Your Favourite Bait?

[sk8e8]

I salted some bait I caught once. Took it out a couple of times, but never used it. Ended up giving it away. Still have a LARGE bag of salt

[nzimp]

I salted some salmon recently just to try. Got my first snapper of the day on Saturday with it. Then dropped rod and reel over the side with no leash ( Just disconnected it 2 seconds earlier) Luckily it had got hooked up on a another guys anchor so when I pulled it up I could reel the rod in by the line. Unfortunately it was a baitrunner and I had to pull 300m+ of braid up before I found it.

[PJay]

Though the poll's for "favourite" baits, it depends on what I'm after.

SBs for snapper, tuatua on small small flasher rigs for tarakihi, probably livies for kingfish...and so on.

[sk8e8]

Though the poll's for "favourite" baits, it depends on what I'm after.

SBs for snapper, tuatua on small small flasher rigs for tarakihi, probably livies for kingfish...and so on.

tarakihi off the yak? without paddling 5k + into open ocean???

[Cabby101]

Good read this thread, interesting to see what peps are using.

I use...
SB's about 30% of the time (Peak summer months when the snaps are hungry)
Frozen baits 30% (Pillies most the time, squid a bit also, dont bother with anything else)
Fresh 30% (jack mack most often, then piper & the odd time KY)
Lures 10% (Im putting a bit more focus on trying things here more for fun than anything)

In saying that I may use all of the above on any given day and also the odd live bait

[PJay]

tarakihi off the yak? without paddling 5k + into open ocean???

Yeah, we're lucky in the BoI in winter - tarakihi come in really close. The area between Long Beach at Russell and Roberton Island - the Robbie side of Capstan Reef - was traditionally called "the tarakihi grounds". Cool, huh?

But, yeah, as a Tauranga boy originally I was used to going way out for my tarakihi.

[crabman]

Salted blue Mackrel would have to be one of my favourite baits followed by frozen Sanmar and anything fresh.
Nothing like sticking a Kahawai, hacking it up and spreading blood all over the yak
Thats Naki fishing

[AndrewRawlingson]

as you know, i'm new to nz and can't quite wean myself off real bait. i grew up fishing for pike in freshwater, so like to fish whole fish baits like pilchards. it's bait fishing, but not too messy.

[Jamie D]

I had to click on "frozen bait" as I probably fish pillies and squid 40% the time I'm on the water, making this my most common technique. The rest of the time is split between SB's, SP's, buck tails, hard bodies, blades, jigs, flies, livies, fresh strip baits, poppers, trolling feathers, and whatever else I can find that might possibly catch a fish. I can't limit myself to just one or two fishing techniques, I'm having too much fun!

An interesting observation: my biggest kayak caught snapper (16kg), kingfish (31kg), and trevally (7.5kg) have all fallen to whole pillies. Many of my other biggest for specie have also fallen to pillies or squid. The interesting question is whether this is a result of using frozen baits more often than any other single technique or whether properly presented natural baits are more likely to fool wary fish? I don't have the answer so will happily continue fishing every technique I can get to work off a kayak

I relate to this post a lot. I realise soft baiting has the microphone at the moment but I'll never turn my back on baits and other techniques.

[charlie]

Interesting post. I have gone through periods of seeking every opportunity to use softbaits and other lures. I also have periods where I chase trout with my fly rods. The nearest sea fishing to me is at Manu Bay at Raglan where the water is fairly cloudy owing to the proximity to Raglan Harbour mouth. I have had minimal success there with lures of any kind, a couple of kahawai on trolled rapalas. The last 3 times I have fished there I have used fresh mullet bought from Pak n Save, cheapest bait out, and home made burley. From those trips I have bought home 19 gurnard, 5 snapper, biggest 9lb and 3 kahawai. Released several smaller snapper and quite a few small kahawai. I am a bread and butter fisherman and love to catch a good feed, so this is the kind of fishing that I love. Am building some crab traps because lots of the fish I catch at Manu have been feeding on crabs. Thats the great thing about yak fishing to me,there are so many different methods to try. If you get bored with one try something new.

[Tara Yakka]

Pillies.
Frozen, but left to defrost in newspaper. It takes the water away from them and they are much nicer looking to lob overboard whole...
Then hang on baby.
Fresh Kahawai, (cut up onboard as per Crabmans instructions).
Long strips for Cod and Gurnard.
Or whole fillets....
Again, hang on tight.