Hali bait on downrigger - how do YOU do it?

Just thawed a bunch of ofal to make a batch . Looking a little freezer burnt. What’s the experience using less than fresh looking stuff?
 
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Looking at Chasin' Dreams earlier bucket of "chum" seams like it really does not matter if it looks like barf. Pics looks like it may be on a fiberglass boat, I would be surprised if he had such a gross looking bucket on his dam sexy boat.

HM
 
Looking at Chasin' Dreams earlier bucket of "chum" seams like it really does not matter if it looks like barf. Pics looks like it may be on a fiberglass boat, I would be surprised if he had such a gross looking bucket on his dam sexy boat.

HM

Lol no no it looks like that cause I grind up all my fresh frozen fish parts in a magic bullet blender (the dry use blade) until it's like a paste almost and mix that with some frozen prawn pellets that have been soaked with sardine oil. All of this stuff is then mixed together very well then frozen in batches. I don't use old stuff at all. And that's my boat's fish tank/cutting board lid in the picture, not fiberglass..
 
Just thawed a bunch of ofal to make a batch . Looking a little freezer burnt. What’s the experience using less than fresh looking stuff?

Just seem to have much better fishing with fresh bait. Frezzer burnt should be ok I would think. It's the stuff that is old and gets a fishy smell (going bad) that I think is a poor choice (based on experience).

The fresh bait smell, is like fresh baked bread for us. They seem to love it.
 
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I chose to blend up all of my chum because it then will break down in the chum tube and make itself out the holes and down the sent trail. My belief is that when using just whole fish parts they will leave a sent trail but parts don't go through the holes. Once the blood runs out I think the scent is reduced some what. I think mixing all of the fish parts, pellets, fish oils makes for a really effective chum cause of the ground parts escaping the tube to add with the scent trail.

Frozen fish parts in the blender are much easier for it to chop up fine without clogging and gumming up the blender too much. And frozen fish parts are easy to chop up for the blender with a big mallet without making a mess like thawed fish parts does.
 
I used this method for the first time on my last trip. I used plastic crap bait bags clipped the the rigger ball. Turned the riggers to the rear of the boat extended the booms and had two chum bags down. When we hit a fish one guy was in charge of brining them up. Worked great. Rods were closer to the front and pointed out.
recipe for tangles... the lighter weights should always be towards the stern. current picks them up
 
Bit off topic but does anyone use artificial bait while the chum bag is down with any luck? Lots of dogs in my area and they devour herring etc on a regular basis with the spreaders out.
 
Bit off topic but does anyone use artificial bait while the chum bag is down with any luck? Lots of dogs in my area and they devour herring etc on a regular basis with the spreaders out.

grubs work, swim baits.. need a bit of current though.
 
LOL u guys do make it entertaining as fishermen we over bait so much its funny on a commercial long line they use a chunk of octo about the size of your thumb even smaller if your in area that has fish you will get them.. they are meat eaters i tried the down rigger once and only once when a big hali tangled in it and snapped off i said F&%# that. those fish can smell bait from a VERY long way away they will find it more hali in area they are usually more aggressive , all chum does is bring more dogs in personally , but as fishermen we always "think" we are out smarten them LOL LOL
 
LOL u guys do make it entertaining as fishermen we over bait so much its funny on a commercial long line they use a chunk of octo about the size of your thumb even smaller if your in area that has fish you will get them.. they are meat eaters i tried the down rigger once and only once when a big hali tangled in it and snapped off i said F&%# that. those fish can smell bait from a VERY long way away they will find it more hali in area they are usually more aggressive , all chum does is bring more dogs in personally , but as fishermen we always "think" we are out smarten them LOL LOL

A topic I have lots of knowledge about. I have an uncle who has ran experimental halibut “chumming” trials. In Alaska they would have chum buckets down in all different sizes and bait and film the surrounding area. There was a definite correlation with the the amount of scent/bait to the amount of fish coming within the test area. I just got off the phone with him to get my facts straight.

Basically the more bait/scent the more halibut and other fish. Fish will come from further away and you will 100% have more success. If your fishing an area that is carpeted with hali then yes a chum bucket may not matter.
 
