How to Collect Bait (Saltwater)

By Robert Thornton

Most anglers start their fishing journey with bait, gradually (or sometimes not so gradually) moving on to flicking lures once they’ve mastered the basics of bait. I’ll admit, there’s not much I love more than catching fish on lures, but I still find myself returning to bait on a regular basis.

Bait fishing not only teaches us so much, but it also offers fun and unique experiences we miss out on when lure fishing. Collecting your own bait is one of those experiences.

It’s often said that acquiring the bait is half the fun, and that’s exactly what this blog is about. We’ll look at five popular baits most Aussies living near the coast have access to, some tips on how and where to find them, and also the species they’re good for.

ON THE HUNT 

Collecting your own bait can be a very satisfying part of the fishing experience. There’s something primordial about gathering small bit and pieces from the environment and converting them into larger game. Linking up different parts of the food chain like this provides valuable insight, and the old saying “find the bait, find the fish” takes on a very literal meaning when using bait.

Collecting bait is a great way to get the youngsters involved, and many of my earliest memories involve squelching through mud to find a few morsels for the bucket. During this process, I learnt all about the natural prey of my target species, which later informed my journey into lure fishing.

TOP FIVE SALTWATER BAITS

Now we’re going to dive in and look at what are, in my opinion, the top five Aussie saltwater baits. All of these items are within fairly easy reach of anyone living nearby tidal water and require little or no equipment to gather. Time to roll up the sleeves!

Prawns

Prawns are perhaps one of the most ubiquitous saltwater baits around the country, with quite a few species inhabiting the different parts of our coastline. Certain regions often have prawn ‘seasons’, which in my part of the world is the post-Christmas period, when the wet season rains wash them down local estuary systems and eventually into Moreton Bay. In other regions, things like moon phases or tide cycles are the determining factor in making the prawns ‘run’.

Prawns can certainly be bought frozen and in a packet from most tackle stores and even many service stations, but there really is nothing quite like the real thing, especially when it’s gathered from the very system you intend to use it in. Whether live, dead, whole, peeled or in pieces, there isn’t a much better all-rounder in the estuary than a local prawn.

Prawn cast nets are great tools for prawn catching in states and territories where they are legal, which to my knowledge is Queensland and the Northern Territory only. Elsewhere, scoop nets are the preferred (and legal) method, with prawners often venturing out into the shallows under the cover of darkness.

Prawns appeal to virtually everything that swims in the estuary. Down south they are top tucker for flathead, whiting, bream, tailor, salmon, trevally, mulloway and so much more. In the tropics, everything from mangrove jacks, grunter and trevally, all the way up to giant barra, threadfin and black jewfish will respond to prawn baits.

Mullet

Mullet are another classic bait that line virtually our whole of our coastline, and like prawns they can be utilised in different ways to appeal to a wide variety of target species. Most mullet species have quite similar habits. Being a mostly omnivorous fish that moves about in schools, mullet are fairly predictable, which makes them a perfect bait for collection.

In Queensland and the Northern Territory, cast nets make collecting mullet nice and straightforward. Berleying them with bits of bream first is a handy hint to speed up the process. In the far north, pop-eye mullet – a species with its eyes right on the top of its head – are often caught by cast netters who don’t use a rope on their net, as the allows them to throw the net a long way and snare the fleeing mullet as they take off.

In the other states, mullet have to be gathered in other ways. A light float rig baited with bread is popular in NSW and Victoria, and a lot of fun for kids.

Another way is to leave a small funnel trap (check local regulations for specifications) in the shallows, again baited with bread. Some anglers even make their own funnel traps by cutting up clear plastic bottles; you’d be surprised how well this works!

Like prawns, mullet appeal to a variety of species, and can be used live, dead, whole, cut or slabbed depending on the situation. They even make great offshore baits for reef species, and are a staple in some parts of the country for crab pot bait.

Worms

In saltwater, worms are definitely more of a specialist’s bait. I say this because collecting beachworms, bloodworms, and other local intertidal worm species usually requires some level of knowledge, skill and dexterity. Worm baits are generally used in the southern half of the continent.

Bloodworms and other locally-occurring estuarine worms (such as Redcliffe ‘rockies’ and Cribb Island worms in my neck of the woods) require the gatherer to scour the mangroves and dig through the mud. It’s honest work, but many anglers swear by local worms, especially for whiting.

Out on the coast, especially in Queensland, NSW and South Australia, beachworms (of which there are a few species) are another readily available bait. Catching them involves berleying them up in the sand, usually by wafting a bag full of offcuts, fish frames and other smelly stuff back and forth as the waves recede over the sand. Once their heads are visible, it’s then a matter of baiting them with a hand bait (usually pilchard, a pipi or sometimes even a piece of cheese) and grabbing them with the other, pulling them from the sand in one, clean motion. It takes a lot of practise to get it right – and I’m certainly no expert! Once collected, there isn’t a much better bait in the surf for whiting, dart and bream, particularly in little pieces. Using a whole beachworm is a great way to get interest from mulloway.

Worms also keep well if cured (usually in methylated spirits) and frozen for future use.

Yabbies/nippers

Yabbies or nippers are another specialist bait, though probably not quite on the level of worms. Yabbies can legally be collected with a yabby pump or hand pump in most parts of our country and this generally isn’t quite as dirty a job as digging for worms.

Pumping for these guys is as easy as finding a sandbank with yabby holes on it, either completely dry at low tide or with just a few inches of water over it. Where there is water over the bank, a floating sieve can help a lot, catching the yabbies as they’re pumped out and eliminating the risk of losing them in the water. Kids are great assistants to have on hand, picking up the nippers as they spray out onto the sand or into the sieve. Handling live saltwater yabbies is also great for teaching youngsters how to safely handle critters that can bite back.

Most estuary predators will respond to yabbies, but they are a well-known bait for big whiting in the estuaries. Like worms, they also cure and freeze well, making them another bait that can be collected in bulk or ahead of time.

Pipis

Pipis are generally collected in the surf but work well outside of their natural environment as well, making them another good allrounder.

Several species of bivalves (the shelled family of molluscs that pipis belong to) exist around our coastline, and they can all be collected in similar ways. The classic way is to find the small indentations they leave in the sand, which indicate that a pipi is a few inches below the surface. The collector can then either dig with their hands or shuffle their bare feet in the damp sand until they feel the shell (also known as the ‘pipi dance’).

Once collected, the shell needs to be opened to get at the soft flesh inside, which can either be done by opening the shell opposite the hinge with a knife, or by cracking the shell with a rock or something else hard.

A pipi’s flesh is soft but durable, meaning a pipi bait will survive the onslaught of pickers until something worthwhile comes along and eats the whole bait. They also work well frozen and defrosted, making them another excellent bait that you can gather ahead of time.

TAKING THE BAIT

Bait collection is a very foundational fishing experience that most anglers get enjoyment from, even if it’s something they only do occasionally. It’s very rewarding to put time into gathering a fresh source of local bait and then using it on local species. Even the most seasoned lure flickers can learn new things about their quarry when they go back to the basics and gather their own bait.

In an age where supply chains aren’t as reliable as they used to be, there’s never been a better time to reconnect with such foundational skills as gathering your own bait!