Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
WITHOUT doubt the best baits for school jew are either live or preserved beach worms or live bloodworms. While some anglers simply put a bunch of worms on the shank of the hook, I much prefer to present my bait so it passes over the eye of the hook and up my line about 3-4cm. I bait worms this way whether fishing for jew using hooks ranging in size from 3/0 to 6/0, or the humble bream or whiting with 1/0 to 3/0 hooks.
Sometimes the biggest hassle an angler faces is passing the worm over the knot on the eye of the hook, without tearing the worm.
It is common sense to use a hook size comparable to the size of the worm, but even then the knot can still be a pain.
Back in the early ‘80s I was on the South Wall at Ballina talking to mate Chris Magnay about my problem with using worms when he suddenly laughed and said to simply get rid of the knot. He showed me how he rigged using the double trace (see diagram) and from that day on my problem was solved.
I use this rig for baiting worms by simply doubling over my main line, whether fishing for bream, whiting, dart or jew.
The double makes absolutely no difference to your hook-up rate because these species will still bite quite freely on it.
Hi Tye
i’ve gone back through my stash of old BnB mags and found your mud maps for jew at Ballina and Iluka and found them very helpful over the years, i also found one for Flathead at Iluka. i was just wondering if you’ve ever done one for Flathead at Ballina, if so could you send me a copy or if you haven’t could you maybe give me a few pointers in the right direction,
Cheers Mal
Hi Mal, I will do a mud map for you on big lizards at Ballina in the next few days. My email address is justjewtp@hotmail.com. Could you send me a blank email so that I can send the map to you.
Cheers Tye
Thanks Tye, i’ve sent the email, let me know if you didn’t recieve it. Hopefully getting over there for a fish over xmas, i’ll let you know how we get on.
Cheers Mal