chicken as lobster bait.

[T Bone]

Anybody try it.I need a good cheap bait.I dont have my usual tuna scraps this year.

[Fiskadoro]

Anybody try it.I need a good cheap bait.I dont have my usual tuna scraps this year.

It works not as good as mackerel but it works.

Jim

[sandydiego]

Look for whatever is fresh and cheap at Ranch 99.

[tptrench]

Do spanish mackies work for hooping?

[INGRIDSDAD]

I found salmon heads at the local market for $.49 per lb. 20 bucks goes a long way at that price and they always have it.

[Willy]

Anybody try it.I need a good cheap bait.I dont have my usual tuna scraps this year.

Yep it works. Did a test on my last outing, and while there were fewer bugs in the chicken baited pots, they were bigger. I mixed it with a little fish.

Do spanish mackies work for hooping?

Yep.
Think about what our lobster eat on a normal day...anything that dies and falls to the sea floor.
What dies and falls to the seafloor the most in our area? Macs, bonito, YT, etc.
Do chickens? No, but they still work as do salmon. Basically, if it stinks, or is oily or both, and the bugs are crawling, they will try to eat it. They are scavengers after all.

I have found that fresher the fish the better. Just because bugs scavenge, doesn't mean they like rotten stuff. Also, if it's too rotten it will fall apart too quickly underwater.

Willy

[BT]

Just remember a few things when hooping. The bugs smell (I am not a scientist so I dont know EXACTLY how its done) their way to food. So you want a nice oily food item in there. I know guys that put cat food in their traps because of the oils in it. Never worked that great for me (tried it a few times), but it has worked for others. Buddy of mine also takes ground up fish parts (mostly trimmings that he gets from a restaurant), stuffs it in a pvc that has holes drilled all throughout it, caps the ends and freezes them till he is ready to use em. When you drop the PVC traps down, the oil slick it makes is amazing, but the one down fall is that if the bugs cant get a meal, they move on. We combined the PVC with a bait cage and seemed to do a bit better.

I have never used chicken, except when crabbing on the east coast off docks growing up. Dropped a cage next to a dock (structure) and played the waiting game just like we do out here for bugs.

<O:pMy thought on it has always been to get em to the hoop, and try to keep em there. I always have extra bait on hand to top off the bait cages if they get hit to hard. If you got a couple of half eaten fish in your cage, and the bug smells it, but can’t eat it, its going to move on sooner or later.

<O:p</O:pOne different thing I tried this year was duck. I had a buddy give me some old duck breasts he had, and I figured I would stuff it in the bait cage along with the usual mack and salmon heads.

<O:p</O:pThe two hoops I put the duck pieces in (very small breast meat) were no more productive than the other hoops, but the bugs were always working the duck meat hard. My thought here was maybe because the duck meat is slightly more dense than a piece of fish, that it takes them a longer time to separate the duck meat than it would to rip a piece of mackerel or salmon meat. This may have kept them in the hoop longer, but who knows.

<O:p</O:pSo the same may work with chicken. Mix it with some fish, and put the chicken towards the outside of the bait cage so they gotta work on it. Hell, I'll give it a try!

<O:p</O:pOne thing to keep in mind is that it isn’t always the bait. I know guys who swear by one type of bait or another, but being in the right place at the right time (and who the hell knows when that is!?!?!) is most of it. If there are bugs by your nets, and you got bait they can smell and get to, they will, and hopefully you pull it up before they take off. If I had the money I would have a wireless underwater camera on each of my nets with a monitor on my yak so I knew when the bugs were in it!! LOL....hmmm.......
<O:p</O:p

[T Bone]

Ranch 99 is a tough place to buy bait.I bought YT heads for 1.99lb and had them split them.added up fast.they wanted 3.99 for salmon heads.where is this market with .49 salmon heads?

Thanks for the responses

[T Bone]

I may take bt advice and mix it,

[Jzo]

BT... Great info, thx.

[Fiskadoro]

I may take bt advice and mix it,

That's what I do. ALways mix your bait. they may come in for macks but then stay to chew on chicken.

Jim

[T Bone]

going to dana tomorrow.maybe ill just go early and see if I can make some macks to go with the chicken.

[BT]

thats the way I look at it! Get em to the hoop and have something in there to make em stay. Doesn't have to all be fish, those tasty bugs will eat anything.

[kwest10]

Ranch 99 is a tough place to buy bait.I bought YT heads for 1.99lb and had them split them.added up fast.they wanted 3.99 for salmon heads.where is this market with .49 salmon heads?

Thanks for the responses

Hi - I'm new here.
your local Korean grocery store is better than your 99. Cheaper Macks and salmon heads are 99 cents or less.
HOWEVER, i found ranch 99 to be cheaper for packaged bait. This little pomfret type fish from Vietnam are 2.99 for 2 lbs and little dines or macks frozen in a bag. But for fresh, Korean markets can't be beat.
And yes...chicken can work. I used thighs and bacon combo for the opener
http://fishingnetwork.net/forum4/showthread.php?50234-DP-OPener

[Jzo]

Hi - I'm new here.
your local Korean grocery store is better than your 99. Cheaper Macks and salmon heads are 99 cents or less.
HOWEVER, i found ranch 99 to be cheaper for packaged bait. This little pomfret type fish from Vietnam are 2.99 for 2 lbs and little dines or macks frozen in a bag. But for fresh, Korean markets can't be beat.
And yes...chicken can work. I used thighs and bacon combo for the opener
http://fishingnetwork.net/forum4/showthread.php?50234-DP-OPener

Welcome to the forum. Thx for the great info.

[maui jim]

going to dana tomorrow.maybe ill just go early and see if I can make some macks to go with the chicken.
................MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM KFC on a bugging nite:cool: