Get an old hand mincer from a car boot, they do the job just fine and you can mince the fish as you catch them.

 

I currently use a blender but I like the idea of a hand mincer - presumably they deal with whole mackerel, bones and all?

 

First you have to catch some Mackerel which these days is mission impossible

They will soon be on the endangered species list

 

I tried one of the small hand mincers for a couple of years, actually I was able to use it with a power drill. It was ok, but still took ages and importantly I still had to chop stuff up into small chunks.

I just want to have the carcass of say a filleted 3lb pollock, drop it in and its done.

 

my m8 uses a garden shredder for mincing mackerel but it is messy and if the bag comes away you`ll have flys around for weeks on the plus side you`ll have enough maggots to enjoy a spot of coarse angling only downside is the complaints from the neighbours lol

 

We used to use a tool with a cross blade on the end, put the fish in the bucket tamp them with this tool to chop the fish up, repeat as nesseccary. I since tried a grinder but it made the fish too fine for my liking, i'm not trying to feed them just attract them, i'm happy if the bag comes back up still with fish left in it, the finer 'grind' mix would always come back pretty much empty so you never really knew how long it was doing its job for.

 

We used to use a tool with a cross blade on the end, put the fish in the bucket tamp them with this tool to chop the fish up, repeat as nesseccary. I since tried a grinder but it made the fish too fine for my liking, i'm not trying to feed them just attract them, i'm happy if the bag comes back up still with fish left in it, the finer 'grind' mix would always come back pretty much empty so you never really knew how long it was doing its job for.

Sounds good, but unsure what you mean by tool/cross blade.

 

my m8 uses a garden shredder for mincing mackerel but it is messy and if the bag comes away you`ll have flys around for weeks on the plus side you`ll have enough maggots to enjoy a spot of coarse angling only downside is the complaints from the neighbours lol

What shredder does he use - i was going to try one, but a cheap one is £80 and that might not do the job every year. I'm not spending >200 on a shredder. Did your mate use a cheap shredder which did the job?

 

pm headlight on here i have not a clue what make or model it is but i know he wouldn`t pay much for one the mackie comes out just right i reckon he mixes it with bran 5ltrsof pilchard and cod oil leaves to ferment a little (1/2 a day) then freezes it in large onion sacks lol

 

Used to use a spare kitchen blender of the wifes, it was basically dedicated to making chum. Instead of throwing all the waste/old bait over the side to the gulls, we used to save it in a bucket - old squid and mackerel mostly; freeze once we got home. Then when not fishing - too windy or something, would have a session making chum, having collected loads of large plastic milk bottles. Grind down all the waste bait, and any old bait from the freezer that had got freezer burn, add copious amounts of fish oil and coarse bran. The resulting mix was all put into the milk bottles, and with the cap secured popped inthe freezer again until needed.

It was pretty amazing how much waste bait you could accumulate over a winter fishing season, and it could really be a bonus bringer in the spring. Take one chum/milk bottle, pop the cap off, and stab a few slices into the main bottle, just to allow water in to defrost slowly. Cable tie to the top of the anchor, then start fishing. Especially good for species like Black Bream, as the fine material just slowly defrosts and finds its way into the tide behind the boat. The average 2 pint bottle would last about 3 hours, soon knew when it had run out, the hectic fishing slowed. Used the same system for Tope and Congers when fishing rough or open ground marks - to similar effect.

Just needs fine tuning to how many holes you cut in the bottles to control the rate they defrost at. For drifting for sharks, used a similar system with slightly bigger holes, but obviously just hung overthe transom, and kept a check on them frequently - it is suprising how little is actually needed to get a substantial trail going in the water. No need to look like an oil slick, just a gentle flow of small scentedparticles - mostly to attract Mackerel to the back of the boat - then the sharks just pick up on the Mackerel feeding.

Hope that helps

Cheers from sunny Africa

 

....

Yea, pretty much what I do re bait - have a freezer clear out in spring and turn it all into chum for the bream and tope. Appreciate time you took to reply.

Was it just a cheap blender, or a fancy one? Have seen argos doing them for about £12.

