Collecting Local Bait is the Key to Great Catches
Knowing what bait to use when rock fishing in Australia will make for a
much more lucrative and enjoyable outing. For most of the species you
should just go with the usual forage and vegetation that they are
accustomed to eating. But you also have some liberties and maybe some
surprises available to you when it comes to baits for rock fishing
because some species have a few peculiarities.
Note: When rock fishing, most if not all baits will do best if floating
about 1 m above the bottom. After a wave surge fish will come up to get
it. This also prevents snags in the rocks below.
Luderick
Your best bet here is the cabbage which grows in the rocks where you
are fishing. It must be wrapped onto the hook properly to be effective
and not fall off. Take a piece of the cabbage (cunjevoi, also called
cunjy) about the size of your finger and hook it about 12 mm from one
end, then two more times down the length of the bait leaving about 25 mm
on the opposite end. A couple of loose overhand knots around the first
end of the bait will keep it intact. Reduce the size of the bait if the
fish don’t seem to be interested in it.
Drummer
Sometimes the Drummer will eat cabbage as well. When you are rock
fishing for Luderick, yo may well hook into a Drummer. But you have
other bait options with them, too.
- prawns
- crabs
- bread
- liver and raw meat
- cunje
Groper
- live whole red crabs
- other shellfish
Bream
Bream are not picky about baits like some fish. They have a wide
variety of foods they will eat.
- oysters
- mussels
- crabs
- prawns
- worms
- bait fish
- cut baits such as mullet, pilchards, garfish, sardines,
yellowtail and
Garfish
- miscellaneous baits such as cat food, raw steak, bread and
cheese
Trevally
- prawns
- cunje
- all kinds of worms
- bait fish
- most other common fish baits
Snapper
- mullet
- yellowtail
- crabs
- cunje
- prawns
- squid and octopus tentacles
Jewfish
- mullet
- squid
- yellowtail
- squid
- mackerel
- sweep
- whiting
- luderick
- octopus
- worms
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