Making Berley
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: The Briny Bar
Forum Description: The place for general chat on saltwater fishing!
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=140150
Printed Date: 23 Jun 2026 at 10:22pm
Topic: Making Berley
Posted By: rusty360
Subject: Making Berley
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 11:01am
| Morning all, im going to make up some berley seem pig pallets or chicken food works well in the mix. Any recommendations? |
Replies:
Posted By: Mc Tool
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 12:19pm
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I put all sorts in there , oil from the sardine tin ,anything left over from filleting or gutting fish ,left over cat food ( yeah I know but between her and 2 fussy cats I dont stand a chance . Its real sad ....I spend more on cat food than beer 🙄🙂 ) ,anything meaty thats to far past its use by date , fish oil ( MD's) . Pretty much anything ....I figure that the fish dont actually have to eat it ..it only has to get them interested. But yeah pig or chicken pellets are good ....anything with meat or bone meal in it 🙂🙂 ------------- I wish I was young again .... Id be heaps smarter than this time |
Posted By: Pcj
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 4:21pm
------------- "Times up" |
Mc Tool wrote:Posted By: Mc Tool
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 4:36pm
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Nah , Just stick a hook in it arse and chuck it in , make a good livie ...plenty of thrashin about 😆😆 ------------- I wish I was young again .... Id be heaps smarter than this time |
Posted By: Alan L
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 6:55pm
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"I figure that the fish dont actually have to eat it ..it only has to get them interested." The general rule is don't use bait you wouldn't eat. But yes - it ain't bait. You are only trying to get them to a place. Then let your primo bait - which looks a whole lot better than the burley, do the rest. Alan ------------- Legasea Legend member |
Posted By: Mc Tool
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 7:09pm
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"dont used bait you wouldn't eat ",😆 yeah ...when we lived in Nelson there was sanmar (for example ) in the freezer at Big Blue ,and now Im seeing it in the freezer at packnsave , along with a lot of frozen imported stuff ....I mean I have often said to the Mrs that the frozen fish freezer looks like a bait freezer , and I have eaten bait before ,😆😆we got a bit pissed up at Durville once and bbq'd the squid ( thanks Talleys ) and the frozen garfish wasnt bad ....tell ya what tho ...it sure did hit the fan when the snobby #£&+'s found out it was sold as bait .,.😆😆😆😆my sis in law brings it up every chance she gets ....ah some people aye 😆😆 ------------- I wish I was young again .... Id be heaps smarter than this time |
Posted By: Pcj
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 7:21pm
------------- "Times up" |
Posted By: Mc Tool
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 7:30pm
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Oh some ...like probly most of it is good stuff but just not what we are used to . A lot of it I have never heard of before and a lot of it is farmed in less than ideal circumstances but hey we are a multicultural country now and a lot of "new" people seem happy to see it ....maybe I just need to open my mind a little . Thing is tho ...once you have been able to go "catch your own" dinner anything from a fish retailer doesnt seem that fresh , having said that we bought johnnie d at p n s tother day and it was pretty good fresh wise .🙂 ------------- I wish I was young again .... Id be heaps smarter than this time |
Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 22 Jun 2026 at 10:45pm
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We used to make up berley by using an old-fashioned mincer to process kahawai, jack mackerel etc, also sprats. And defrosted bait we didn't use. I understand that you shouldn't put snapper frames in though, presumably it'll alarm other snapper. Though I've landed a big Northland snapper that spat out a baby snapper it'd eaten, so... Anyway, there's a YouTube fisho in Western Australia who just uses leftover rotisserie chicken carcasses (from supermarket chooks) and he does very well on snapper (a cousin of the ones we have here, and also live on the eastern side of Australia). He just puts them in a berley pot attached to the stern of his boat and mashes them up as he goes. He always seems to have one when he fishes, so they must get through a load of chicken.
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Posted By: Phantom Menace
Date Posted: 23 Jun 2026 at 12:00pm
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I think snapper will have a go at most things ... including snapper frames. I've seen this with my own eyes. We went spearfishing one day, processed the catch in the evening and kept the frames to use as burley the next day. I swam away from the boat with all the frames in an old chillybin (one kingfish, several snapper, couple of butterfish). Once I found a good looking gut in the rocks I tipped the whole lot in, took the chillybin back to the boat and swam away for 30 minutes. After letting the burly do it's thing I snuck back over to the gut and saw lots of snapper eating the burley - so the biggest one got speared.
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Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 23 Jun 2026 at 3:18pm
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Anything fishy works for me. I bulk mine up with chook food bread etc but I haven't made berley in years now. Scallop gut and cheap chook pellets worked well for me for gurnard. It was in their stomachs when I gutted them. The most important thing is to have it so your lines are in the berley trail otherwise you will take the fish away from where your baits are. The other important thing is to have your berley at the right depth. It is absolutely pointless hoping to attract fish such as snapper or gurnard if your berley is on the surface and you're in 10m or more with any sort of current flow for the same reason as the other most important thing. I used to freeze tennis ball sized balls of berley with a decent stone inside them so they sank and throw them around the boat at slack water. That worked real well. I'd take a 20l bucket of them sometimes. ------------- Best gurnard fisherman in my street |
Posted By: Pcj
Date Posted: 23 Jun 2026 at 4:15pm
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Around the mussel farms,we would lower burley till out of sight,it would bring the bigger snapper up off the bottom and leave undersize on bottom,works well. ------------- "Times up" |
Posted By: krow
Date Posted: 23 Jun 2026 at 8:38pm
| When my bait freezer gets full of old bait leftovers I have a session with the mincer. Takes a couple of days in the fish bins to defrost the raw product in the back shed. Whatever can fit down the mincer throat goes into the mix. Bigger stuff like Kahawai gets the chop first. Most whole fish (jacks, Mullet, Kahawai, etc) I will take the tails and fins off pre mince as they just make the job harder for no benefit. An expensive pair of scissors is the go here. Also if it has scales these are removed too to ease the blockages and the arm. I then pack the end product into 300mm long 100mm PVC pipes with either an end cap or plastic bag taped to the bottom. I smear the insides of the tubes with fish oil pre loading to make the burley release easier. Slight defrost and it slides out of the pipe into my dispenser as needed. Making your own is cheaper and IMHO better than purchased products' though I often bulk out the mix with some anyway. I don't use any meat products as this is not legal in IGFA rules. I sometimes fish competitions that are based around these rules and you never know when that fish of a lifetime for me or the crew is going to make an appearance. |