LOL u guys do make it entertaining as fishermen we over bait so much its funny on a commercial long line they use a chunk of octo about the size of your thumb even smaller if your in area that has fish you will get them.. they are meat eaters i tried the down rigger once and only once when a big hali tangled in it and snapped off i said F&%# that. those fish can smell bait from a VERY long way away they will find it more hali in area they are usually more aggressive , all chum does is bring more dogs in personally , but as fishermen we always "think" we are out smarten them LOL LOL
What you are saying actually supports the fact that chumming (sent trailing) drastically improves and attracts fish.
Think about what a commercial long line is for Halibut... It's exactly that... A very long, (often miles long) set of lines with hundreds of hooks with bait on them sitting on the bottom. Depending on the amount of sets/shots there will be a **** load of bait used. Even a small set of lines will use 100 lbs of bait spread out on hooks spaced 15 feet apart all along the ocean bottom floor. In my books that's one massive bait scent trail spanning miles along the ocean bottom. This is why it works so well. It is a grid pattern bait sent mathematically designed to attract fish in a very effective way. Pretty much the exact definition of chumming the ocean bottom with a **** ton of bait spread out vastly.
 
No not really the piece of bait is very small, half of your thumb captain would yell at us QUIT USING SO MUCH BAIT !!!!! LOL and long line sets(skates) had about 500 hooks hence yelling at us on bait as he would say they are halibut they eat anything he even put we definally didnt put 100 of lbs hell he even proved it to us once we put some carrots on the hook and got halibut on it LOL LOL
have to remember they are down 24 to 36 hours and blanket prime areas there is no mathematical strategy we set as to have the waves and tide in our favor move over a 1/4 mile and set again as the captain said its not "its not f%$@@$^^&#science " LOL crusty ol bugger where as us sports guys we put 3 hooks and go from 4 to 7 hours only
 
I tried the advice of a few members, THANK YOU ALL, and put the chum bag on a rigger pointed directly out back and extended fully.
Pointed the rod holders at approx 45 degrees forward.
The result was a spread of over 10 feet between the rod tips and the end of the rigger.
This worked perfectly, not a single tangle!
 
I tried the advice of a few members, THANK YOU ALL, and put the chum bag on a rigger pointed directly out back and extended fully.
Pointed the rod holders at approx 45 degrees forward.
The result was a spread of over 10 feet between the rod tips and the end of the rigger.
This worked perfectly, not a single tangle!
did you catch any halibut?
 
The bait bag on the downrigger trip brought back a lot of memories. About 10 years ago went to Winter Harbour with a plan and that was to go out of WH and up to Cape Scott. You can overnite in Otter cove and fish halibut on the drift out side the cove-one tide takes you North to cape Scott and the other brings you back. I had a bait bag and fully intended to use the rigger as the means of getting it down. My son-in-law was with me and it was quite obvious that there was no one else in the area. So he asked me if I had a spot-I didn't but the bait bag would help out. Put it down to 240 ft in 260 ft of water as we very slowly drifted towards cape Scott-backtrolling as necessary. Nothing happened for 10 minutes and then I got a 40 and within a few minutes he got a 50 and we continued to get bites-lings and rock fish. Just a great day--and then it happened-the rigger started bouncing-took a quick look at the sounder cause I thought I was on bottom-but no I was 30 ft above it. Tried to bring up the bag and the rigger was going nuts and then the thermal fuse stopped it. Waited and started to nurse it up-the steel cable started to rise behind the boat gradually started to back the boat down the cable-there was a huge swirl and the largest halibut I have ever seen headed for the bottom, broke a 200 lb steel cable and bent the rigger boom. Still a topic of conversation over a scotch to this day!! LOL
 
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friggin six gills rippin it off too.
 
I have used a Chum bag on the surface in Florida and on the bottom around Vancouver island. They do help, however, you need to use light line (20/30#) so if something big grabs on, it’s gone - no damage to equipment.
My 2 cents
Stosh
 
I have used a Chum bag on the surface in Florida and on the bottom around Vancouver island. They do help, however, you need to use light line (20/30#) so if something big grabs on, it’s gone - no damage to equipment.
My 2 cents
Stosh
Agree with using something that will break away to attach the chum bag to your rigger. A friend used a chum bag years ago on anchor in the Victoria area (attached to rigger) and had an incident similar to Spring Fever's noted previously. A very large fish (assuming Six Gill shark or very large halibut) grabbed the chum bag and yanked hard enough to bend the downrigger arm before departing. He needed to replace the downrigger arm after the incident. I have never tried a chum bag personally as I expect you are as likely to attract more dogfish than halibut. If I do employ one I would use a breakaway attachment, maybe 60 lb.
...Rob
 
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