Question From Facebook-

Matt N Patty D

Jul 16th, 3:33pm

On your shows you throw pilchards into the water for chum. Are the pilchards you throw in dead or alive? Do you do this during the entire time fishing or during certain times?

Answer-

Saltwater Experience

Sent by Tom Rowland

Jul 21st, 8:52am

When we catch pilchards, we throw them in the water alive. This is the absolute best chum. It gets the fish going even when they are not feeding heavily. We try to throw some when we first get to the spot and get the fish excited. We continue to throw them as the bite slows or to keep more fish coming to us.

We are basically bringing a bait ball to an area where we know that there are fish.  Typically, the bait tries to move away from predators so it is common to find fish with the absence of bait.  They either ate it all, pushed it out of the area, or they are waiting for more to show up. 

Chumming with pilchards is very effective because we bring some fresh bait right to the spot.  The fish go crazy and we can get the biggest fish to leave the protection of the wreck or the mangroves and begin feeding.  We either throw a live pilchard on a hook or a lure or fly.

The pilchards are caught with a cast net.  Here is the best instructional cast net video that I have found:

Best Regards,

Tom Rowland

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