clam bait ....

[Eyes Up Chuck]

How would horse clams do as bait for the following???

Halibut?
Crabbing?
Prawning?

 

[Last Chance]

Horse clams are about the best dang bait for crabs! Freeze 'em inside of a nylon panty-hose leg inside of a bait cup with lots of holes because teh nibblers will have them eaten in no time. Otherwise, great bait for crabs. I'm tempted to throw a big horse clam neck down for 'butts now that you mention it.

 

[RobTufnail]

i didnt know that clams would make good crab bat, didnt think they would give off enough scent. Makes sense though. Sole love clams so im willing to bet halibuts would too

 

[Brokenrod]

Clams are one of the best bait there is for crabs, that's one of their main food sources.

 

[Pablo2079]

I found a line of boxes floating in the chuck once.... they were all labeled "FROZEN GEODUCK". Followed the line of discarded boxes to a commercial crabber. He was baiting up his traps and tossing the boxes. Must be a good bait if they use it, but it seems a little "exotic". I thought geoducks were expensive.

 

[KoneZone]

I heard that Razor Clam guts were great for Shrimping out of Hood Canal. I know that they are great for Crabbing in Oregon. Halibut will eat anything from Spark Plugs to sinkers, scent always helps the fish find your bait or lure. The clams will attract the fish for sure.

 

[Dogbreath]

quote:I thought geoducks were expensive.

They are, but he was probably using freezer burned product that he bought for peanuts somewhere.

 

[SIR]

Digging for clams is FAR too much work for me to get crab bait

Catch fish and use the heads/guts from them to catch prawns, then use the prawn heads to catch your crabs. Commercial prawn bait comes in a close second if you give it a squirt of herring oil.

Halibuts are out of my playing field....

I do dig clams for flounder bait but an hours dig gets me my bait for the season. I hate to think how long I'd be out there to keep the crab traps full... though I'm sure it would be effective.

 

[Last Chance]

SIR, you need to try the Charlie White Clam Gun! Get a piece of SS pipe, 8" across adn 16" long, weld an end cap on it. Put a bar across for you to grab with both ends. On the end cap, drill a 1/4" hole that you can put your thumb over. You then push it down over the big horse clam, put your thumb over the 1/4" hole, and pull, suction keeps the sand and usually the clam(s) in the "clam gun".

 

[SIR]

Damn, another project to add to the list

I can't think of a reason that PVC wouldn't work.... that way I can just glue on T fitting with two short pieces of capped 1.5" tube as the handles and a stop-out fitting to cover the main tube. Think I have most of the pieces left over from the Resorts plumbing build. Should be able to drill the holes on the 1.5" handle tubes so they are right by where I'll be holding the handles for ease of use, should be lighter and more salt-water friendly than SS. We'll see if it works for manilla's on our rock/sand beaches, used to use a smaller version for going after ghost shrimp on the East coast as stripper bait. Never thought of trying a scaled up version for West Coast clams, thanks for the thought, will let you know how it goes.

Any reason not to go longer so you don't have to bend over as far??? I'm 6'4" so a 16" pipe that's 8-10" into the ground is going to be a lot of bending....

 

[Last Chance]

PVC is too thik, bin there, done that. You want some SS Chimeny Pipe wihtout the flange compressed into the end. I just need a nice private Horse Clam beach where I can go get 'em to try for the big butts without some chump telling my they are polluted. Cowichan Bay, here I come.

 

[SIR]

Gracias - off to the building supply store - that thin stuff could stress my welding skills as it might actually require some finesse