Bait fishing tips please

[adzo64]

Hi raiders, my brother and I have been trying to learn the art of catching live bait, however unfortunately without much success. We have become overwhelmed by it all really and a tad frustrated.

I am hoping for a bit of help from experienced people on things like, best times of day, a few locations, techniques, baits to use, best types/colour jigs and Burley types/ how much to use??

Fishing in a 12ft tinny at middle harbour and pittwater, also might look at trying little manly.

We are after squid and yakkas to eventually catch a few bigger fish!

All help much appreciated.

Cheers, Adam

[koi]

I find that yakka come out just when the sun sets with a bit of berley. Hard for me to find them during the day but eventually they come after the berley. I use cat food for berley

[Kingfish1999]

Mate balmoral kelp grounds is live bait go further out or u will lose the anchor like me and that's we're the yakkas r. Size 8 or 10 long shank hook with a bit of pilchard or squid. Burley with pilchards then u will get em. Get deer wen the sun is just coming up. Also there r a few squid around deer to.

[adzo64]

Thanks for the tips, Ethan13 do u mean near middle rock?? How far out do u mean?

[Jewhunter]

Get deer wen the sun is just coming up. Also there r a few squid around deer to.

Deer at Balmoral & they hang out with squid!

Now I've heard it all!

Cheers,

Grant.

[Robofish]

Hi,

for Pittwater anchor by the pill boxes at west head - I usually go 6-10m in depth. For middle harbour most of the moorings hold yakka and sometimes slimies but I find the most consistent spots are Balmoral, Powder Hulk Bay or Clontarf.

As for tactics - I make burley from cheap white loaves, mix the whole loaf in the bag it comes in with a glug of fish oil and enough cold water to mash the loaf into a ball of stodge. I then split the mix into 3 portions and freeze them all separately. As soon as you drop anchor put the still frozen burley mix in your burley bucket or I used to use one of those mesh washing machine bags hanging over the side. The frozen mush will break down slowly and you will soon have bait swarming around the back of your boat - you can usually see them.

It's up to you then, you can use a light handline with a small hook or I use half of a sabiki with a light lead on the bottom. Most importantly I find most success by putting a tiny piece of bait on each one - yakka flesh or squid stays on the longest. I don't jig the rig but lower it to different depths until I start getting bites but its usually when your rig just disappears from sight.

Hope you find them - I remember when I struggled to catch bait an was stoked when I worked it out.

Best of luck

Dave

[Kingfish1999]

Hi adzo64 about 50 metres from the rock and the yakkas tend to be dere more than inclose

[adzo64]

Thanks everyone, you have all been a great help, looking forward to giving a few of these tips a go!

[rockfisherman]

Rose bay warf for yakkas... Burley is key, no burley, very little chance of yakkas...

Fishingphase

[mimyo]

If your fishing at night the best burley you can have is a light shining into the water! Best bait for yakkas is mince. During the day you need to fish deeper for them.