Bait sprays and additives, huss fishing tactics

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Do bait sprays and liquid additives really work? Though in everyday use in coarse fishing, sea anglers are reluctant to use them.

I tried and failed to reach any conclusion with most of the products that have hit the shelves over the past couple of decades, but a couple, pilchard oil and salmon egg oil, do work if you use them right.

To really see if an additive is effective you need to steep the bait in the additive juice at least overnight. I'm thinking in terms of squid bathed in pilchard oil for a start. This can be deadly for big conger, but the squid needs soaking a good 24 hours prior to use. Makes sense! If the additive has time to penetrate deep in the flesh of the bait, then it will take longer to leech out giving a more definite and stronger scent trail for fish to follow to source.

Bait sprays and additives

Salmon egg oil is highly rated in the USA and is available here. Again if you just paint it on a bait it seems to be of little advantage. However, soak mackerel strips in it overnight and you start to see an improvement. Dogfish, pout and whiting seem to take more interest in bait treated this way.

Not for a second am I suggesting that you start soaking all baits in these additives. You'll never beat fresh worm, crab and the like when fish are keen to feed. What a soaked in additive can do is increase the initial explosion of scent as the bait reaches the seabed, but more importantly, can keep that bait leeching scent out for a much longer period than normal.

If you clock watch and figure on changing baits every 15 minutes, on some days when fish are few and far between this is not long enough for fish to cross the scent path and find the bait. A treated bait can be left for twice that time and still have enough scent to pull a fish in to it. Now that's an advantage worth having!

TIPS AND TRICKS
Mike Ball of Town Moor Baits and Tackle in Doncaster passed this one on. To lessen the effect of curl in certain makes of rig body line when tying lead links and connector swivels, get the un tightened knot positioned as close to the link as possible, wet the knot with saliva and draw slowly tight keeping even tension on the tag end. If the knot is some distance away from the link and you pull the knot tight too quickly this causes frictional heat on the line, which worsens the curl effect.

I've also found stretching rigs by hanging them up with a 6oz weight on the base takes the curl out if left for a few days.

HUSS TACTICS

Huss fishing tactics

Finding good huss spots is easy. Just look for rocky cliffs falling near vertical in to the sea with a seabed tight inshore of the roughest ground you can find, and all the better if there are large concentrations of kelp. Depth needs to be about 20ft plus. Shallower and the fishing is less consistent.

You can catch huss by day, but night is best. On the bigger spring tides try and time your fishing over the low water period especially as the new flood begins. Likewise high water just as the ebb starts to flow stronger. On smaller neap tides, huss will feed over longer time periods with the middle flood and ebb potentially good times.

Tackle needs to be strong. Reels loaded with 30lb line and matched to a powerful beachcaster are required, as the huss need to be bullied from the kelp and rocks once hooked. Give them an inch and they will find the snags. Use 4/0 to 6/0 hooks and keep them sharp.

Best bait is two or three flapper sandeels threaded over the hook by the head only and pulled down over each other and held with bait elastic to form a slim but juicy bait. Alternatively fish combination baits of mackerel and squid.