Keeping bait strong

[JimmyB6 0]

Hey all, heading to salt creek in a coupla weeks and just wanting a few tips for keeping bait from going soft so quickly. I've heard buying fresh pillies and soaking them in table salt and freezing them wrapped in newspaper? Any truth to that or any tips would be great. Chasing salmon, sharks, mullys etc.

[Raider 19]

I have never salted pillies, but just make sure your bait is as fresh as possible and minimize the amount of times it defrosts and then is refrozen. Buy them fresh and try keep them frozen until you go fishing.

[ausea 4]

Best results so far are Saury's and squid heads,must be local squid not imported.

[ausea 4]

Forgot to say you would only need a half Saury.The sqid heads last the longest,that's if you can get the local one's,Don't bother with the imported squid

[brenton 637]

Yep salting pillies in a brine does work but you need to get it right,if they are salted too long they go like leather.I'd do a few tests before you go to get it right or use fresh gar. cheers brenton

[JimmyB6 0]

How long should I soak them in the salt you reckon?

[pauly s 426]

Ive got a fridge in the shed i do mine in.. get a tub and flat pack the pillies and put a fair amount of salt on each layer, put in the fridge overnight then the next day empty the juice at the bottom and if you want them abit tuffer repeat and leave for another night.I keep all the oil that the salt brings out and mix it with a few cubed pillies and burley pellets wack that on the frezzer and when u head out put it in the burley bucket washing in the surf or off the boat.

[brenton 637]

I've done them in a salt slurry in the fridge which keeps in the moisture,just keep checking them until your happy because it varies depending on how much salts in your slurry. cheers brenton

[plankton 725]

forget pillies, use squid, strips for chasing smaller fish, heads for the bigger ones

[bent87 0]

Nothing beats squid you've caught yourself and snap frozen, still juiced up with ink. Pillies are wolfed down like jelly beans, but even when salted and bound to your hook with black twine they struggle to keep up with the rigours of harsh surf fishing. It's always good to take a lighter outfit and cockles to salt creek, and to try and augment your bait supply with fresh mullet, salmon trout and surf tommies.

[Knackers 696]

I have pretty much stopped using pillies in the surf. I catch my own tommies and fillet them with the scales on then freeze. Keep the frames for berley. Next best is salmon trout, but find the flesh goes as quickly as pillies with pickers.

[Drew 0]

Agree, forget the phillies and catch or buy a couple of kilo of tommy or mullet fillets or whatever cheaper at the fish shop and use it. Ols mate near parnka point has got too dear of late and is aSometimes too smashed to come down the hill.Have to check phillies every 10-15 min otherwise that's when you don't cast them off. Use squid or occy during the daylight hours when the crabs are about. Keep some phillies for back up or burley. Had plenty of time when we've thrown out some frames of sweep or whiting for burley and when caught a gummy they're full of them. Whiting and/or mullet heads are regarded as gun bait in some areas as well and stay on the hook for ages until the lice clean them out.

[Luke5600 61]

You could give fish tails/heads a shot. Any whiting you fillet rather then putting the heads in for berley just cut a bit behind the head to get a bit of extra meat on (although its no big difference if you don't) and rig up the head, alot harder then the body and doesn't get crabbed/stripped off the hook as easily. squid heads are alright as well but if you catch some squid you can take the tubes and actually put a fish fillet inside it to get both tastes in the water then hook the tube making sure you get the fillet as well and that will hold the fillet inside the tube and most pickers will go for the fish inside so even if they do manage to get a fair whack of the fillet off the squid should remain on there still, I think I saw that on an episode of adventure bound when he was fishing for gummy sharks