frozen crab

[KennyC]

I think if fish are hungry enough they will eat anything that is going, however if there is an abundance of one particular food they will concentrate on that.

 

Catching cod from a boat over summer can be difficult if there are a lot of sprats around.

 

The fish seem to become preoccupied with chasing them and ignore any static baits that would normally catch them, such as lug and shellfish.

 

Again another example with shore summer cod, is that peeler crab will outfish worm - though use peeler from the boat then it's usually the other way round ( as long as theres no sprats ).

[spanner]

They definitely do get fixated on certain baits.

 

My best cod catches have actually come on mackerel baits, and all the cod I caught were coughing up sprats, stuffed to the gills the greedy b*ggers.

 

The ones I caught recently on frozen swimmer crab were stuffed full of crabs.

 

Match the hatch as the fluff chuckers say.

 

I do find it odd though that they will still ignore a perfectly good bait just because they are mostly eating something else at the time. A free luch is still a free lunch after all.

 

So either they are too stupid or too fussy to recognise other nosh as grub when they are concentrating on one thing.

 

Just like my wife when there is any chocolate in the house.....

[Andy MacBog]

"Match the hatch as the fluff chuckers say."

 

I like that ... fluff chuckers, that'll take the salmon snobs around here down a peg or two! Thanks Spanner! (Admittedly I do a bit o' fluff chucking myself!)

 

Yes, I guess it is that fixation thing ... I suppose its more efficient to adopt one behaviour pattern for a period rather than be repeatedly switching back and forth, especially if they have a bonanza of one particular prey item. And i supose too that when chasing sprats they are looking up rather than down.

 

Funny old thing the sea .... I often wonder what is going on down there! It must be great to be able to scuba dive.

 

Thanks for your thoughts and any more that may be forthcoming.

 

Andy