Bought pipi / mussel

[DougieK]

Hi All,

I've been enjoying fishing the sandy beaches in Westernport for a couple of months now. Still being relatively new to bait fishing, I've noticed inevitably how fresh squid / salmon / mullet performs better than it's frozen version, with frozen squid being almost useless (in my experience.)

Reading the landbased guide to WP, many of the spots have pipi or mussel as a recommended bait, i'm just wondering what everyone's thoughts on frozen pipi are?

Obviously I want fresh, but I can't seem to find any information on collecting my own pipi (mussel maybe) and don't want to pay fish shop prices for whiting baits.

[drewb]

I've found there's 2 types of bait shop pippies. I believe there's aussie and imported (but stand to be corrected) and the imported ones are rubbish. I use the aussie ones boat fishing in WPB and had the most success for whiting (and pretty much anything else that's hungry, ie flatties, trevs, mullet, pinkies). They're not cheap but they work.

Apparently mussels collected off moorings etc go well on whiting but I've not tried it. Also might want to check the rules on collecting your own...
Collecting pippies would be very time consuming I would've thought.

[bowl]

Portarlington way you cam buy them fresh..... a lot of local collect them from piers/yellow byuos . I use mario products

[hornet]

You need to do the pipi shuffle to get them ! LOL

when I was a little tacker the family would go to Rye, at low tide we would go out waist high and do " The twist " you would feel the pipi's between your toes as you sunk down into the sand, just reach down and pick them up, I haven't done this for many years so I don't know if they are still there ?

[cobby]

They're frozen live. No issue with either. Buy the more expensive Aussie pippies, the cheaper imports are pure crap for the once a year crew

[TrevKing]

The frozen ones I buy (from south australia apparently) always work a treat at Barwon Heads on the whiting, salmon, mullet ect.
They also stay on the hook pretty well for pipis.

From what I can remember its around $8 for a large bag of them, which usually lasts for a couple of hours during a hot bite.

[CarlG]

Hi All,

I've been enjoying fishing the sandy beaches in Westernport for a couple of months now. Still being relatively new to bait fishing, I've noticed inevitably how fresh squid / salmon / mullet performs better than it's frozen version, with frozen squid being almost useless (in my experience.)

Reading the landbased guide to WP, many of the spots have pipi or mussel as a recommended bait, i'm just wondering what everyone's thoughts on frozen pipi are?

Obviously I want fresh, but I can't seem to find any information on collecting my own pipi (mussel maybe) and don't want to pay fish shop prices for whiting baits.

Go to dromana parade, look for the large sandwich board outside the mussel farmers house. Buy your mussels off him, $4/kilo for bait mussels, from just out of safety beach. Can't go wrong.

[Scraglor]

The bags of mussels at coles are live. I have heard a few ppl use them. Sometimes you have to cut them into two baits per mussel depending on size

[hornet]

The frozen ones I buy (from south australia apparently) always work a treat at Barwon Heads on the whiting, salmon, mullet ect.
They also stay on the hook pretty well for pipis.

From what I can remember its around $8 for a large bag of them, which usually lasts for a couple of hours during a hot bite.

Victoria market has those SA pipi's !

better than those crappy clams they try to pass off as pipi's !