baiting up

[daio web]

hi guys any of you use baiting elastic  was wondering  if it would be better to use it   used it once our twice before but as i am looking to get out a bit more this winter  and looking for extra ways to improve my fishing thanks boys

[Saintly Fish]

@daio web I use bait elastic on everything. It helps hold the bait on the hook and in place so that it doesn't slip down and mask the hook. Also for mackerel or other fish baits it helps to keep it together and slow down the disintegration of smaller fish picking at the loose bits. 
Never leave home without it.

[Saintly Fish]

2 minutes ago, JonC said:

I’ve got about five reels of it on the go, all nicely covered in bait. Some people keep there’s in a silly little tube to keep it sterile then the measure lengths out of the tube. All a bit anal for me 

You've been fishing with @Andy135

[Saintly Fish]

5 minutes ago, JonC said:

Oh - does he do that? I never noticed. 

Yeah, keeps his elastic clean but not the boat!! Weird! 

[Saintly Fish]

1 minute ago, JonC said:

I noticed he has a measuring scale on the boat, I thought it seemed rather pointless but perhaps it’s for measuring the bait cotton? 

Oh, I thought it was to get the correct bait weight for the tide run. 

[Saintly Fish]

4 minutes ago, JonC said:

No the weight statistics are all on his laptop. 

Who'd have thought that blanking was such a scientific art! 

[GPSguru]

7 hours ago, daio web said:

hi guys any of you use baiting elastic  was wondering  if it would be better to use it   used it once our twice before but as i am looking to get out a bit more this winter  and looking for extra ways to improve my fishing thanks boys

 

Yes, bait elastic improves bait presentation and if used correctly also stops the bait sliding down and masking the hook point.

However, you need to use the correct elastic for the job, there are generally 4 types, Fine elastic, Regular (also known as Medium) elastic, Heavy elastic, and lastly Cocoon elastic.

Most Medium elastics are pretty much a waste of time, as they are too heavy for fine and not beefy enough for Heavy jobs !

Fine is great for soft baits like Mussel, Razor Clams, Hermits, Cockles, Prawns, Worm, and Limpet

Heavy is good for everything else, like Macky, squid, Peeler, etc. Heavy is also good for making large baits by continually adding extra bait to the bundle and binding each layer with elastic

Cocoon is just wound differently and made on a smaller spool (it is wound like a cocoon), but it is a finer elastic than the fine and again good for very soft baits, but it doesn't really do anything better than the standard fine elastic.

I tend to use Heavy for almost everything, just don't pull it so tight with soft baits, but I do carry Fine elastic which is used mainly for Mussels and Prawns.

There are also other tools to make baiting easier, like using  a heavy duty bait needle for threading worm, or the Breakaway bait tool (essentially a bait needle with a double loop on the end), where you hook onto the loop and then bait up on the shaft of the tool using elastic and then pull the tool free. Also, there is the Gemini spring loader, where you use the spring action of the tool to construct very big baits, but again, elastic is a very important part of the process.

 

This is using the Breakaway bait loader

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by GPSguru

[mick]

They sure don`t skimp on elastic.

[Malc]

I sometimes use my home made bait spoon, like the fly fishing marrow spoon only bigger. It's basically a piece of waste pipe cut at an angle and smoothed off, bait sits in the spoon and gets wrapped with lakky.

However mostly it's used for bait presentation and not masking the hook point.