Salting Baits?

[diver1]

gday all, can you salt any fish bait to make it firmer and stay on the hook beter? useing whitebait yesty and when they fully thawed out they were very very soft and hard to keep on the hook, a mate said i should thaw them out, salt them then refreeze them. will this work? is there a nack to it? or do i just tip salt in the bag and shake them in it? do you use heaps? this also happens when i use pillys, they can go very mushy when thawed.

[Ray R]

Hi mate, I use to buy white bait from a store that had them in little 200gram bags and they were all separate, I would buy 4 bags of these , take them home and semi thaw them, then I replastc bagged them with a heap of normal table salt and then into the freezer .

When it came time to use them they would slowly thaw out and they were like semi solid rubbery kind of feel and they didn't go all mushy like yours did.

I did this for years before SP's bit me and I can honestly say that we had nice solid whitebait for our flattie fishing.

Hope this helps ..

Cheers..

[diver1]

thanks ray, i love the plastics to and that is my main techniquie, but ive taken to haveing another rod out always with a bait on it, gota maximise ya chances ya know, while im drifting ill have a bait out the back and ill flick into the drift with me plastics, ive also picked up quite a few flatties just bounceing a plastic along the bottom with the rod in the holder , when i aint got bait.

[caranx]

I salt gars down by putting a dish out and lining the bottom with newspaper, then salt. Lie the gars down belly down into the salt and cover the gars with a thin layer of salt, more around the head and the sides of the gut. Leave for 1-2 days max in the fridge ( the tray covered with glad wrap) . Then take them out and vaccum pack them. Last a year easily. The salt draws the moisture out. I dont like packing baits with salt in the fridge, just the bait after its been salted and wiped down. Then you can cast them around for a lot longer. You can do the same for other baits.

[zen801]

Hi,

I am salting some slimmies i caught yesterday.

I filleted them all then got a plastic lunch container.

Did it in layers by putting in salt then fillets then salt etc etc.

Put in fridge and next day restack them making sure they are nice and salty.

You will get liquid on the bottom and after about two days i drain some out.

You can leave them in the sealed container in the fridge for quite awhile or put them in the freezer.

I did this with salmon fillets and caught an 8kg jewie off the beach a few years ago.

This lot i will use for jewies in MH. Good Luck.

Cheers

[ron.c]

check this out mate. http://www.fishraider.com.au/fishing-artic...ishing-bait.php