Bait for Bass Fishing
Mussel As Bait
Mussel
Mussel is a very under-rated bait and a lot of anglers are missing out by not using it. In many parts of the country it is the main-stay for many over the cod season. On sandy beaches or in estuaries, it is a good bait for flat fish of all kinds, but the main use seems to be for cod.
It’s a very smelly bait and that is where its attraction lies, personally I think and I know a lot of anglers agree, that the smellier the mussel the better. It can be frozen down time and time again, if you don’t use all you take on a fishing trip.
If you’re collecting your own mussel then have a look around rocks and rock scaurs, leg supports of piers and down the side of jetties. Grip the mussel across the back and just twist the hand around in a clockwise direction to release the mussels grip. You can normally pick enough for a few hours fishing in just a few minutes.
Try to vary your areas of collection from one trip to the next. Don’t keep taking mussels from the same place all the time otherwise you’ll quickly run down the stocks. Personally, I only choose the bigger mussels leaving the smaller ones to grow for future trips.
To ‘skein’ a mussel, get it out of its shell, I use a cut down dinner knife I pinched out of the wife’s kitchen drawer! Just cut it down to about two inches and then round the end off.
Use it to prise the shell apart, insert it between the two shells and twist, then just scoop the mussel out using the knife. Makes it easy peasy!
I remember about 30 years ago fishing at Gravesend and using mussel as my preferred bait because the water there is deep and very coloured, you are actually fishing in the river Thames and by my reckoning you needed a good smelly bait for any cod to find. I caught many a cod down there over a few years and on many occasion I would get chaps asking what I was using as they could see it wasn’t worm and it looked red or orange in colour. I believe I converted a few of them to the use of mussel as a good cod bait.
The best way I have found of presenting mussel on a hook is by getting a ‘baiting needle’, thread the mussel meats onto the needle then getting ‘elasticated cotton’ and wrapping it round the mussel, tucking in all the loose bits. Wrap it from one end of the needle and then back again. Slide the mussel off the needle and cut it into 2 – 3 or 4 inch lengths, whichever you prefer and freeze down ready for your next trip. Job done!
I prefer to take a few out of the freezer a few days before I go fishing and put them into a sealed jar and let them get a bit more smelly.
You can either tie the mussel on to the hook using some more elasticated cotton or just thread the hook through the bait and away you go.
Happy fishing.
Peeler Crab As Bait
Peeler crab as bait will be top of most anglers lists of priorities at the start of the cod season also when the spring run of cod starts. Most anglers living near the coast will collect enough for their own needs when the crabs peel at different stages of the year. I know lads who collect 100′s and either freeze them down or keep them in a fridge if they are to use them fairly quickly.
Peeler Crab is a top bait, especially along the east coast for Cod, Bass, and Rays.
If you are going to collect your own then the best place to look for peelers is under rocks which are just submerged in a few inches of water. You can normally find plenty of rock pools on flat rock scaurs, it’s just a case of looking, the lower the tides the better. For one thing it gives you more time on the rocks and also the sea drops away a lot further than an a neap tide, so uncovers more of the shore for you. Check your ‘tide tables’ for times and heights of tides.
Some guys put out tyres and pipes to catch their peeler in, most folk will know of this method but a word of warning or should I say caution? If you do know or come across tyres that have been put down by someone else DON’T think they are there for just anyone to check, in law they probably are not owned by anyone but morally, if some guys have gone to the trouble and hard work of putting a set of tyres down then they will be mighty annoyed at catching someone else going through their tyres and pinching, as they would reckon, their peeler crab! I have seen it lead to all sorts of trouble so they are best left alone.
The best time of year to search for your peeler crab is from April through to late September. In different parts of the country the crabs peel at different times, so you will need to get some local knowledge on the peeler crab moulting times in your area. Ask in your local tackle shop or alternatively, the forums on the internet can be a great source of information, IF, questions are asked in the right manner!
Global warming does appear to be effecting the peeler crab moulting times with the season often starting earlier and finishing later in the season. It will be interesting to see how 2010 pans out after the winter we have had!
