<font color='#000000'>After a good mackerel-bash keep the heads & guts & freeze. Likewise any old unused bait. Once slightly defrosted they'll go through a decent mincer easily without gallons of mess everywhere. Stir in some cheap cooking oil, leave to fester for a few hours then re-freeze, in handy dollops. Looks disgusting (a bit like cat spew) but does the job.
If winter beach-fishing for whiting, take some with you & at LW bury a few small "portions" 6 inches down in the sand in a line back up the beach to maybe 50yds out from HWM if you're staying till then. The surf churns up the sand to this depth & releases it as clouds of small particles. Deadly for whiting, unfortunately more so for dogfish. Using this trick I had 25 of each in a 3-hr flood-tide session at Tywyn a few years back, didn't even have time to stop & roll a ***!
Cheers - John</font>