Also, where do you source your fish oil? I'd like to just buy a bulk amount - 20-100 litres but whenever I try and source it all I get is fancy omega 3 supplements - even googling crude fish oil industrial/bulk.

 

Sounds good, but unsure what you mean by tool/cross blade.

The one i used was just a 3' alloy scaffold pole, with a tee bar at the top as a handle, with a blade mounted at the bottom in the shape of a cross, i think it also had a circular blade as well to strengthen it all up, it was quite crude and not super sharp at all, but it did the job.

 

Harden shredder works well but try to shred your old fish baits frozen. That way you get less splatter as it's a bit firmer....

Or look out for an old sausage machine. They can crunch up all sorts of stuff....

 

You could try an apple pulping tool (normally used for small scale cider making). Looks like it would do the job to chop up a coarse chum mix. Cheap enough to give it a try.
http://www.vigopresses.co.uk/Catalogue/Crushers/Pulpmaster-91100

 

I tried the wifes hand held blender to chop up a batch of dubby last year, she wasnt using it and I didnt ask her, but it got all snagged up with bone splinters after making a great paste and then starting smoking evilly before stopping dead
Mate of mine has a shark boat in Looe and the best dubby chopper that I ever used was home made from a section about 9inches square of industrial step from a stairway welded to a T bar.
The gaps between the step were sharpened up with a file and it looked a bit like a waffle press, but when it got loose on a bucket of mackerel it didnt take any prisoners and mashed a bag up in minutes.

 

I use one of these £75 garden shredders http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-electric-garden-shredder/212650_BQ.prd
Had it for 5 years now & still working.
I freeze the mackie or whatever I am using & put them through the shredder frozen.
If you don"t put the fish through frozen the shredder can tear rather than slice them up & the blood & oil comes out of the fish.
I shred the frozen fish straight into a black bag (dustbin liner) then empty the contents out into 30 litre buckets in layers.
Layer of fish pour some fish oil (cod, pilchard, herring & sardine) over the layer, layer of bran, layer of fish plus oil etc until the bucket is full.
Put the lid on & leave till the next day for everything to soak in.
I then pour the contents into an onion sack inside a black bag & freeze.
You can then easily (& without mess/smell) transport the chum to the boat when needed.

 

Ahh yea, had my eye on that one, good to hear it is up to the job, I wasnt sure so didnt purchase.

 

What about a long drill bit with 4 tie wraps round it cut to an angle so there sharp chuck the crap in the bucket and blitz it up.

Please remember PPE when using this method.

 

What about a long drill bit with 4 tie wraps round it cut to an angle so there sharp chuck the crap in the bucket and blitz it up.

Please remember PPE when using this method.

Did get a plaster/paint mixer and ground it down to an edge, ok for soft stuff, but no good for filleted carcasses, or whole fish.

 

I put mackie of all sizes (some quite big), Garfish, Whiting, Squid etc through it frozen
It is rated to shred branches of 1.5" diameter & has coped with everything I have put through it so far

 

I bought a second hand garden shredder two years ago off fleabay for £20.. does 1.5" branches also and handles fish up to 2-3lb without too much hassle. Quick rinse after and a spray of oil and it's ready to go next time. Beats manual pummeling hands down.

 

Mind the wasps!!

 

Ta, looks like i'd be better just doing the garden shredder thing, good to get confirmation it works, even the cheap ones.

 

Yea the stripey ba$%rds do like a bit of fish mince...

 

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/sardine-oil-5-l-id_5127503.html

Cheapest I've found. You can buy 1ltr bottles but works out dearer.

 

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/sardine-oil-5-l-id_5127503.html

Cheapest I've found. You can buy 1ltr bottles but works out dearer.

I add a handful of Trout feed pellets and a good scoop of sand to the dubby mix with the oils, adds to the flavour and lets the impregnated sand particles float down in the water table to a deeper level.
Great link for the oil thanks.

 

have a look at the local car boot sales or see if you have a action near you can pick up second hand garden shredders cheep

 

Just picked a shredder up off eBay....£12.00

 

I just picked up a second hand one and set it chewing threw mostly my frozen collection of filleted fish carcasses.

After a few initial hiccups from feeding in who solid frozen heads, got the hang of it and was very good. Certainly does the trick.