How to make a bait pump for bottom fishing
Any self-respecting sport fisherman knows that baiting is an extremely effective method of “calling” fish. Throwing fish food overboard at a regular rate, such as cut fish, canned corn, or any other palatable ingredient for the fish you seek, will attract them to the source, your boat, or fishing spot. But ordinary bait is not effective when fishing on bottom reefs, for example, as the current will carry the bait too far to benefit it. The only way is to bait the bottom where your hooks are. You do this by making a bait bomb.
In Australia they call the bait ‘Berley’ or ‘Burley’ and use a kind of pump, which is a split tube container for the bait that you drop to the bottom. Once there, the container opens on its own as you pay out more line, releasing the bait. It’s actually a pretty good system, except that as it descends, the pump leaves the liquid part of the bait near the surface of the water. It is this foul-smelling liquid component that quickly attracts fish because it mixes more easily with the water and is ‘smelled’ by the fish. The solid part of the chum still needs frantic feeding from the smaller fish to attract the larger ones to the commotion.
To get the liquid bait to the bottom, you can use a plain 3″ x 5″ plastic bag. This is how you do it:
1. Find a small, heavy-duty plastic bag open at one end. A size of 3″ x 5″ or similar should work fine.
2. Tie the closed end of the bag to your main line, the closed end higher up the line, leaving the open end of the bag three inches or so above the kneecap. Make sure the bag will not slip even if you pull it hard.
3. Fill the bag halfway with ground or chopped chum. Remove any trapped air bubbles and twist the open end closed. Ground bait is the best to use. Treats will not satiate larger fish as they strongly stimulate their desire to eat due to smell, inducing a feeding frenzy.
4. Insert this twisted end through the top eye of the line swivel until snug. If necessary, bend the twisted end so that it fits snugly. Therefore, a small loop must be made on the line.
5. Carefully lower the bait and rig into the water by hand, then release the assembly to the bottom. Be sure to pass a very slack line so as not to remove the spinner eye bag prematurely.
6. When you reach the bottom, pull up on the rod several times to disengage the closed end of the plastic bag from the swivel and remove the bait from the bag. The chum will thus concentrate in a single area.
7. You can then fish as normal.
8. Caution: Do not use on fine lines. Pulling on the rod could break the line and nullify your efforts.
There are alternatives.
• If you are not using a swivel, you can tie a small slipknot on your line to get the end of the bag through, but this will bend your line a bit due to memory.
• Drop bait higher in the water column if that is where you need to fish.
• Use another line to bait so the empty bag won’t interfere with your fishing.
• Use a kraft paper bag instead of a plastic bag, but the paper bag is not reusable and must be lowered very slowly and carefully. Otherwise, it will burst on the way.
• Secure the end of the bag to the patella if the fit is too loose, even when the twisted end of the bag is doubled or tripled backward.
Chumming ‘calls’ the fish so you can enjoy the sport, but the wrong chumming will only waste your efforts and bait, to produce very little if anything. While you can bring a bunch of friends along, it’s not really a profitable proposition. Better chum the right way.