Fish, the essential baits
Whether dead or alive, whole or in pieces, fatty fish are a basic bait for large marine predators. From small sizes to the extreme, you'll need something for everyone, from garfish to sea bass to the most massive tuna and shark.
We use mainly anchovies, mullet, pout, sardines, mackerel, eel and horse mackerel as baits for predators such as conger eels, meagre, sea bass, but also sparidae such as sea bream, sars, marbled or oblades for bottom predators. In winter, herring is a very interesting bait to catch whiting or flatfish, it is a very attractive substitute bait to replace worms which become scarce in cold season. The herring supports without problem the supported throws since the beaches and with the great quality to be available all the time at your fishmonger. For fragile fish, used dead whole or in pieces, I advise you to sausage them with very fine elastic thread.
Sardine oil is a great additive by soaking your dead fish, whole or in pieces, in it for a few minutes.
To use the fish as bait, it will be necessary nevertheless to take care to respect the legal size of the fish used.
How to obtain and store fish to use for fishing
A fishing trip at sea in the harbors or from the large dikes will satisfy you to catch small fish, mullet, mackerel and various sparids. You can fish either by casting or angling, or even by trolling for antherines, sand eels and other small fish. These places are particularly interesting, because the small fish are numerous followed closely by predators.
In live, the fishes will have to be just fished and put in a tank fitted out in the boat or in a bucket by renewing the water regularly. You can try to keep them in a sea water aquarium with more or less success depending on the species. Personally, I always manage to catch them just before using them, that's when they are the most presentable, vigorous and fresh. When they are dead, keep them in the fridge whole or in pieces, slightly salted for the most fragile species.
The most commonly used fish
