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Supermarket baits... tutorial.

214K views 316 replies 221 participants last post by  SiDfish 
#1 ·
Booking a day off work recently for a mid week sesh... and then finding my local tackle shop was out of lug, a drive to tescos (or any supermarket of your choice) was the only option.

thought id take a few piccys to help anyone that hasn't tried mussel yet, an under-used... but cheap and highly effective bait!

you can buy them in bulk to save money from fishmongers, or kilo bags from your local supermarket.

if you are really lucky, you might find them fresh on the shore, or piers locally.

1 kilo will bait around 30 hooks, more if you want to tip with squid.

pour half a kettle of boiling water slowly over some live mussels, then pour a pint of cold water over them... to stop them cooking too much.



although the mussel will be slightly par-cooked around the edges of the shell, they will be easier to hook. the inside will remain raw...

the easiest way to remove them intact, is to use an empty shell as a scoop.



a close up of the snotty bits...



once the mussel's have been removed from the shell, you can thread 3-4 on a baiting needle, once you have used a needle for worm, sandeel and mussel... i doubt you would go back! very clever, but simple bits of kit. the best i have used are gemini, with a slightly blunter nose, so less piercing of the bait/s when you use it, for example threading a whole lug or 2-3 in a string on a pennel.

here i am using sakuma manta 4/0, wide gape.



once the mussel's have been threaded on the shank, i have fairly loosley boud them on with elasticated ghost coccoon. you dont want to over do it... as ill explain later.

(see bottom reply)

make shure the hookpoint is well exposed, hence the wide gape style being used. if you are un-familliar with this expression, the gape is the distance between the shank (bit the eyes on) and the hookpoint.



once you have completed enough pre-baied hooks, i work on three per-hour, per-rod. place them into a take-away tub with enough space to keep them seperate from each other.



you can now freeze the prepared bait. all you have to do is add some genie mini snood clips to a basic clipped up rig, or to the end of your running ledger.

being frozen will protect them on impact, and the elastic will hold bait to the hook.

when changing, remove/unclip the old hook and simply replace!
i normally leave them an hour in the freezer, then pour over a little of the juices left remaning, adding some to each bait.

this allows a nice waft of scent, as the bait hits bottom.

if you dont use all the pre-made hooks in one session, simply re-freeze. the smelly'er mussel gets... the more it attracts!

just wash the empty hooks in cold fresh water when home and re-use.

you can also purchase various fish to use as single baits or cocktails... here i have prepared some herring and mackerel. if you are fishing an estuary, you may find sections of trout work well! as scavengers will feed on anything washed down from the river beyond.



another highly under-rated bait is the humble prawn. whenever you have caught cod on the bristol channel, you can be rest assured their stomach will be full of small prawn, shrimp and brown crab.

you can get 1kg bags of raw black prawns from lidl's but they are available most places. shop around for the best price.

if you are on a budget, splice them in half, or use chunks as cocktails/tippets.

they work out at the same price as a worm, but lots cheaper than crab, and can match, or outfish peeler from time to time.

here i am using langostines, two quid for ten. thread the hook through the flesh at one end, and the prawn will convenently bend around the shank as you thread them. just bind well with bait elastic.



hope this post helps... dont be afraid to try something different when fishing, choose something as an alternative and fish it on a seperate rod to worm baits. you may just find something special, that outfishes the worms, and other anglers!! ;)

you just never know whats out there! (apart from ships LoL :laugh: )

tight lines, al.
 
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#2 ·
good thread smiley, caught a few bass with prawn/shrimp down sker that i collected from the rock pools thread 1 or 2 on the hook and flicked them out off the beach.
seen people collecting mussels down there and wondered how to prepare them for bait,now i know.thanks very much.will have to give this a go being free and all.
 
#5 ·
top post mate! - im still learning the finer points of bait and like to experement so this has been a great help!

just one thing......

once the mussel's have been threaded on the shank, i have fairly loosley boud them on with elasticated ghost cocoon. you dont want to over do it... as ill explain later.
please do!!! :secret:

cheers,

Chris
 
#6 ·
Went to sainsburys today and got a kilo of Mussels. While I was there a woman bought a large salmon, and asked for it to be filleted. After it was filleted they were going to throw the head tail and ribs, so I asked for it.
Got home shelled the mussels, scraped a load of flesh off the salmon skeleton, mixed it together, and then made up a load of mussel/salmon sausages using Tubegauze. You can get the tubegauze from the chemists.
I really look after the fish down here and feed them well. best fed fish in the west.
 
#10 ·
top post mate! - im still learning the finer points of bait and like to experement so this has been a great help!

just one thing......

please do!!! :secret:

cheers,

Chris
my appol's mate... forgot to add that if you bind the mussel's too tightly, it will squeeze out alot of the scent.

fairley loosley, it also allows flakes to break free as the bait rolls around on the seabed, adding to the scent trail and tempting in fish ;)

the method above can be very effective cast over mussel beds. or just off the beach after a storm, where fish will be feeding on a glut of smashed up shellfish.

no bother with the posting and thanks for enjoying/learning from it, if you fancy trying sometime...
very good bait and simple to buy, or better, and free to collect!

collect a load and blanch them as above, put into sandwich bags 60 or so at a time and freeze for future use.

pleased to give a little back to a cracking site.

al.
 
#13 ·
:clap3: Brilliant post, thanks for all the time and effort you've put in to make it :notworthy This must be worth a sticky :g:

I agree !!!
Make this a sticky in the Bait section.

There are lots of supermarket baits that have been discussed seperately, drw them together in a Sticky :clap2::clap2::clap2:
 
#14 ·
smiley,noticed you have no snood tied to the hook,here,s the question,does freezing mono weaken it?just wondering,would,nt want to find out the hard way.
the snood stays on the rig mate...

but on the end of the rig snood, you would have a small snood clip (instead of a tied hook), similar to a rig clip.

the (pre-baited) hook would go on the snood clip.

ill add a piccy in the morning of a very basic clipped up rig with the mini clip on the end of the snood.

i like to call them suicide rigs, as they cost pennys to make... and are ideal for heavy tackle loss areas.

worth loosing a few rigs, in the chance of a decent fish :notworthy

cheers, al.
 
#15 ·
if using prawns for cod/ling,found a 4/0 or 5/0 circle hook is just the right shape to thread a tiger prawn onto.sometimes,if the prawn is extra large,snipping the tail off works wonders,it can also be used to tip of worm baits as well,it's tougher than you realise:)
 
#17 ·
my first sticky... :happy: cheers for the complement ChrisP!

if anyone wants to add to this with good quality piccys and info,
please feel free!

this is how you would add the pre-baited mussel to your rig.

a simple and cheap clipped one up, designed to keep the bait on the seabed. snood is 18 inches.



close up of the clip/mounting of baited hook, i have used a rig clip for display... try the genie mini snood clip to keep it neater!



rolling pear weight for sandy surf beaches.



rotton bottom set. (use spark plugs if its really snaggy)



rotton bottom, released. keep the link fairly long, 10 inches or so... as the weight/tail end of the rig most of the time gets dragged between rocks. the longer the link, the less likely the rig body is to get damaged around the bottom of the set-up. i just use four simple overhand knots in a row for each end of the link to make these the weak point of the set-up. if you are loosing lead too easily, pulling out of snags... increase the weak-link knot strenght, with a different knot.

the general rule of thumb is to go a few pounds lighter breaking strain with the weak link, i just use the same line as the main, for abrasion resistance, but with weak knots.



when you use a rotton bottom set-up... please always check that it is set correctly.
i double check out of habbit before every cast, even if im on an empty shore.

it will then become second nature, and safer for everyone.

this thread started on the begginers, and improvers... so please bear with me if you have seen or used some of this info already.

cheers, al.
 
#22 ·
my appol's mate... forgot to add that if you bind the mussel's too tightly, it will squeeze out alot of the scent.

fairley loosley, it also allows flakes to break free as the bait rolls around on the seabed, adding to the scent trail and tempting in fish ;)

the method above can be very effective cast over mussel beds. or just off the beach after a storm, where fish will be feeding on a glut of smashed up shellfish.

no bother with the posting and thanks for enjoying/learning from it, if you fancy trying sometime...
very good bait and simple to buy, or better, and free to collect!

collect a load and blanch them as above, put into sandwich bags 60 or so at a time and freeze for future use.

pleased to give a little back to a cracking site.

al.
Thanks for the clarification matey - you learn sommat' every day!!

take care

chris
 
#24 ·
Smiley,
Many thanks for adding to the forums. thats an excelent post that will help many of us including some of the Aincient Mariners on the site.

I had been wondering how I could store one hundred frozen baits with snoods attached.

Happens you have used what is right under my nose ..My
line clips are going to get used big style. I have a few hundred big eyed hooks as well. It also seems a safer thing just to store a snood flat in an small plastic envelope with a clip at each end instead of a hook .

I went and purchased £15 of lug ( 454 gram /1 pound ) late Wednesday afternoon for early on Friday night , this morning 3/4 are dead despite being fresh sea watered twice since buying ( salted the corpses anyway ) , thinking of using them rolled as sausages in blotting paper , elasticed on the hooks & then frozen .... WASTE NOT WANT NOT etc.

Regards David
 
#25 ·
no problems David...

if you have access to a digi-cam, maybe you could take some piccys of the salting process, and baiting up,

adding to the thread.

excess bait, or freshly dead worm are something most of us end up with!

or, anyone else have tips or tricks they would like to add?

tight lines, al.
 
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