Alternative Blackfish Baits

[Smitty]

Hi all,

I was doing a bit of net surfing yesterday, trying to find some info about those parasitic worms that you sometimes see in Blackies when you fillet them, when I stumbled across an artical penned by a fishing writter from across the ditch in NZ. He'd written about using frozen mixed veggies as bait for the fish they call Parore (our Blackfish).

Thought some of you might be interested so here's an extract from the artical:

"………..which brings me to parore fishing with Wattie's diced carrots, peas, and corn. This is a sportfishing persuasion tailor-made for old sunburnt salts like myself with developing allergies towards stinking bait. For this is bait fishing of the non-smelly variety. In fact, the bait is so clean and resoundingly odourless that you do start to wonder what the fish see in it. Yet it does work, and the spotties and sprats love it too.

Standard parore fishing tackle, a small float, small hook, and cooked carrot cube puts you in with a chance. Just buy a standard packet of frozen diced vegetables from your local supermarket and use them straight from the bag. We berley with small amounts of fresh bread and drift the carrot cubes down the trail. When the float goes under, strike! Frequently the line will tear off with a spotty on the end. Now and then though you hit heavier resistance and a big paddle-tailed parore starts thumping away.

You'll see a bunch of photos around here someplace of fish that have fallen to this method. These were good fish as far as parore go and surprisingly tasty (Josh insisted we eat them). Most fell for the carrot cube simply because it was the longer lasting bait. Sweetcorn attracted more bites but many were of the spotty variety and peas were too big a hit with the sprats. Berleying with mushed-up peas and corn whilst fishing with carrot cubes seemed to be a good way to go. But we had to make sure we didn't over-feed the fish. Past experience has shown that this sort of fishing requires minimal berleying, and the more mushed-up the berley is, the better. This is why fresh bread mushed-up in a bucket of water works so well as berley. It puts a milky-sweet flavour through the water without overly feeding the fish.

There are strong parallels with coarse fishing with this type of activity. And it is just as pleasurable. The only difference is the effect of tides. Parore always bite best on a full tide, retreating to deeper weed edges around the rocks as the tide drops. It is possible to fish for them there on the low tide, if you can keep hooked fish out of the kelp. Like a tench burrowing in the weed at Lake Kareta or a big brownie doing an Aniwhenua netweed roll, you can rest assured parore that head for the kelp frequently gain their freedom. It keeps the less aggressive parore fishers among us on the wharves and along those sandy estuarine channels.

The bit I really like about parore fishing, apart from the sweet bait, is the float watching. Any sort of float fishing is quite addictive: the heart-stopping twirl of the float as something toys with the bait, then the reflex jarring 'down' as the float disappears from sight. Both are things that keep drawing you back for more. Especially when that float goes down and stays down. It gets a fisherman's blood running whether they're drifting a nymph for big rainbows, soaking a corn kernel for a solid tench or hoping to pull a big parore out of the big, wharf-hugging spotty schools.

I like to use my five-weight fly rod and a floating line when parore fishing. To this I pinch on a small amount of split shot around 100 mm above the hook and tie on a small cube of closed cell foam onto the fly line as an indicator float. The great thing about closed cell foam as a float is that it grips the fly line and consequently can be adjusted up and down the fly line if greater or shallower fishing depth is required. The aim is to have your bait hanging just above the bottom. The deeper it is the more split shot weight that may be required, otherwise sprats can hold your bait up in the water column and refuse to let it sink.

The other useful thing about closed cell foam indicator floats is that when cut in an oblong shape and tied at one end the float will stand up out of the water when a fish is playing with the bait. Everybody holds their breath when that little orange piece of foam flicks into the air and threatens to dive into the depths. Many times it doesn't, but the anticipation is still there. And that's what parore fishing with non-stink diced vegetables is all about: sitting, waiting for a bite, right on the edge of your seat. Oh yes - and not smelling like dead pilchard for the rest of the week! "

Dont know if this'll catch on, but its FOOD for thought, and it might just solve the Blackfisherman's problem of finding a decent supply of fresh green weed on a regular basis!!!

Is anyone game to give it a try during the upcomming "Great Sydney Harbour Blackfish Challenge"?? Just have to remember the veggie masher so you can mash up the burley!

Cheers,

Chris...

[arpie]

Hi Chris

I'd actually read that a few years ago myself!!! Never got around to trying it tho - must give it a go one day tho! if you try it first, let me know how you go!!!

Roberta

[Smitty]

No worries Roberta, WHEN I try it and IF it works everyone on FR will here all about it.

[jewgaffer]

Chris... It would be a good idea to use baitmate to give our blackfish a larger variety of fruit and vegies to chose from... we could get one up here and use northern mangos and paw paws and include cherries, sticks of asparagus, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, capsicums, garlic, onions, apples, pineapple pieces, dates, prunes, sultanas, raisins, dried apricots, dried tomatos and particules of same for burley...

