beach.

Lure or fly fishing does have a lot going for it and yes, tricking fish with ‘fake baits’ certainly works. However, there’s still a lot to be said for fishing with a real bait down at the business end of your line. Fish may not be almost shut down state. So, although casting or trolling an artificial bait may still work well in some cases, the next few months are a prime period for using natural baits. This is particularly so for coastal fishing the inshore reefs, rocks and beaches, but baits will also do very well in the estuary or freshwater at this time of year.

There are a few main factors to consider when it gritty aspects of fishing with natural baits. Suitable tackle and good bait.

GOOD GEAR

No matter where or how you fish, it’s pretty obvious that good quality tackle is beneficial. By this, I don’t necessarily mean top of the line, expensive gear, but I do mean decent quality rods, reels, lines and terminals like hooks or swivels. It often amazes me to see big, rather than names you can’t pronounce!

Clean, functional, maintained tackle is another aspect of successful fishing to consider. A well-maintained reel that spins freely is better than a more expensive reel with a sticky drag or noisy bearings. The same applies comes into it as well. So here are some of my all-time best performers.

PILCHARDS

It’s very hard to go past good old pillies for general beach fishing. They are extremely appealing to tailor, salmon and bream, while other species like trevally, of decent fishing outfits won’t hurt!

Good quality lines and nice sharp hooks will go a long way towards success and this sort of stuff is relatively cheap. I buy the majority of my tackle online these days, so it’s pretty quick and easy to compare prices and buy some new line or hooks. Whenever possible though, I still try to buy from real local tackle stores, rather than going for the cheapy overseas option. Brand names like Daiwa, Shimano, Penn, Mustad, Gamakatsu and Wilson are what you need to look for, to hooks and other terminals. So throw out older, rusty hooks and periodically check through your tackle to see what may need to be replaced or cleaned up.

Most keen anglers have their favourite baits and I’m the same. When considering what a good bait is, I firstly consider how much the fish like it or how effective it is. That’s probably the main thing overall. Then, how easy or convenient it is to use, how long does it last and how hard is it to find, gather, catch or buy and if you are buying it, the cost obviously bonito, snapper, dart, bream, flathead and mulloway also go for pilchard baits. I’ve even caught the odd whiting on pillies over the years. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to buy good quality pilchards. So take a close look at them in the bait freezer before buying. At the moment, blocks or IQF bags of pilchards are the same price at my local bait shop, so I’ll look at both and try to pick a bag or block that looks decent. The size may also be important, especially when you’re using them on ganged hooks. So I try to find average or medium size, rather than bigger or smaller. Pilchards are one of my favourite beach baits for winter tailor and salmon and yes, I still use them old style, pinned to a set of ganged hooks!

SMALL TUNA

I’ll group a few different fish species into this category, just to make things easier. Bonito are more correctly, part of the mackerel family, but let’s be technically incorrect here for a minute and use old school terms. As far as east coast anglers are concerned, the small tunas are those speedy pelagic fish that are abundant along the east coast from about January through to late June each year. The main fish in this group are bonito, mack tuna, striped tuna, frigate mackerel and Watson’s bonito.

Those anglers into chasing monsters like marlin, larger kingfish, cobia and sharks may consider small tuna as slow trolled live baits or faster trolled skip baits. The majority of rock, beach and inshore anglers though, can use small tuna in the form of freshly cut baits or salted baits for bream, snapper, tailor and a few other species. Small tuna are generally much better when the skin is left on and they are covered

Small tuna are great fun to catch and a can be used for bait in a variety of ways to tempt different species. The author likes to cut the fillets into cubes and give them a liberal sprinkling of rock salt. This toughens up the flesh so they’ll last longer on the hook. It’s definitely worth looking into salting techniques if you’re a keen offshore, rock or beach angler who targets snapper and bream.