Chicken works in Salt and Fresh Water

If you’re not using chicken as bait in your fishing then you’re missing out on one of the best baits around.

I have been using chicken for more than two decades and it has caught me a lot of fish. I’m not sure if it’s the taste, texture, smell or all 3 but it works.

The range of fish it catches is surprising. Originally I thought it was just salt water fish but in the last few years it has had amazing results in fresh water as well. I’ve seen some very big Murray Cod hooked on chicken as well as Redfin, carp and trout.  If it catches these fish then it could work on many others as well.

One guy I know only fishes freshwater and always has chicken with him. He seems to catch his fair share of fish including some of the biggest carp I have ever seen.

Chicken is Cheap and it’s everywhere

Anyone who fishes a bit knows that bait can be expensive. Gone are the days when you could go to your local tackle shop and pay a few dollars to pick up a few worms, or frozen prawns, pilchard or squid. Now you have to sign over your mortgage if you want to purchase a good selection of baits.

Unfortunately, there aren’t as many fishing tackle stores around as there used to be. In the past I only had to drive a few minutes to buy tackle and bait. Now, I have fewer choices because a number of my favourite stores have closed down or gone on-line. When I consider the travel time and petrol costs and add them all into the equation my bait purchases are even more expensive.  

Thankfully chicken is a great alternative to conventional baits, is a lot cheaper and you can buy it in any supermarket.

Preparing and storing makes a difference

I usually buy chicken when it’s on special at the local supermarket. I don’t like waste so when I get home I cut it into smaller portions and freeze them in zip lock bags. This gives me a good supply for a number of fishing sessions and it’s always available if I decide to go on a moment’s notice.

To prepare the chicken just cut off any fat or sinew so you are left with pure flesh. The white bits of fat and sinew are not palatable to the fish but worse still, they can sometimes cover the hook. These bits are tough enough to stop good hook penetration of the fish’s mouth leading to lost fish. Make sure you cut them off.

If I don’t use all the chicken in one session I take it home and stick it in the freezer… but I don’t use it as bait again.  Chicken that has been frozen more than once becomes soft and doesn’t stay on the hook. There is nothing worse than getting heaps of bites but never hooking a fish because they can easily pull it off the hook.

I use these refrozen pieces as “loose feed”. I take them fishing and cut them into tiny pieces. This is easiest done when they are still frozen. Then I add them to my berley so that the fish get used to free food every time I cast in.  After eating a few pieces they start looking for more and they find my hook bait. It’s a great way of getting fast bites.

The best chicken to use

The best cut of chicken is the thigh. I got this advice from one of my coaching students who was a chef. He said the meat was a little firmer than the breast and would stay on the hook longer. After plenty of trials I agree with him.

Make one bait into many

When I started fishing I’d take one bait with me and if the fish didn’t like it on the day I didn’t catch.

As time went on I learned to take a number of baits. This gave me the best chance of finding something the fish liked and a much better chance of landing one.

Fast forward to today and sometimes the only bait I take is chicken. This is especially the case if I get a chance to go fishing unexpectedly. All I have to do is pull a bag of chicken out of the freezer and I’m on my way.

Now, as good as chicken is at bait it is only one bait. So some years ago I decided to get the best out it …by turning it into MULTIPLE baits.

How?

By using bait dips!

I started experimenting with natural fish flavours extracted from cooked and dried fish, shellfish, squid as well as aniseed and garlic. These worked really well.

I also tried a heap of flavours that didn’t work, in fact I’m sure some of them actually repelled fish. 

After a lot of trial and error the results pointed me in the right direction. What blew me away was the difference some of the dips made. Side by side tests with plain chicken sometimes had a 2 or even 3 to one catch rate.

At times the dips would win hands down. Other times there wasn’t a lot of difference but what was clear was the change of flavour suddenly triggered more bites.

The most important thing with dips is that they turn one bait into many. If plain chicken doesn’t work or stops working you can easily dip it in a new flavour and try your luck.

I go through a routine when I fish with dips. I start with plain chicken on the hook. After a while I put on a fresh chicken piece and dip it in one of my dips like Spicy Chicken. I continue this for a while and then change to something else, say my Feeding Frenzy bait dip. By using this approach I can work out what flavour works best or sometimes simply stimulate a bite with a new flavour when the previous one has stopped working.

I am a big user of berley when I fish. My Bite Hard Berley has 7 different ingredients that are highly attractive to fish. Using berley combined with a dip on my bait has sometimes produced absolutely amazing fishing sessions. The berley will attract fish from all around and the dip will bring their focus to your bait.

So why not take a few dips with you when you go fishing next. You can use them on any bait but they work especially well on chicken.

It could mean that a simple change of dips will land you a fish on an otherwise unproductive day.