Cheers

jewgaffer

[GregL]

Chris... It would be a good idea to use baitmate to give our blackfish a larger variety of fruit and vegies to chose from... we could get one up here and use northern mangos and paw paws and include cherries, sticks of asparagus, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, capsicums, garlic, onions, apples, pineapple pieces, dates, prunes, sultanas, raisins, dried apricots, dried tomatos and particules of same for burley...

Cheers

jewgaffer

You've burley'd me up with that lot, now what's the bait?

[jewgaffer]

You've burley'd me up with that lot, now what's the bait?

Quite correct Greg, thinking about this all over again, the ultimate two hook blackfish rig would have to be an asparagus and shallot paternosta.. the benefits are beyond limitation as this particular rig would only require an accurate cast or two to be able to land directly into a handful of floating rhubarb...

Cheers

jewgaffer

[MidNrthFisho]

I dont see how this wouldn't work! considering i've pulled decent luderick off the beach on worms, im sure they would take a few vegies!

[cyberfish]

amazing, I was just wondering about this and googled it. I was thinking spinach might work? cheers

[jewgaffer]

amazing, I was just wondering about this and googled it. I was thinking spinach might work? cheers

Quote W.T Googenheimer, Buffalo, Kentucky zip 00921

"to make your spinach work even better on blackfish and other vegetable eaters, it's usually a good idea to develop your own spinach from seedlings gradually introduced to a saltwater enviromnent. Every so often call down to your favourite blackfish spot right on the top of the tide and fill two buckets with salt water (you carry one in each hand) but be sure to scoop up a good amount of the foamy residue left on the surface before the tide changes and washes the fluffier parts away. Simply add half a bucket of that to your spinach patch every four days or so. Keep a close eye on the spinach during the fall but for the remainder of winter wait until the leaves all but mature and then as soon as the Rockies start to thaw carefully spread a few moist cow pads (preferably thawed) around the stem of each spinach perhaps two or three high so as to counter balance any methane content that may have bio-degraded out of the residue you have been collecting progressively i.e.the methane content has been in the aquatic basm you skimmed off the foam left on the surface at the blackfish grounds, and since the start of fall remember"

Good luck with the spinach and let's know how you go in the spring before the blackfish quieten down..

Cheers

jewgaffer

[Basil D]

Chris... It would be a good idea to use baitmate to give our blackfish a larger variety of fruit and vegies to chose from... we could get one up here and use northern mangos and paw paws and include cherries, sticks of asparagus, cucumber, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, capsicums, garlic, onions, apples, pineapple pieces, dates, prunes, sultanas, raisins, dried apricots, dried tomatos and particules of same for burley...

Cheers

jewgaffer

you forgot the Okra Jewgaffer :074:

[rickster]

amazing, I was just wondering about this and googled it. I was thinking spinach might work? cheers

Thinking back what spinach did to Popeye, you'd never be able to pull the buggers in!!!!!

[flanks]

My Grandfather use to use Baked Beans in the Wallis lakes at Forster

[DGF]

ill try some spinach get mighty blackies!

[woodch0p]

I have been playing around with nori (dried seaweed used for sushi) for a while, have only caught one using it, used it as burley 2 fridays ago, burleyed hard while I rigged up, as soon as a bait hit the water I was getting downs but am unsure if the bite was already hot or if it was the burley. Got the idea because I use to use it to feed my tangs in my aquarium. Am going to keep playing with it and hopefully I will have some better findings.

Rick has also told me parsley does the trick

Daniel

[rickster]

I have been playing around with nori (dried seaweed used for sushi) for a while, have only caught one using it, used it as burley 2 fridays ago, burleyed hard while I rigged up, as soon as a bait hit the water I was getting downs but am unsure if the bite was already hot or if it was the burley. Got the idea because I use to use it to feed my tangs in my aquarium. Am going to keep playing with it and hopefully I will have some better findings.

Rick has also told me parsley does the trick

Daniel

You're a funny so and so Daniel. OK I admit that once while walking thru woolies, I couldn't stop looking at the parsley and thinking, I wonder if......................?

Then I thought how silly an idea and how ridiculous would I look putting bloody parsley on my hook. Nobody's that stupid. Bought some parsley and left woolies. Anyway found a secluded spot, disguised myself accordingly just in case and put plan A into action. Had been getting a fair few fish here and no better place to try. If this works I'll be telling everyone(eventually). Spot was only about 6-8ft deep but couldn't see that being a problem. Did I also mention that I like to use a fairly long leader? Anyway, baited up, threw in, bit of burley, standing in the strike position, rod in one hand, landing net in the other. It was then that I noticed something green about 3-4ft below the surface right beside my float. Again did I mention that I like to use a fairly long leader. This was the day I discovered that parsley floats!!! Will definetely try it again (alone) in a deeper spot with a shorter leader and IF it does work, you'll all be the last to know.

[tuffy]

That's it then. I'm off to the Flemington Markets on Saturday to stock up !!

Tuffy.

[Basil D]

My Grandfather use to use Baked Beans in the Wallis lakes at Forster

Baked beans would make the fish