Salting bait

[sashkello]

Hey all!

I was wondering whether it matters what kind of salt I use for salting my bait. I.e., I've got some cunji I wanted to use later and pilchards which I wanted to toughen up a bit. I have a few bags of cheap iodized table salt in the pantry, but someone told me it has to be evaporated sea salt necessarily. Can someone clarify whether it matters?

Cheers!

[XD351]

Use pool salt - it’s the cheapest option - or whatever you have at hand , salt is salt - it is there to draw moisture out and that’s all . 

[sashkello]

11 minutes ago, XD351 said:

Use pool salt - it’s the cheapest option - or whatever you have at hand , salt is salt - it is there to draw moisture out and that’s all . 

Oh, wow, it's less than $1 per kilo... That's a good deal. 

[rickmarlin62]

Wrap a dozen pillys at a time in newspaper  cover them with salt  wrap up and put in plastic bag or tray   salt and paper soak out all moisture   leave in frige for 24 hrs  then you can freeze them

Edited July 16 by rickmarlin62

[bessell1955]

I have always just used table salt.

[Restyle]

The way it’s done at the bait shops is abit differnt than the conventional way I guess, but it dose yield good quality salted baits. The bunnings pool salt in 10kg bags is the way to go.

 

- find a tub that’s properly sized and lay a 1cm layer of salt on the bottom, 

- place all your fillets/fish baits in, you don’t need to put salt inbetween the layers. 

- pour a good 3 to 5cm thick layer of salt ontop of your bait

- fill the container up with water until the water is just covering the top of the bait not the salt, you’ll find the salt just start to fall into the water 

- wait a few mins you’ll find most of the salt will ether dissolve or fall into the tub

- place another 3-5cm layer if needed, or top it up if you can see the water/bait

- store in a shady area. It dosnt smell

Your bait will be ready in a day if you used enough salt, if you didn’t use enough it’ll take 2 days. You can reuse the left over salt once you take you’re bait out and drain the water. The water/left over juice makes for a good burley. If your salting beachworms just place them in metho for 2 minutes. 

 

Edited July 18 by Restyle

[sashkello]

On 7/18/2024 at 9:46 PM, Restyle said:

The way it’s done at the bait shops is abit differnt than the conventional way I guess, but it dose yield good quality salted baits. The bunnings pool salt in 10kg bags is the way to go.

 

- find a tub that’s properly sized and lay a 1cm layer of salt on the bottom, 

- place all your fillets/fish baits in, you don’t need to put salt inbetween the layers. 

- pour a good 3 to 5cm thick layer of salt ontop of your bait

- fill the container up with water until the water is just covering the top of the bait not the salt, you’ll find the salt just start to fall into the water 

- wait a few mins you’ll find most of the salt will ether dissolve or fall into the tub

- place another 3-5cm layer if needed, or top it up if you can see the water/bait

- store in a shady area. It dosnt smell

Your bait will be ready in a day if you used enough salt, if you didn’t use enough it’ll take 2 days. You can reuse the left over salt once you take you’re bait out and drain the water. The water/left over juice makes for a good burley. If your salting beachworms just place them in metho for 2 minutes. 

 

Can it be stored for a prolonged period of time, frozen? Or it's only for bait which is going to get used within a week or so?

[PaddyT]

I used to slab up dozens of striped tuna /frigate macks for snapper bait-i used to take a thinnish fillet off the tuna -about as thick as a thumb so it would make nicely presented baits-would use a plastic tub -layer of pool salt , layer of fillets, layer of pool salt-layer of fillets-you get the picture. Left the tub in the bottom of the fridge for a week and just drained the juices every day. Then wrapped them in gladwrap and tossed into the freezer. Lasts for at least a year.

[BaitDropper]

6 hours ago, sashkello said:

Can it be stored for a prolonged period of time, frozen? Or it's only for bait which is going to get used within a week or so?

Absolutely it can, all my bait what I don't use is salted, then frozen...

[HawkesburyParadise]

I don't use bait anymore but when I did, salting was definitely better. It toughens the bait so harder to take off the hook and it lasts longer. Having said that, I think even with salt, bait does have a shelf life.