Sea Bait Presentation

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:54 pm

Right then folks, i know that the type of bait used is important and the presentation is too but how should it look?
I can keep a a squid on the hook but what part of the hook needs to remain exposed, just the sharp bit or up to the bend?
Sea Angler magazine is good for describing the baits used, giving pictures of the fish, the pier, the beach etc but not actually the hook pre-cast so i have no idea what it should look like.
Does anyone have any pictures of a baited hook or instructions? Please.
I mainly fish at Burton Bradstock through to Charmouth for anything (anything would be nice).
Cheers folks.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:03 am

If you are wary of giving away all your hard found out informtion i can exchange information.
I have a wealth of knowledge on how not to catch fish, tell me how to present bait and i can help you not catch anything for months.

Guest

with all baits, always leave the hook points exposed.

Hope that helps.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:32 pm

Basically thats where most sea anglers new to the sport go wrong, many will use Hooks that are far to small for the size of bait they are using and all the bait does it Mask / cover the Hook barb completely :?
Its very important also to make sure the bait stayed in place and doesnt shoot from the hook right up the line when it hits the water.
So depending on the type of bait used you should always use some form of bait stop or even bait elastic, at the end of the day catching is hard enough and getting your baited hook on the sea bed intact and still well presented is going to give you at least a good start! big grin

Cheers
mrix

Guest

If using worm baits, as Mrix says, use a bait stop above the hook a bead usually works with a crimp behind it, to stop the worm riding up the snood.

Also tip off the bait with a strip of squid to stop the worm sliding down the hook and masking the point.

To prepare the squid, cut it length-wise along the body and pull off the head and scrape out the guts. Throw away the clear plasticy type bone and open up the body so it is flat. Then cut into strips length wise again.

If fishing a whole squid, try a pennel rig. That is one hook at the bottom of the rig and one on the snood above it.

Place the bottom hook through the head of the squid, between the eyes and make sure the point is sticking out of the head, then take the top hook and hook it through the tail of the squid.

If you can get your hands on some of Fishyrob's Dvices, www.fishyrob.co.uk you can use a single hook for the squid. Start at the tail and thread the hook down through the body until it projects through the head of the squid again making sure it does not mask the point.

The reason for this, all though some disagree with me, is that all fish, especially bass, hit the bait head first and will, if you have not threaded the hook through the head, snatch the head off the bait and you will see a lovely bite but no fish.

If fishing for Black Bream, take the squid heads, slice them in half longways and fish the head alone. BB love them for some strange reason.

If fishing for thornback rays, try wrapping a sand-eel in a squid body, with bait elastic, don't mummify it, just make it look like a sausage, and thread the hook through the lot in an out coming out of the bottom of the bait.

This last trick was shown to me by a very successful Thornie fisherman, but to date I have never caught one. So he may have been talling me porkies.

For sole, you need to nail the bait to the bottom and use very small hooks, size 4, with coloured beads above it and a heavy split shot as a bait stop to help keep the bait on the bottom. I have never caught a sole either, so I am only saying what I have been told.

Finally, a general rule is match the hook size to the bait not the fish. Therefore the larger the bait, the larger the hook.

Fish with the general exception of Sole tend to have quite large mouths and are quite capable of taking a big hook and bait, when you would not believe them able to do so.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 7:22 pm

Thanks folks for that, very comprehensive answers. I knew there was a knack to this fishing lark, just never realised different types were needed for different fish. Never occured to me to use a bead to stop it moving up the line.
Will try some at the weekend.
Sorry but a follow-up question.
Chatting to a bloke at Charmouth last night who was using whole mackeral i would assume that you start at the tail and feed the hook back and forth through the body ending at the tail and then tie the bugger on with bait elastic? Or should i just give up now?

Guest

Try pennell hooking it. Put the top hook through the mouth (as if it had taken a bait) and then half hitch the line round the body and stick the bottom hook through the tail. Use a joey though, the full grown mackerel are a bit hard to cast!!

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 6:15 pm

Thanks for the help.
I bought Total Sea Fishing for something to read yesterday and guess what, yup pictures of hooks with baits. I know what magazine i will be buying for a while.
Lets just hope your advice actually helps me catch something.