Fish heads and guts for burley

[JewCraze]

Hi Everyone,

 

I went to Balmoral jetty last night. I used yellow tail heads and guts for burley. I was hoping for a big fish and I did get a big fish, but not the kind of big fish I was hoping for. It's a baby shark about 70 to 80cm.

 

I am wondering if the fish heads and guts with blood oozing out into the water only attract shark or do they also attract other fish? I'm mainly hoping for kingfish or jewfish, but would also be very happy with tailor or australian salmon, just not sharks and rays. Can anyone tell me if fish heads and guts as burley is a good idea?

 

Also, while I'm trying to get a big fish my little boy was also fishing for yellow tail near by. There were a lot of yellow tail a few weeks ago and my two boys caught 17. But last night there were few yellow tail around. I'm wondering if it's because the season for yellow tail over or because of my yellow tail heads and guts burley which they can smell and therefore got spooked and went elsewhere?

 

Thanks

JewCraze

[connico]

I never burley with whole heads and frames unless I'm chasing sharks. I normally mince the heads and frames  and use it in my burley mix.

Everytime I've been lazy either off the boat or off the rocks, I've been hit with sharks. And once the sharks are around the fish just seem to disappear. It takes ages after that to get the fish back on the bite

[Scratchie]

Berley is best used as a steady stream unless offshore where cubing has its purpose. The idea is to attract the little fish which inturn attracts the big fish. I don’t often berley for jewfish but kings seem to respond well to it. 

I agree with connico that once sharks are present, it’s very hard to shooo them away! Good luck 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[Berleyguts]

In relation to yellowtail heads and guts berley putting yellowtail off the bite - I frequently catch yakkas and slimies on pieces of yakka and slimey, so, no, I don’t think it affects them. My old frames go in the berley pot to be mashed up but I don’t like to let big chunks escape - a small steady stream, as Scratchie says, is best.

[blaxland]

the yakkas were probably hiding from the sharks

 

[JewCraze]

Thank you guys for all your replies. Appreciated.

[JewCraze]

10 hours ago, connico said:

I never burley with whole heads and frames unless I'm chasing sharks. I normally mince the heads and frames  and use it in my burley mix.

Everytime I've been lazy either off the boat or off the rocks, I've been hit with sharks. And once the sharks are around the fish just seem to disappear. It takes ages after that to get the fish back on the bite

Thanks Connico, so when you minced the heads and frames you don't get hit with sharks? It's only when you used the whole heads and frames that you're hit with sharks? If mincing it and mixing (with bread?) could get around the problem I'd do just that but otherwise I'll stop using the heads and guts altogether.

[JewCraze]

5 minutes ago, blaxland said:

the yakkas were probably hiding from the sharks

 

I was thinking that could be too.,

[connico]

2 hours ago, JewCraze said:

Thanks Connico, so when you minced the heads and frames you don't get hit with sharks? It's only when you used the whole heads and frames that you're hit with sharks? If mincing it and mixing (with bread?) could get around the problem I'd do just that but otherwise I'll stop using the heads and guts altogether.

Only when I used whole heads and the frames.... When I mince everything up and combine with the burley for some reason I don't get sharks at all. I've got a couple of videos of the sharks trying to take my burley bag filled with frames of dolphin / salmon heads and frames. Its a good way to lose bags lol

[JewCraze]

7 minutes ago, connico said:

Only when I used whole heads and the frames.... When I mince everything up and combine with the burley for some reason I don't get sharks at all. I've got a couple of videos of the sharks trying to take my burley bag filled with frames of dolphin / salmon heads and frames. Its a good way to lose bags lol

Thanks Connico, that's very helpful info. Thanks heaps! ?

[JewCraze]

On 6/12/2018 at 10:02 PM, connico said:

Only when I used whole heads and the frames.... When I mince everything up and combine with the burley for some reason I don't get sharks at all. I've got a couple of videos of the sharks trying to take my burley bag filled with frames of dolphin / salmon heads and frames. Its a good way to lose bags lol

I'm wondering ...  the stuffs you mixed with the minced fish heads and frames ... whether they absorbed the blood or masked the smell of blood that would otherwise ooze out from the whole heads / frames / guts ... and therefore the sharks are not attracted to the area.

[connico]

10 hours ago, JewCraze said:

I'm wondering ...  the stuffs you mixed with the minced fish heads and frames ... whether they absorbed the blood or masked the smell of blood that would otherwise ooze out from the whole heads / frames / guts ... and therefore the sharks are not attracted to the area.

I use prawn pellets, fish / tuna oil, bread and sand. When heads and frames get minced with the burley they also get frozen as well unless using fresh. So the blood is definitely frozen into the mix. That's most likely the reason?

[JewCraze]

4 hours ago, connico said:

I use prawn pellets, fish / tuna oil, bread and sand. When heads and frames get minced with the burley they also get frozen as well unless using fresh. So the blood is definitely frozen into the mix. That's most likely the reason?

That could explain it. Thanks again for the info. I still have some yakka heads and guts in the  freezer, might thaw them this weekend and mince and blend them into bread and tuna oil like you did.

[JewCraze]

On 6/12/2018 at 9:20 AM, connico said:

I never burley with whole heads and frames unless I'm chasing sharks. I normally mince the heads and frames  and use it in my burley mix.

Everytime I've been lazy either off the boat or off the rocks, I've been hit with sharks. And once the sharks are around the fish just seem to disappear. It takes ages after that to get the fish back on the bite

Hello again Connico

Reading back your comment I have another question. In saying "It takes ages after that to get the fish back on the bite" are we talking about hours, days, or weeks?

I went back a week after and it seems very quite. Not only did I catch nothing other guys there had no bites either. So I'm wondering if it's my fault (for attracting that shark) that no one else is getting any bites ???

[connico]

Once sharks turn up, I've just moved spots. I've fished spots consecutivily without an issue though

[JewCraze]

23 hours ago, connico said:

Once sharks turn up, I've just moved spots. I've fished spots consecutivily without an issue though

Thanks!