14 replies to this topic

[christian kimber]

Went to a nice mark tucked out the way last nite,and had some seriously good results.
When i arrived i started groundbaiting straight away with bran,bread and lashings of pilchard and salmon oil.
Started fishing after an hour or so of baiting up and bloody bagged up!!
Nothing of any great size but lots of small pollack and dogfish.In fact it was a fish a chuck,so why don't i hear more about groundbaiting in sea fishing or was it a one off?!!
If not does anyone have any recipes for groundbait.

[Salar]

Was it boat or shore? We should do more research into groundbaiting, the coarse chaps have it to a fine art. If used indiscriminately it seems to attract the wrong sort of fish (pesky dogfish for a start) so I wonder if some magic ingredient would attract bass or cod. A whiff of bait seems to bring them in, a big whiff of a groundbait bag should work wonders in theory.

[Socksy Squirrel]

Ground baiting can work wonders for conger.
Pall up with your local fishmonger and get him to save you up a 9l bucket of fish heads and guts. Any rubbish will do as long as it is nice and juicy.
Carry the bucket out to your chosen mark along with a hand axe and a couple of onion sacks and a length of rope.
Tip some of the fishy bits out on the rocks and break up with the hand axe. Shovel them into the doubled up onion sacks, a pair of rubber gloves is useful, and add a large stone. Tie to the end of the rope and drop into the water, fish close to the bag, say 20 to 30yds. The bag can be retrived periodically to add more juicy bits or a for a quick 'activation' by smacking it with the axe.
It is all a bit niffy but it pulls the conger in and we have had a few likely bass bites but we have not landed one yet using this method.
At the end of the evening retrieve your bags and slit the bottoms to allow the vile goo to slip into the sea. The mark will fish better next time as you have prebaited it.
Put the contaminated onion sacks in a bin bag, tie the top and take home for disposal.

[bob@reefcatfishing]

This season we have started doing some experimenting with groundbaiting, especially if we're targetting large bream. We use pretty much the same mix as if we were sharking, mashed sardines some bran and some sardine oil, have also found a "special ingredient". Look at http://www.cebansa.com its a mash of anchovies and sardines, comes in nice clean 5kg buckets and smells like fish paste, I've got through 500kgs this year. We don't have strong tides here, so just an onion sack on the anchor usually does the trick. Also experimenting with a weighted perforated bucket, with a screw on lid, the conger can't then rip the sack apart, and it seems to keep scent in the water for longer.

I think we probably have a lot to learn from coarse anglers, and that groundbaiting has a long way to go.

Also noticed that boat noise seems to attract fish, in fact I'll start another thread with that in mind.

[jabee]

Tried groundbaiting in Dingle Marina (Ireland) when fishing for Conger a few weeks ago. Things were quite slow, so we chopped up some Mackerel and periodically threw a handfulls in around our hookbaits which were only a few yards out in ten feet of water. There was a marked difference once we started groundbaiting, so I shall certainly be looking at other possible applications from boat and shore.

[christian kimber]

Salar was fishing from the shore and will be trying to get down there on a regular basis to pre bait.I've done this sort of thing for carp and tench and it definatly works.
I think what you said about people in america fishing side by side has got me thinking,and someone replied to that saying could this be beneficial as there would be a strong scent trail out there.
We all know that fish move along the coast lines as tides rise looking for food,so if there was a regular scent trail with small food items that they would come across it seem to me they would visit this area on a regular basis.But the snag is ,time and money as the oils themselves are not cheap although they can be brough in bulk.
Other flavours are used in carp fishing, Monster crab,Shellfish,Anchovy and liver,Salmon oil and tons more.The only problem is money as there pretty expensive.You can use carrier oils to bulk them out though which is what i use.
Finally i think if it brings in doggies although annoying is not a bad thing,once one species feed i believe others will follow sort,as they should see it as an easy food source.
Will post my results if any!!

[Zigs]

changed the water from a bucket of mackerell today in west bay harbour & a mullet was straight there smelling the blood

[christian kimber]

will be going down to me mark to do sum more groundbaiting,any recipes that a worth a try?
Friend of mine fished a well known mark down the hoe but away from the crowds over the rocks,and said he had three goo pollack and a couple of doggies,might giv there a go

[Newt]

christian - not sure how it would work where you are but cheap and easy enough to try.

Offal (from a butcher or fish market or both) and blood. Put the solid bits into a mesh bag and pour some blood over just before you get ready to use it. Tie a cord around the neck of the bag and you'll get it back. Just a matter of heaving it out then.

Granted, not as much distance as you might want but good scent trail.

Then take more of the solid bits and a spod rod and simply spod them out.

If you'd like, I have a DIY spod I like to use. Costs next to nothing, can be sized to suit yourself, easy to reel back in. Be happy to post details for you.