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Pilchards for bait, on gang hooks, singles and halved

Lets kick off this section with one of the most versatile fishing baits available, the humble old pilchard. I don't know of a carnivorous fish that swims in the sea that wouldn't pounce an oil filled fillet given the chance. They are also known as the sardine overseas and here when offered up for human consumption to make them sound somewhat more palatable. Most of the Australian stocks are sourced are South Australia and Western Australia, although cheaper and from what I have seen inferior quality pilchards are being brought in from overseas. There seems to a cyclical crash in stocks caused by a virus here roughly every 5 to 10 years which decimates up to 90% stocks. So if you are into reincarnation don't even think about coming back as a pilly.

While there is a lot of information floating around about salting down pilchards and using bait elastics to hold them on these things really are unnecessary. If you have buy good quality pilchards,  keep them near frozen till use and hook them on well then there should be no need for the above. Salting for me is only something I do when I know I am going to be short on or have no ice available. However like everything try it for yourself, if it works for you then go with it.
Apologies for the quality of the pilchards used in this, they were dug from the deepest darkest depths of the bait freezer where they were intended to finish their smelly lives as minced burley.

Fish bite targets - snipping the tail, hitting the belly or head is the most common attacks
areas where fish attack pilchards
Where the fish hits the pilchard often identifies the probable species and likely size of the fish

 

Whole pilchard on gang hooks side rigged
This is the standard way to put a pilchard on gang hooks and just plain works. Tailor, mackerel, flathead, bream, sharks and a variety of reef fish will all happily accept them presented this way.

Click for larger image. Click for larger image. Click for larger image.
Click for larger image. Click for larger image. Click for larger image.

 

Whole pilchard on ganged top rigged
A slight variation on the above which is slightly better suited to cast and slow retrieve fishing styles. The fish sits somewhat more naturally even if upside down and with the end part of the backbone removed will even seem to swim a little.

Click for larger image. Click for larger image. Click for larger image.
Click for larger image. Click for larger image. Click for larger image.

 

Fishing baits and how to rig them

How to bait up a pilchard on gang hooks

Hooking pilchards on single and snooded rigs