When you do find a crab under the rock then the next step is to check to see if it really is a peeler crab. Gently twist and pull the last section of the crabs back leg until it comes away. If there is another soft leg underneath then the crab is moulting and can be used as bait. If the underneath leg appears clear and sinewy then it isn’t a ‘peeler crab’. Practice makes perfect.
The one thing to remember when presenting peeler crab on the hook is not to obscure the hook point in any way, make sure you use elasticated cotton to tie it to your hook, a few turns around the crab should do. You can then ensure that the hook point is clear.
Although I have talked about peeler crab being a top bait for Cod it is just as effective for other species such as Bass, most types of ‘flatfish’ and many others when presented at the right time of the season. It can and often will outfish most other baits when nothing else is catching on the day.
Happy Fishing
Article by John Stanway
Lugworm As Bait
Lugworm article
Lugworm comes in different guises: Blow / Common Lug – Black Lug – Yellow Tails / Runnydowns
Whichever type of lugworm you use, they are probably the most favourite cod bait to use in the winter months. Along a large part of the British coast line, cod will look at very little else apart from the beginning and end of the ‘cod season’ when they will feed on Peeler Crab. That doesn’t mean you have to fish them entirely on their own. They do make an excellent cocktail bait, teamed up with most other baits, especially with the likes of squid and mussel. Lugworm tipped with a bit of Mackerel or Herring is a great bait for Whiting.
Black lug can be frozen down but blow lug isn’t worth the bother in my opinion. A lot of debate does go on about the merits of both frozen and fresh blacks, but to be honest I’m happy using both and have no preference. Too many times I have seen each out fish the other.
Blow lug is probably the most common of the worms found around our shores. Blow lug tend to be very watery and they are pierced very easily when threading on to a hook. This is the main reason I always use a baiting needle. They are worth their weight in gold in my opinion. I use them for all types of worm and highly recommend you do the same, they make the job far easier and help you present the bait a lot better without it being full of holes before you cast out. As I stated, blow lug are very watery and if you keep pushing a hook through the side of them while baiting up then they are going to wash out very quickly when in the water.
Blow lug can normally be found down near the low water mark and the lower the tide, (spring tides) the more worm casts you should find.
The blow hole is the head end of the worm and the cast is the tail end of the lugworm where it expels the sand after it has travelled through its body.
The distance between the two can be a good indicator to the size of the worm underneath. It can be very hard to decide which way the lug worm is lying when you have numerous casts in a worm bed. If that is the case, a lot of diggers ‘trench dig’, which is exactly that, digging a trench across the worm bed and back filling as you go.
It can lead to more cut worms but you will probably uncover more worms using this method, rather than trying to dig each individual cast.
Blow lug can be plentiful, the same as most worms in the summer, but harder to find in the winter as they will go well out below the low water mark due to the more severe weather and rough seas we get. They will also probably be deeper in the winter, I usually only dig down one spade depth for my worms but in the winter you will more than likely need to dig down at least two spade depths.
When lugworm is deeper it is obviously more protected from being scoured out by a heavy sea.
I did talk there about a ‘spade depth’ and that is the instrument that I prefer to use but a lot of guys use a fork for blow lug, as always, it’s a personal choice.
Black Lug / Welsh Lug / Dungie Lug
Black lug is a most sought after bait especially in the winter, accounting for many a cod caught around our shores, plus other species as well. Most anglers class big black lugworm as one of their main baits for winter cod fishing.
Black lug are nearly always ‘pumped’ and not dug from the beach. For most black lug you need a good ‘low’ tide to be able to access the worm beds. A ‘pump’ can be bought in most tackle shops and also off eBay.
Black Lug is identified by a cast, but will have no visible blow hole like the Blow Lug. You may see what appears to be a blow hole in the centre of the cast.
If you do buy a pump, watch a few of the video’s on ”You Tube” about how to pump worm. There are some good video’s on You Tube to watch and get you up and running without having to go sessions without being able to ‘pump’ properly. Pumping worm looks easy, and is ONCE you know what you are doing.
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