Turn a dead bait into a Fish Magnet!

Sometimes the fish are looking for live bait and won’t touch anything else.
This can be really frustrating for the angler who sits around waiting for a bite but gets no hook ups.

 You know the fish are there because you sometimes get a bite…but only after you have moved your bait a little….

…the fish just won’t seem to touch anything just lying still on the bottom!

I’ve had this happen to me many times. The only way I could get a bite was to twitch the bait.

In some fishing sessions moving the bait was the only way to get the fish to jump on the bait. I started doing it more and more and the results improved. It seemed that I’d found another way to get fish to swallow a hook. I call it “bait luring”.

I call it bait luring because you bring life to your bait and trigger picky fish into biting.

It is amazing how often you get some action as you start to wind in your bait.

 Most of the time you wind too fast and the fish don’t get a chance to hit the bait but sometimes, as you are tightening up your line, you move the bait slightly and get a bite.

It seems the fish were hanging round near your bait but not hungry enough to feed. Then suddenly they think something is moving away….and instinct takes over. They can’t resist a moving target. FOMO (fear of missing out) is a real driver for action!

I met an angler who was expert at bait luring. He would set up his rig so it could be pulled gently across the bottom using slow erratic movements….
…and he caught a lot of fish.
I’ve used this method a lot myself and, at times, had surprisingly success. I used it in desperation on days when fish weren’t  biting. You need a fishing spot where the bottom is pretty clear so you reel your bait across the bottom without snagging.

The rig set up is simple. A hook tied to a trace attached to the main line by a swivel. A small running sinker is then tied above the swivel. This gives enough weight to cast a fair distance and get your bait to the bottom.

 I use light bean sinkers as they seem to avoid snags.

You’ll get best results using baits that can be moulded or trimmed into a long thin shape that looks like a skinny bait fish, eel or some aquatic animal. Chicken and squid are great because they are easily cut into ‘fish like’ shapes….and having a long thin tail means it will move naturally in the water and look like a swimming fish.

Other baits can be used as well. Bread and dough can be shaped into long thin “eel looking” baits that can also be scented.

I’ve seen one angler mould PowerBait into the shape of a fish and use that really effectively on trout.

Natural baits like white and blue bait or even worms are best just hooked through one end so they trail the hook in a straight line. I try to make everything set in line so it pulls smoothly across the bottom.

The retrieval action is simple. All you do is wind slowly, stop for a few seconds, wind again and repeat. The stop /start motion really triggers action and sometimes this is the only way to get a bite.

Twitching helps, in fact, any action that makes it look like a sick or slow moving bait can get results.

If you get the set up right, and get the right spot …this can be a dynamite method on days when nothing else seems to be working.

So before you leave a spot because you didn’t hook a thing, try a bit of ‘bait luring’. It just might get you a fish.