Bruce Basher looked at some of the simpler ways to dispense berley alongside baits while surfcasting. Part I of this series can be found here.

Over this short series, I won’t include much in the way of berley recipes, mainly because we all have our favourite mixes and concoctions, and all will work well with the following methods.

A couple of this month’s suggestions involve having a hypodermic syringe (or two) about 20mm in diameter. These can be procured from a friendly chemist or one of those shops that sells cheap imported Asian products; they’re often sold for injecting marinade into meat.

The berley bait

Next, visit a chemist and purchase a gauze finger bandage. Cut off some of the tubular gauze and feed it over the syringe’s barrel. You’ll get about half a metre onto the tube.

Pull the plunger out as far as it will go, and you’re ready to load the mix of innards, blood and bait-board trimmings into the tube, to possibly make the messiest, smelliest bait ever.

While almost anything will do the job, it pays to make these baits species specific. (So although it might be tempting to dispose of your m other-in-law in this fashion, it’s borderline illegal, and will probably put most fish off anyway!)

Once the tube is full, pull some of the gauze off the syringe tube and tie a tight knot in it, as per Diagram 2. Leave about 50 to 60mm of extra gauze hanging beyond the knot so you can cut some flappy ‘legs’ into it as added visual attractions.

Now push the plunger down to force a long, sausage-shaped tube of messy berley out into the gauze cylinder. When the lot is out, tie another knot in the end of the gauze. Believe it or not, you’re going to catch your next fish on this bloody mess!

I use a trace with two hooks snelled on it to mount the berley bait. The top hook is passed through the first knot, and this one will fit onto the release clip if using a pulley rig.

The trailing hook is passed through the other end of the berley bait, but make sure the hook’s point and barb remain well clear. I mount mine as in Diagram 3. Needless to say, it pays to have a bucket of water handy to wash your hands when dealing with this bait. In turn, this lets you play a great trick on your buddies, too: if you catch a decent-sized paddle crab, chuck it into the murky berley water. The fun starts when your mate rocks up and commences to wash his hands!

The Burley Basket

First up, you will notice I have spelt ‘Burley’ differently, because that’s what the manufacturers have called it. I have not used this product, cannot find out where I got it, and do not know where it can be purchased from. But it certainly looks as if it has plenty of potential, so for this reason I have included it here.

The weighted base screws off and berley is placed into the green, rocket-shaped container. Your line passes through the container and its base, and attaches to a strong swivel. Your trace line is attached to the other end of the swivel.

When cast into the water, the whole unit operates in much the same way as a running-sinker setup typically used by many surfcasters. However, boat anglers could attach this unit to the bottom section of a ledger rig, instead of a sinker, too.

Berley tube

The berley tube is probably one of the cheapest ways to get berley out to where your bait is. It’s also relatively easy and versatile to use. All you need is a small piece of clear plastic tube about 60-80mm long, and two small corks that fit tightly into either end. I use plastic tubing of anywhere between 12mm and 20mm in diameter. See Diagram 4.

Drill or cut several holes into the plastic tube, then place it somewhere on your rig or trace. Berley is pushed into the tube and the corks jammed into each end, also trapping the Berley Tube onto the line.

I also like to carry a few plastic tubes with no holes, other than those at the ends. Mounted the same way as the Berley Tube, but with no berley in them, they make very good floats if you wish to keep your bait up off the bottom.

The PVA berley sausage

This is very similar to the berley bait in appearance and manufacture, but with one very important difference: instead of a finger bandage to hold all the berley together, a PVA tube is used. The PVA slowly dissolves in the water, releasing the berley so it wafts away and starts ringing the dinner gong.

Also, this sausage is not used as the bait; instead, it’s tied onto your rig, bait, trace or sinker before casting out. The basic concept involves the PVA dissolving so the contained berley spreads out over the area and brings fish in to feed on your bait. This technique is often used by coarse anglers – and I pinched the idea from them. Anglers familiar with this strategy will know that salt water dissolves PVA more slowly than fresh water. However, some juices still leach out, starting the berley trail.

It’s also a great way to deliver pellet-type berley right to where your bait is. Soaking the pellets in your favourite fish oil before placing them in the PVA gauze tube can prove very worthwhile!

The PVA tube can be readily purchased off AliExpress, TradeMe or websites dedicated to coarse fishing.

	This article is reproduced with permission of    New Zealand Fishing News December 2017 - Bruce Basher Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited