Fresh bait

[marzoe]

Is it OK to use bait such as squid, prawns and pilchards that has been frozen, thawed, frozen and thawed again? Would this have a detrimental effect on the quality of the bait?

[fish2eat]

OK......I'll try and be gentle because you are a novice

It's perfectly OK to use the bait you have described if you wish to catch undersized juvenile bream wanting to comit suicide.

Should you wish to catch edible legal sized fish......it's not OK

would you go to a restaurant and eat stale food? the fish don't rely on us to fedd them, there is plenty of fresh food down there.....they only eat out offerrings when it is as good as they can get in their natural environment

Now go out and get some FRESH bait, preferably live, otherwise get some good lures. ::)

[damons33]

i would say definitely not to prawns and squid, but pilchards would work reused on gangs for reefies or tailor- not that they are as good as fresh! but they wouldn't be a waste of time.
i reckon any frozen squid is useless for good sized fish, getting fresh caught squid is key to alot of snapper fisherpersons catch success. i think this is why plastics stand out over alot of bait fisherpersons efforts.
and who could fault a fresh, hot, and bleedin' slab of striped tuna for reef fishing?
lay down strong fundamentals in your fishing and success is just around the corner.
tight lines, damon
;)

[westie]

Yes use it, one of the best fishing tools you have to catch good feed of fish. The ONLY thing is you DO NOT put it on the hook it is your BURLEY.

Bring it home break it up, mix it with some old bread Tuna oil chicken frames Etc. and freeze it then on the day add the secret mix to it SAND and to the water regularly say a Tea spoon full every Min to start with then once trial is set every 5min and you will get to use your bait for the second time what goes on the hook today is burley tomorrow

[jackash]

Have caught fish on that sort of stuff especially the pillies, but live bait is definitely the go if its available.
Cheers
Jackash

[DaveSue_Fishos_Two]

I agree totally with Westie.
Refrozen bait looks like shit and probably tastes like it. You can tell whenever you buy a packet of bait, especially pillies, if they have been thawed and refrozen. Pillies should be firm and bright when thawed, not limp and falling easily apart. If you buy your bait regularly from a particular outlet, they are usually interested to know if your bait has been shit.

Cheers
Dave

[PMC]

The burley idea is best.

[jimmyjam]

Thanks a lot everyone.
I now have plenty of burley and will use fresh, live or plastic from now on.

[Billo]

It is ALWAYS worth your while to go and get fresh bait .
If your simply fishing estuaries , find out how to gather bait in your area , ie yabby pump or mullet trap or get a cast net ,.....well worth spending the dollars on bait just as you need to on terminal tackle ...no use wasting time and coming home empty handed !

[sandgroper]

buy yaself a castnet or dragnet & u'll neva have to worry bout fresh bait again!

[Jitlands]

Any unused bait should be placed in the bottom of your fishing buddies tackle box at the end of the trip. Make sure he doesn't see you do it.

No doubt he will bring it up next trip

[kingcobe]

Nearly all the sharks, rays, mack, shovelies, any other large fish and even the runs that he gets that snap off are on live bait [preferably yakka].


Kingcobe

[fritzy]

Giday,
Know this sounds obvious and stupid, but if ya cna't get your hands on any quality bait, then those prawns may be alot more fun then just casting out an ordinary hook. I can remember numerous occasions where i have taken some memorable fish on ordinary (to say the least) bait. I took a beaut flathead over 60 cm one night on the tail of a crusty old mullet sitting on a rock on the canal i was fishing. The bait was three quarters fin and 1/4 meat.
Another time we spent hours catching stacks of fresh mullet and gar for a bream assault in tallebugera creek. Told my mate not to worry about bringing crap old frozen pilchards. Well, good thing he bought them, he picked up 5 nice bream and lost about 5 others while i frigged around with one decent bite (but NO fish) for THE WHOLE NIGHT!! While i realise that these examples are the exception and not the rule, just remember that old crap bait, is usually better than no bait at all...
Cheers Fritzy

[Shafty]

Recycled stuff still looks and smells better that mullet gut...geez that stuffs disgusting :-X :-X :-X

For consistent catches fresh/live is best.

[snapper1]

use it all for burley and get new bait ;D

[grumpyoldman]

Hi Marzoe,
If in doubt about the freshness of bait, use it for burley, as the other guys said. Pillies that have been thawed and refrozen are usually soft as s... when thawed again and squid is a dead give-away if it's been re-frozen - it will almost always be either pink or purple, rather than creamy white. Waste of time - fresh is best!!!

[Cheech]

Fritzy has good points. Fresh is what we always try to get. But if you cannot get fresh, don't let that stop you from getting out. I have caught plenty of fish on frozen bait. There is a difference between frozen, and using twice frozen.

But,,,, having said that, a couple of months ago I bought a few extra kg of squid from morgans specifically to freeze. This squid looked really fresh but had actually been frozen by morgans and then thawed out in brine. I froze up half kilo lots in zip bags and was happy to see that when they froze, they stayed white. Used some of it out at Mud Island and picked up 5 good size squire with it.

But that was an exception. Once thawed I would not use it again for bait.

Cheech