Fishing & bait

I'm into soft-baiting, so not buying the stinky rotting environment depleting frozen bait.
How much I spend is a highly inflammatory topic with the missus...


Now I'm set up with a suite of softbait types, sizes and colours I'd probably average one to two packs a month over a year. That is replacing the colours I like and know work. When I'm tyring stuff out it is probably 3 packs purchased maybe once every one or two months. A pack being $16 at HnFishing

If you open the question up to lures, it is far more complicated. I'm often buying 'experimental lures', ones that look good so I get them to see if they work for me. I've blown moonbeams on topwater type lures, esp over Nov Dec last year.

Linking back to bait - bait, I did spend $20 yesterday on 2 subiki sets, again to replace my current stock. The closest I get to bait - bait is catching my own, mainly for live baiting (my best way of catching sharks instead of kingfish). I'm looking at having a go at some different fishing methods like stray lining as I've been only catching barely legal snapper recently and think I need to change things up a bit to address that. If I do the stray lining thing (which needs loads of burely and bait) I'd be making my own burely from frames etc and catching my own bait.

I did go into HnFishing for the new Fish Strips bait but the don't stock it. That is an interesting proposition. Fish Strips is a plastic bait, apparently very tough, in strips. Is become popular in surf casting in place of frozen bait. The frozen baits don't stay on the hook to well, esp with the cast and this stuff apparently catches fish and needs a knife to cut it off the hook. Mentioning that because it is an example of a synthetic product displacing a traditional frozen bait.

Just updated edited post.

The concept of feeding plastic to fish is a nonsense. I'm inviting the fish home for dinner...

On that, several of the softbait brands are protein based anyway, they are NOT plastic. Gulp! is one. But they aren't very durable and get nailed / nibbled by little fish. I use Z-man which are more durable but not protein based. I basically don't loose the softbait, so aren't "feeding plastic to fish".

On the responsibility question, I think there is far great ecological damage with commercial catching large volumes of bait fish to be sold as frozen bait or burely. When bait fish are caught recreationally it is a handful here or there. Commercial come and scoop them all up in one spot, leaving a black hole in the food chain that everything from whales, kahawai, kingfish and snapper were feeding on.

Overall, softbaits are far more environmentally responsible than buying frozen bait and burely and perpetuating the market for commercial exploitation of bait fish.

Edit: the number of soft baits I loose would be equal to the number of bust offs and baited hooks you leave in fishes mouths, which will kill them too, so that is not a consideration. What is an issue that bugs me is the amount of lures I've lost (esp topwater type lures, but all types). They are expensive and when lost in a bust off are going to kill the fish that has it stuck in it's mouth.

Edit again: on bust off's, I've just upgraded my 30lb braid to 50lb to reduce bust off's. That cost $80. PS, don't ever get Berkley Prospec braid, it's knots fail. My FG knots were bombproof, changed to Berkley Pro and my FG knots started failing on every 2nd or 3rd cast. Supremely frustrating.

Berkly softbit tub holds 20 $36 and use 1 every 2 months, fresh mullet $35 for 5 and thats per trip unless the comms guy is home then it drops to $20

tackle of late has been $11/15 per trip sharks

Sounds expensive right.Last trip if we skinned and boned the catch and working on supermarket prices we got close to 6kg of fillets $300 or whole fish $162.50
Snapper prices + fuel around boat/car $75

Its a $100 day out entertainment,movies cost about the same,golf?? its a pastime not a means to feed the family and 90% of catch is given away to pensioners.Keep enough for a feed.

Ramp fee $120pa  self service outboard. coastguard $130+$20 extra per month to help those they rescue non members.

We fish or try too 1 per fortnight. On average 10 snapper 3 kahawai and 2 gurnard. Fish both Firth out of Kawakawa bay or depending tide Manukau.Thats for 2 of us.$50each cheap day out with a flask and cut lunch

Thanks HT, that’s useful info (both the links and your personal example).

Cheers (from cold & grey Brussels)!

I could walk into Seamart with a hand grenade and still come out with no fish. When on a boat with 5 others, they will be roaring them in, I'm standing there near finger up bum. That's why people like taking me, I end up being the fish removing hook baiter that sidelines as the barman.

When 100nm or more from land pick a species and give me an hour, no worries.

"Fogg" message sent.

Waste is a concern to me.Nets that drift and keep killing,recreational waste in form of softbaits,packets says biodegreadable but still them on rocks/foreshore

Bait packaging,yes the odd bit gets blowen but most is from treating as a rubbish dump(ocean) sooner man moves away from plastics the better.At least bottles return to sand,cans stell/alloy corrode.Not ideal but beats plastic islands.

Sanfords have been turning old nets in to bait boards and play grounds stuff.

Sanford Limited
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Why send waste to a landfill when you can turn mussel shells into farm tracks, fishing nets into playground climbing nets, and fish frames into hearty meals for those in need? We are proud to report that 65% of our waste for the whole year has been saved from the landfill and reused or recycled somewhere else.