How to Use Berley
If you are into rock fishing in Australia then you are probably familiar
with the terms ‘berley’ and ‘berleying’. It is essentially the same
thing as what is known as ‘chum’ and ‘chumming’ in other parts of the
world.
Chumming is using fish parts and blood to attract fish and
sharks out in the ocean. This makes for a feeding frenzy in which
fishermen can catch fish quite quickly; and a lot of them. Berleying is
the same thing, but usually uses a few different ingredients.
Using berley for rock fishing will greatly increase the amount of
fish you catch. Just keep in mind that when you are rock fishing you
will want to throw the berley where it won’t wash out in the fast water.
The fish you are trying to catch will go after it and you will be left
nothing left to catch.
Berley for Luderick
When rock fishing for luderick you will want to use a berley of
cabbage (cunjevoi, or cunjy) and other weed growth found on the rocks in
your area. Scrape off the growth and mix it with the cabbage.
Berley for Groper
Groper love to eat red crabs so a good berley for them would be
chopped up crabs, starfish and shellfish mixed in with red weed.
Berley for Bream
The same recipe used for luderick will work for bream.
Buying Berley
There is also commercially prepared berley that you can buy. With all
of it actually available right where you are rock fishing, it might make
you wonder why you would want to buy it. If there is any advantage to
it, it might be that some prepared commercial berley can be processed to
have fast and slow release rates.
Slow release could be quite beneficial by saving you time in having
to put more of the berley out just when the fishing is getting good.
Using a combination of slow and fast release should attract fish for
quite some time. After all, time is money and money is time, so if
you’re rock fishing trips aren’t that common, you might want to spend
more money and less time berleying.
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