Aye...looks like NZ fishing is completely different to overseas fishing! In HK we use [mostly] "red sea worms" (they look like earthworms with millions of soft legs on the sides) and "green worms" (smaller, greenish-red looking worms) as live bait.

 

Since they originally live in water (under the sand) and have the ability to move even when chopped in half, they are considered very, very good bait.

 

In HK we catch various snapper species with them!! It's so easily with worm baits but they are costly as anything.

 

Whereas in NZ looks like the most popular bait is still the good old squid and pillies

 

I remember from some websites it says our local Snappers do eat sea worms, they dig them up from the sand and gobble them up. In HK we used to have this digging company which digs up all the local seabed worms and retail them for serious fishos. Works like deadly magic.

 

Think about it...back in the old days fishes like to gather around bays and estauries under where the big tree trunks and scrubs are, picking on the insects that fall off from the branches e.g. beetles, worms, maggots, wood lices...etc.

 

Speaking of wood lice (slaters), I tried that here. They work fine.

 

Natural bait, can't go wrong? :o

 

Would be keen to try to get some!! In HK the local fishing and tackle shops they breed them in a glass tank (sand + sea water + fluorescent lights + oxygen pumps). This breeding site works well along with shrimps (which are also sold as live bait), as the shrimps occupy the top layer (on top of the sand) whilst the worms dig into the sand).

 

Both excellent live baits, we tend to use the sand worms for littorial fish species and shrimps for deeper water fish.

 

Wondering if we can even establish our own worm + shrimp farm in NZ and sell them as live bait? Might need resource consent on that I guess...

 

 

And PS. Yes they bite....painfully if they are large

Yea Scooter you are right. I think anything natural and fresh would work well.... I've come to a conclusion that this is so. Think about it, as humans, we would also want to eat something that is natural (veges, meat, as we know that they are healthy) not processed foods. We'll also want it to be fresh because food tastes much much better if they are (with the odds that food may go off if they are not fresh). So are fishes

 

 

I think a live-bait shop business in NZ will flourish, the rest of the world are doing it, I don't understand why NZ isn't. If people are worried about conservative aspect of capturing our live baits then protective mechanisms can always be put in place to control it - i.e. only capture x amount of worms per day, release under-sized ones, breed your own with the ones you caught...and the list goes on.