Salting Baits

[HawkesburyParadise]

Hey Ya'll

I've been seeing videos about salted baits on Youtube. I reached this rabbit hole when searching about how to avoid having a prawn picked apart. 

Anyone salt their baits and if so, what the benefit of this? 

Cheers

[Isaac Ct]

Salting baits draws the moisture out of them and makes them tougher and harder for the fish to strip the bait of the hook. You can just fill the bottom of a tray with salt, then lay your fillets on top and then cover with more salt. You can repeat this process with a couple of fillets then freeze them. That is what I do but people do it differently.

[noelm]

Not a huge fan of salted bait (it's better than nothing) but some baits, lightly salted then frozen will be fine, it will just "toughen" the bait a bit before freezing. Prawns are the pickers delight, they are OK bait, but old frozen packets of Prawns are best left to the tourists (in my opinion) but a fresh/live well presented Prawn can be deadly during the summer months.

[XD351]

I have heard that you can use the salt they use in Saltwater pools - apparently way cheaper than the food grade stuff.

[Green Hornet]

Instead of salting my pilchards I "cure' them in a brine and get better results.

I placed a comment on this older post on how I go about it.

 

and yes, as @XD351says, you can use pool salt.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Green Hornet

[noelm]

I guess it needs to be said, salting is really only necessary for a few types of bait, soft bait like Pilchards are good salted or brined, flesh baits like Tuna and Bonito don't need salting at all, just freeze whole or fillets (I prefer whole) Slimies are OK filleted, lightly salted then put into containers in "day packs" and frozen, the salt will firm them up when defrosted, Prawns, no salt, just fresh. Squid and so on, just freeze or buy frozen (Squid is a last resort for me)

Edited May 17, 2022 by noelm

[Restyle]

I only salt fish strips, pillies and garfish. I find frozen fillets have the flesh picked off and the skin remains.
the way i salt my fish is a tray like container and a bag of pool salt from Bunnings, put a layer of salt and apply a tiny bit of water then place whatever you are salting ontop of that and repeat.
I store the trays in a random corner with a airtight lid. when done place all the bait in a bag or container and place in freezer. They don't freeze solid so all the fillets in one bag wont freeze together so you can take when you need when you need it

[Little_Flatty]

It’s a bit avant-garde but I have salted prawns as well. They need to be very fresh or high quality frozen bait prawns. They need to be peeled before salting because they go black and the salt doesn’t work.

I only do it when I didn’t use as much bait as anticipated. Hate wasting stuff. The end result has caught us some whiting and jackets. It’s useful for fishing with kids…not as icky as normal prawns so they are more willing to bait their own hooks. And if they have had enough after five mins, then no worries, just throw them back in the fridge for next time.

Apart from shelling, the method is otherwise the same as what the others have described here.

[Fab1]

3 hours ago, HawkesburyParadise said:

Hey Ya'll

I've been seeing videos about salted baits on Youtube. I reached this rabbit hole when searching about how to avoid having a prawn picked apart. 

Anyone salt their baits and if so, what the benefit of this? 

Cheers

Peel your prawn.

 The beauty about any salted bait is it doesn't need refrigeration as it's basically dehydrated.When it hits the water it re-hydrates.

  I have salted fillets of tailor and pilly's sitting in my boat that have been there for over 2 yrs now still in the condition I put them there.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Fab1

[Rob81]

If you're using prawns, I'd rather cooked prawns over salted prawns. Cooked prawns is a gun bait for bream and one cooked prawn you can cut them down to 6-8 pieces on average.

I used to only salt baits that don't freeze well or go mushy.

[campr]

Salted prawns are ok if shelled and DeGradED when fresh.  Tougher and you can referee leftovers if you have kept them cool.  Ron 

[Larkin]

I regularly salt bonito, slimies, pilchards.

I use the Bunnings course pool salt and an Oz-pet sieve cat litter tray. It has two trays - top tray is a sieve (where you fill with salt) which allows the juice to flow down into the second tray. This keeps your salt dry & the juices can be collected and make a good addition to your burley.

I salt anywhere from 6-24 hours depending on the thickness of fish. On strip baits, Salt skin side down. I then cryovac into small packs and freeze.

it toughens up the bait and concentrates the flavour. Strips of salted bonito and slimies are my go to dead bait. As soon as it hits the water it rehydrates and releases its own puff of scent.