Bait fishing for bass and yellas.

[rayke1938]

I know that the majority of all you people use lures and wriggley things but I am a bit of a dinosaur who like to just sit there and bait fish.This is the method that I use in the fresh just thought I would share it for anyone who wants to give it a go. It seems to catch more fish with less snags for me.

I use a paternoster rig.

Swivel then around 12 inches to a dropper loop with the loop around 4 to 6 inches inches long then around 12 to 18 inches to a sinker that is tied on with a granny knot.

The hook is attached to the dropper by inserting the loop of the dropper through the eye of the hook and then flipping the loop around the hook body.

I only use wide gap hooks as you get a good hook up rate and very few throat hooked fish.

The idea of using the granny knot is that if you get the sinker snagged the knot will pull out and you only lose the sinker.

I usually premake a few of these rigs and wind them around a bit of pool noodle so that I have spares ready for use instead of having to muck around remaking the rig when you are on a hot bite.

I use clips on the end of my leader so that i can quickly change from a lure to the paternoster rig when I decide to bait fish.

I normally drop the rig till it hits the bottom but closely watch the line as its descending and if you see the line moving sideways you have got a hit ON the way down. When the sinker hits the bottom wind the line up a couple of feet so that the rig is up off the bottom.

This helps avoiding getting snagged and the fish are attracted to the shrimp jumping around on the dropper loop.

You catch less tandanus this way as they seem to be bottom feeders.

You have to be prepared to try holding your bait at different depths as sometimes the fish are sitting at different depths in the water column.

I always fish with my sounder on so that I can see what depth the fish are.

If you don't have a sounder it gets a bit harder. You have to observe the adjacent land to try and find the points and dropoffs. A good place to start is usually in around 20 feet of water off a point.. Use a sinker tied to line to find depth and start from there moving around 20 feet at a time till you find fish and drop the anchor as soon as you get a bite.

Do not strike at the first nibble as the fish is usually just mouthing the bait. Be patient and wait for the fish to run.They normally will hook themselves.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Ray.

[Eug]

thanks for the tips ray. do you find the anchor puts them off much at all?

[rayke1938]

No.

Also forgot to say pin the shrimp sideways down near the tail section as they jump around more and last longer. If the shrimp dies chuck it and put on a new one.Fairly rare for a bass to take dead shrimp but yellas will take it.

Cheers

Ray

[ryanyoung]

Whatever method works to catch a fish, is what I generally say Ray. I love lures and think it is satisfying to catch fish on them, however bait-fishing for bass is certainly not a boring way to go, when the fish are on at least lol!!!! I didn't even get a chance to finish my coffee the other day with you on Hinze, and the smoko breaks were few and far between Thanks for the info.

Ryan.

[rayke1938]

Finally got round to taking photo of hooked shrimp.

Cheers

Ray