Bait, Burley and Fluorocarbon?
Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:03 am
Been doing a bit of gearing up for snapper season and one of things I'm trying to do is not take so much gear. Walking into some spots is not easy, so taking less kit makes sense.
This made me think about the "essentials" being fresh bait, burley and good leader material, are they really essential
So fresh bait, does it have to be fresh? I personally think that any fish that will take a static dead bait is obviously not adverse to a bit of scavenging. So is fresh really best for fish that are opportunistic feeders? Does stinky old bait give off more smell than fresh in the wate?. If you think of it we rarely use "fresh" burley, any old stuff will do and some say the smellier the better.
I have been consistantly fishing fresh and unfresh baits and honestly can't say I have found a difference.
I have used fresh and unfresh burley and again can't see any difference. In fact I'm still not sold on the whole burley idea landbased. In PPB there is not enough tide to disperse it so unless you are sitting on a school, I don't think it will attract them from elsewhere. I have fished at Blairgowrie and burleyed up, but it didn't pull the school in from where I could see them, even though what tide there is, was going in the right direction. It does though hold a shoal when you get them in the trail. On the otherside in WPB, the spots I fish the tide runs too quickly and disperses the trail, so again Im not confident it does much to bring fish too you, but it may keep them there if they turn up.
So fluorocarbon? So when Im fishing in clear and shallow water, I do think I have a better hook up rate, I have tried the same breaking strain line in yellow and have seen fish shy away, although red line doesn't seem to bother them, again is this another myth? adding red beads or tubing as an attractant, as red is the first wavelength of light to be filtered out by water.
In the less clear and deeper water I can't see any difference. I have tied up bright yellow traces in 40kg mono and it made no difference.
So this snapper season, the only fresh bait I'll use is what I catch on the day, Im not carrying in any burley and will just use plain old mono leaders instead of the expensive stuff.
Will this make any difference? Well it will make the walk in easier not carrying kgs of burley, might make a difference to the confidence by not stressing over fresh bait. If it all fails I'll just cheat and go out in the boat
Would be interested to see if there are differring experiences.
This made me think about the "essentials" being fresh bait, burley and good leader material, are they really essential
So fresh bait, does it have to be fresh? I personally think that any fish that will take a static dead bait is obviously not adverse to a bit of scavenging. So is fresh really best for fish that are opportunistic feeders? Does stinky old bait give off more smell than fresh in the wate?. If you think of it we rarely use "fresh" burley, any old stuff will do and some say the smellier the better.
I have been consistantly fishing fresh and unfresh baits and honestly can't say I have found a difference.
I have used fresh and unfresh burley and again can't see any difference. In fact I'm still not sold on the whole burley idea landbased. In PPB there is not enough tide to disperse it so unless you are sitting on a school, I don't think it will attract them from elsewhere. I have fished at Blairgowrie and burleyed up, but it didn't pull the school in from where I could see them, even though what tide there is, was going in the right direction. It does though hold a shoal when you get them in the trail. On the otherside in WPB, the spots I fish the tide runs too quickly and disperses the trail, so again Im not confident it does much to bring fish too you, but it may keep them there if they turn up.
So fluorocarbon? So when Im fishing in clear and shallow water, I do think I have a better hook up rate, I have tried the same breaking strain line in yellow and have seen fish shy away, although red line doesn't seem to bother them, again is this another myth? adding red beads or tubing as an attractant, as red is the first wavelength of light to be filtered out by water.
In the less clear and deeper water I can't see any difference. I have tied up bright yellow traces in 40kg mono and it made no difference.
So this snapper season, the only fresh bait I'll use is what I catch on the day, Im not carrying in any burley and will just use plain old mono leaders instead of the expensive stuff.
Will this make any difference? Well it will make the walk in easier not carrying kgs of burley, might make a difference to the confidence by not stressing over fresh bait. If it all fails I'll just cheat and go out in the boat
Would be interested to see if there are differring experiences.