how to ctach live bait

[flynny15]

gday all iam new to the gold coast, i have tried but yet to catch many fish, the main being meackeral, jacks, and jewfish, i know the best method is with the live baits, i live in palm beach, and after advice on how to get live slimys or yakkas, and live mullet, i have aboat so thats no rpoblem .


cheers

[Heath]

Most common livey out on Palmy is the yakka. Find any bit of reef out there & with a bit of Berly you will have heaps, might be lucky enough tohave a few slimys mixed in with them as well.

Mullet - a castnet is your best bet, throw off one of the bridges in the canals.

[Chrisso]

yeah I love my castnet now I know how to use it throw in the creeks away from snags and you should be right - I got enough mullet the other day no worries

[NeMo84]

yeh if ya have a boat then get some bait jigs and like Heath said look for a little bit of reef, but if ya landbased like me then cast net all the way, recently got myself a new 12 footer and i lurrrvvvv it! Take it easy fellas!

[SeaHunt]

Catching the baitfish is the easy part.
Go to Big W or K Mart and get a bait jig for about 2 bucks. Usally 6 small hooks hanging from a mainline with shiny plastic bits and beads on them.
Tie one end to your mainline and put a fair size snapper lead on the bottom end.
When you see a ball of baitfish on your sounder drop it over the side and work it up and down, fish will do the rest. I think the fish think they are baby prawns jumping around and eat em.
If they are spread out on the bottom they could be pike, and if its a light jig you could get all your hooks chewed off. Up in Moreton bay most of the beacons and pylons have their resident populations of baitfish. I could be wrong but the various bait fish schools don't seem to mix. ie you will get all Yakkas on your hooks out of one bait ball, and 5 metres away there will be a school of all herrings or Slimeys.
Its fun for a while and I believe I have almost mastered it as well as the cast net.
Now I just need some more luck with the real fish.

[tideline_two]

try this.. instead of useing those "store bought" bait rigs just buy a box of light wire gold hooks. i buy boxes of about 50 hooks for the price of a couple of bait rigs. the bait bite 'em has good or better that the store bought rigs. just rig about 5 or 6 hooks with a loop knot. attach a sinker and your ready to go. the size i use is mostly #4 but if the bait is larger you might want to get a larger size.

[Escapee]

tideline-two

Can you please give me some more info. What brand hooks do you use? Do you put anything else, like beads or shiny plasitc, on the hooks to attract the livies? Do they have to be gold colour because that's what attracts the fish?

Thanks

Escapee

[clearwater]

mate i dont fish the goldie often but this aways works on the sunny coast for me when i want live bait just go jig around some shark nets
'


andy

[tideline_two]

now mind ya i live in the s.e. part of the usa. i just like fishing so much i thought i could pick up some pointers from yall and maybe share some of ours. if your useing sabinki rigs to catch live bait the gold hooks will work just has good or better than the store bought rigs. mustad light wire hooks work but the ones made by eagle claw seem to work better. most of the time if i'm after bait (cigar minnows or herring) i just use the hooks plain without anything else on them. the bait just hits the flash . if i want spanish mackrel( spotted mackrel down yalls way i'm told) use a larger hook and sometimes put a piece of white drinking straw on the hook. just drop it to the bottom jig it up and down and hang on. has a plus bottom fish love 'em to. when i'm slow trolling for our king mackrel i keep a jig rig going most of the time. throw the rig directly in front of the boat let it sink and when the line gets parelle to the boat reel it up and repeat. you'll catch all kinds of fish around here doing this.

[Girella]

tideline
Great stuff mate, keep those tips coming.

Great to from a fisho from so far afield.

PK

[Boxhead]

I use a piece of my foreskin... Problem is that the more it gets bitten the bigger it gets...

[Yakkasalive]

My wife has a purse made out of an elephants foreskin- it's great because when we go on hoidays she can just give it a rub and it turns into a suitcase!