Salting Bait
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: Landbased & Surfcasting
Forum Description: From rocks or beaches, here's the place for the landbased fishos to share information
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11945
Printed Date: 02 Feb 2026 at 2:11am
Topic: Salting Bait
Posted By: Kingi_Katcher
Subject: Salting Bait
Date Posted: 12 Dec 2005 at 9:45pm
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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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.K
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Replies:
Posted By: LBGer
Date Posted: 12 Dec 2005 at 10:09pm
| If you have a look in the current Fishing World Mag there is a article with some instructions on how to do it. |
Posted By: Blue Asparagus
Date Posted: 12 Dec 2005 at 10:11pm
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use rock salt or sea salt, now we used to do it in a jar layer of salt then bait size chunks then salt etc until the preserving jar was full drain off the liquid etc which accumulates but it keeps for ever and a day , so layer of salt layer of bait layer..... get the picture ------------- Ultimate GAME Fishing Adventures. Northland |
Posted By: swanie
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2005 at 6:31am
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Check out some butchers supply or spice merchants places, I used to get big sacks of rock salt for about $12 from the one on Gt Sth Rd in penrose, its on the cnr opp hirepool, between penrose road and Church street ------------- "Love the smell of Napalm in the morning" |
Posted By: ohsif
Date Posted: 13 Dec 2005 at 8:00am
| Swimming pool salt works fine at $9.95 to 12.95 for 25kg. I have found the squid I salted does not seem to work as well as fresh but salted pillies work great. |
Posted By: rockhiker
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2005 at 9:19am
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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. |
Posted By: rockhiker
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2005 at 12:13pm
| I should have also finished off with after the three days of soaking, put it in the freezer if not going to be used then and there. The freezing process seems to help the bait keep better than unfrozen. Thawing and re-freezing does not seem to make any differnce to catch rates. |
Posted By: shimma
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2005 at 1:31pm
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Thanks for the guide,rockhiker,hadn't thought to use resealable bags....Jim ------------- 
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Posted By: Hairy Little Dwarf
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2005 at 7:04pm
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It's all been said above really. Only thing I can add is that I nest two 10l buckets, the inner one with 2mm drain holes in the base. Layer the salt and fish as above, but the whole setup is self draining, and results ( I think) in an improved bait. Once the fish has salted down, remove and bagup with a little fresh salt. Definitely a good move for mushy baits like pillies. Used to leave the bucket on the boat all year with no nasty goings on occurring. Must be a use for the salty gravy that is freed up - incorporate into burley maybe, it's only fish juices... ------------- The Dreaded Shark-Eating Man! |
Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 22 Dec 2005 at 9:11pm
| I have used salted chopped up barracoutta and albacore (just the scraps mind you) for bait, kept it in a bucket with fish oil. It was messy but it worked ok for gurnard and manukau pannies. I pretty much do mine the way HLD says. |
Posted By: SNOWKIWI
Date Posted: 14 Jan 2006 at 1:55pm
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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. ------------- http://www.legasea.co.nz" rel="nofollow">  It is to be observed that 'angling' is the name given to fishing, by people who can't fish. |
Posted By: Kingi_Katcher
Date Posted: 14 Jan 2006 at 3:40pm
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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. |
Posted By: Coastbusters
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2022 at 3:59am
| I know it's an old thread, but people may still be reading it for advice. I met an old fisho at the weekend who has a different method. He gets a large plastic screw top jar (about a litre sized). He pre cuts his kahawai into bait sized strips, layers them, then layer of salt, layer of bait, salt, etc til it is chock full and screws the lid on. The juices ooze out and the jar becomes full of liquid. He doesn't drain it and the bait doesn't dry out. The bait stays flexible and moist, but tough. The jar he was using was 3 months old and it didn't smell one bit, even with my nose in it! He out fished everyone on the beach! I have seen him there twice using it and catching more than everyone else. I'm definitely going to try it myself. |
Posted By: Shilo
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2022 at 8:09am
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This is exactly what my Grandfather used to do. He lived right on the beach and had jars of salted Kahawai on his garage shelf to grab whenever he wanted to go surfcasting. As a kid fishing with him, I remember it as great bait and would always use it over any frozen stuff. Can't remember how long it lasted but it would have easily been over a year. |
Posted By: BananaBoat
Date Posted: 25 Jul 2022 at 7:09pm
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I bait fish most times using salted pilchards kg pillies, quarter that weight of salt in ice cream container in the garage, its ready to use after 5-7days In my experience, I find the pillies are better than salted kahawai. Salted squid is the worse stuff out there The squid, I just refreeze it time & again & it seems to work ok (Manukau harbour) as long its not completely thawed out After a sesh, return the salted stuff back to the ice cream container that has the juices & let it marinate till needed My salted baits sit in the garage & it gets bloody hot in there during summer... no smell & the bait still catches fish As far as salted baits go for me... in this order - pilles, piper, mullet, mackerel / trev.... other baits are not worth a mention, squid the worse Mackerel / Trev is best used fresh or refrozen if not completely thawed out, salting is a last resort |
Posted By: MB
Date Posted: 26 Jul 2022 at 1:08pm
| As a reluctant bait fisherman, doubt I'll ever salt my own bait, but I'm pretty impressed with the shop bought stuff. Purchased a small bucket of slimy mackerel for $30 and it was only about 1/4 full! That was 2 years ago and still have some left. Despite my moaning at the time, it's saved me a heap of money and hassle and does actually catch fish too! |
Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 26 Jul 2022 at 3:02pm
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I haven't used salted bait for many years but when I made it I always drained it. I must give this a go ------------- Best gurnard fisherman in my street |
Posted By: Pcj
Date Posted: 26 Jul 2022 at 5:32pm
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sea salt soak for a day or two,squid ,scaled mullet or fish you prefer,air tight jar,drain after 2 days,keeps for weeks
------------- "Times up" |
Posted By: waynorth
Date Posted: 26 Jul 2022 at 8:21pm
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I always used to have a salt bait bucket - I normally started it off with pillies to toughen them up, but I would chuck all the leftovers in there as well after each trip. I used to buy 25kg sacks of feed salt from my local Fruitfed. Bit gritty but did the job fine. Tip out the water the salt draws out every so often. Worked great for soft baits like pillies & blue macs, and saved re-freezing tougher baits like jack mac & kahawai fillets. They didn't really benefit from the toughening up, especially kahawai which is tough enough fresh even without skin. Squid came out exactly the same as it went in. Good to have onboard when your main bait supply is getting low. Gets a bit smelly after a couple of months. Rinse - repeat.
------------- treat fish like fish |