Hey guys, just want to get some advice on salting down baits.
Want tosave a bit of $$ for the next trip as im taking a solid 37 days off work (or until im satisfied with my holiday) to fish hardcore. will be stocking up on fresh squid, jack macs, etc, and wondewring the best ways to preserve these without freezing.
Cheers.
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K.K
I havent salted baits like Jack mackerel, but have salted a lot of bonito and mackerel over the years (in chunks though not whoe fishZ. The tips from the others look good for getting the costs down for the salt. I use sea salt, but differently from the others I salt the bait in large resealable plastic bags.
I use about a kilo of sea salt to one of the large sealable plastic bags (about 8 inches wide and 12 inches high size). I fill the bag about 1/3 to 1/2 with the bait in good size bait chunks for large snapper (you can always trim in down later). Put everything in the bag give it a good shake and store in a cupboard somewhere and turn every day or so for about three days - voila! the end product is awesome.
I use the entire fish, "steaked" from end to end, with the cuts off set so you create wedge shaped baits that go through the air well for casting.
I do this for a variety of reasons;
1. I find bait salted in containers, whilst it works well, tends to become dry and hard. When salted in a bag, the liquid or effectively brine, oozes out and covers the bait at all times. So you get a firm to hard oily, messy bait that works very well on snapper.
2. There is zero waste from the fish you have used when you cut it up this way
. The bag can be resealed, and takes up no room in you pack when you leave and pack it out.
watch that the fins dont hole the bag though, sometimes 2 bags is a good insurance policy!
Hope this helps.
I add a generous dollop of fish oil after the salting stage, seems to help prevent the drying out to a degree. Also cut mine into large chunks that will fit into ice cream containers, seems easier to salt the large bits, and when the icecream containers are full, fit lids, and stack them neatly in the freezer. This is the only way "her indoors" will let me put my bait in the only chest freezer we own. "No smell"! She's happy, I'm happy and the baits keep for ages.
Cheers for the advice guys.
The salted bait did the trick and saved money big time. New fav bait, SAMNA!!
before leaving i bought 10L pail of salted pillies, only to find them rotten and crumbly and extremely smelly.... very annoyed. Luckily i discovered this b4 leaving for the trip, and the bait shop was kind enough to replace them. Even these weren't of a great quality and we didn't catch one fish on those salted mutants. It was my own salted bait which got all the fish.
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