bait stealing

[kyjelly]

I have a lot of problems with the bait stealers at BJT. I tried fish cubes (salmon, tuna, yellow tail), prawns, and chicken breast. I tried egg loop knot and using an extra copper wire tie through the eye of the hook and wrapping around my bait... but nothing seems to be effective against these critters.

Its like I can see the tip of the rod bent a bit, but its not like a twitching when a fish is on and ready for a strike. And then when check, the bait is gone. Annoying as hell.

Any good suggestions, or just have to eat it....

[Peace]

There's very little you can do about it. These bait stealers make up the majority of the population living below and around the jetty, namely glass perchlets, ponyfishes, filefishes, whiptail breams, small species of wrasses, damselfishes all have very small mouths and finish up soft baits quickly.

Squids meat is probably the hardiest and even those get eaten up over time. You can clear the area you're fishing by hooking up the small fishes with small hooks but this method isn't recommended. These fishes help to maintain the ecology below and ultimately attract more fishes to come.

My recommendation is to be more hardworking and keep rebaiting till a desired fish comes along!

[kyjelly]

Thank you for your suggestion. Maybe I'll try some gulp n see how.

[kyjelly]

Thank you for your suggestion. Maybe I'll try some gulp n see how.

[BeachBum]

Usually, the best bait is live prawn, but it is costly and you need to keep them alive. Usually used to get the barramundi or a few other predatory fishes, which are often surprisingly choosy fishes which often goes for live ones. The next best thing is fresh dead prawn, and seaworms. With this bait, you will often get catfish and assorted fishes only. Small live squid is said to be excellent, but not readily available. Some people use small sand whitings(dead) for stingrays. Salmon is too expensive as bait, although the belly meat of salmon if available at supermarket will be cheap enough to be the same price as a packet of prawns. Tuna? seems like an expensive fish too. Yellow tail not sure which fish, but I usually seldom use. Might as well jig up some tambans from the jetty itself. But I seldom fish at BJT. I caught one catfish, and several puffers before only. I'm a lure user, BJT is not a suitable place for luring.

Squid from the market is not a good bait at times. On some trips when i was a teenager, no fish touch the bait. However, once I noticed someone caught a spotted scat with it, when I had totally given up on this bait.

[kyjelly]

Thanks for the useful info. The bait I used, salmon, tuna, yellow tail, and octopus leg, were left overs from buffet (so don't ask how I get them, but they all sushi sashimi grade hehe). Im thinking maybe try some clams, mussels, scallop, or crab pieces in the future. So far fresh raw prawn pieces seem to work the best, but I've got only catfishes.

I like to try fresh prawns, but I don't really want to bother keeping then alive. It would be like setting a portable aquarium there. Just a Hassel.