# To Burley or not to Burley...that is the question!



## Wattie (Apr 30, 2007)

Hi all,

I have tried (without success) to fish with Burly. It doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t seem to make any difference for me.

If the fish are there they will bite. If they arenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t the burley doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t seen to attract them. Therefore for all the mucking around I am, going to give it a miss from now on.

Any thoughts!


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## HiRAEdd (Nov 12, 2005)

Well I haven't burleyed much in my fishing and lately I've caught absolutely nothing so is that a vote for burley by proxy?


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## spooled1 (Sep 16, 2005)

Last time I tried, I got a 1.2M hammerhead in crap weather and fishing conditions where bugger all was biting.

This was done at anchor making 5mm berley drops every few seconds for over an hour. At the time I had 2 x live yakkas in the water and was pretty close to shore on an inshore reef.

Around Esperance I'd be pretty concerned about sharks and would only consider a berley session under similar circumstances.


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## HiRAEdd (Nov 12, 2005)

Would anyone say there is a burley that is worthwhile that would not attract big toothy critters? Like obviously a block of pillies has the capacity to attract sharks however what about commercial burley pellets or bread? Would they work for the fish but not attract the sharks?


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## Biggera Yakker (Jan 25, 2007)

Berleying is great and works well for certain kinds of fish, like gar.
Sometimes it's just a matter of being lucky and if you've got a sounder, you can go and find the fish, not try and attract them to you.


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## squizzy (Mar 3, 2007)

I fished a lot from he bank in esturies and in the surf during winter and burley was always part of my kit. When targeting bream in rivers it works. I know a lot of English blokes who took burley very serious and had sling shots, vinyl bags and all sorts of recipes for different conditions. One guy I knew put alka salsa in his burley when fishing in the horsham fishing comp to help explode his burley in the water to excite the yellow bellies. A bit extreme but its all part of the process for these guys. If you want to catch garfish in PPB in Melbourne burley up and ye shall succeed. When people ask me how important burley is I just ask them to walk past the coffee shop or the bakery, even straight after a meal its gets your juices flowing, its the land lubbers form of tuna oil. Having said all that, I am fishing a lot more without it now because the versitily of the kayak gets me in better spots, I love sp's & hb's and the tuna oil smell just wasnt making too many freinds other than the ones with fins and whiskers. Hey not theres anything wrong with hairy women I was talking about cats.


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## Milt (Sep 2, 2005)

LOL Paul,

When fishing the surf its a must, when on a yak I find its use is when i'm bait fishing only. I buy some fresh Pillys from a fish shop, the guts head and crappy one's i keep for burley the ones that freshest and in good shape are fried up for the table :wink:

I mix the guts and chopped up head with some old bread and freeze for the times i want to berley.

Milt,


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## reefcheck (Jul 20, 2006)

I've used burley a lot from dinghies in harbours and inshore reefs, especially around Sydney and up the NSW coast. Works well most of the time, but usually have to give it 15-30 minutes to make a difference, unless yo are on a bait ground where fish are concentrated anyway or happen to be over fish on a reef etc. Being on anchor for a while is the key. Bread/pellets might be a reasonable option off the yaks, as it works really well for bait fish and many species like bream, but wouldn't stir too much interest from the grey suits.

Bread burley will attract a school of bait under you, which sets things up well for daytime visits from things like dory or evening visits from passing groups of tailor, kings and bonito, but in my experience you need maybe 15 minutes but preferably 30-60 minutes burleying on anchor before sunset to get this bait agrregation happening around moorings, over reef and the like .

My encounters with largish, dangerous sharks in and around Sydney harbour, which represent only a handful of events over 40 years and none in the last decade, have all occurred at night and usually when pulling in quite a few fish, which can see a whaler or bull shark set up camp under the boat to relieve me of my burden. A rare occurence, but a bit scary in a dinghy when you try and whip a fish to the surface past the shark and it comes up with it and gives you the evil eye in the middle of the night, also sending out ripples to give a gentle rocking. Nice to have some freeboard and a short row to the shore on those occasions. When it has happened like that I've called it a night.

So I think the shark menace, although a possibility and one likley to leave you shaking but otherwise unharmed, is a bit overated inshore and berleying does help, but my recommendation if you want to try berley would be to anchor on a likely spot for a solid hour or more to see good results from it.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

I hate using bait, but I do love using LIVE BAIT, and in order to catch live bait, its important to burley.

When targeting pilchards I use a mix of bread (lots) and old chopped up pilchards which is mushed into a fine paste and a handful thrown in the water every few minutes until I have attracted and can hold the scholol of pillys under the yak and catch them with a bait jig. Same priciple applies with yakkas - I find that in the areas I catch these from I'll usually need to lob a few handfuls of burley into the water to get them around, then its a matter of small hooks and small bits of prawn for bait to cath the yakkas (I dont seem to have much luck with bait jigs on yakkas).

I find that when fishing with liveies I dont burley and figure that if theres a struggling live baitfish down there, it will be sending signals which hopefully should attract anything large and toothy within range. The fact that I'm lazy and always plan my fishing trips about 5 minutes in advance also makes me adverse to preparing and carrying burley on the yak.  :wink:


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## Garfish (Jun 2, 2006)

I agree with what's been said... if I'm ultra serious about a day long bait fishing expedition, I'll put up with the burley smell for better results.

A very quick burley recipe is to buy a pack of breadcrumbs, a fish based tin of cat food and throw in some tuna oil. It's important to squeeze all the air out before chucking 'balls' of the mix into the water.

If I'm fishing with chicken, I'll throw some of that in the mix as well.... usually brings in schooling fish like gars, trevally and whiting... and the flathead love the sinking bits of pillie as well.


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## sitonit (Dec 29, 2006)

I use the Berkely berley pellets mainly and any left over bait the pellets seem to work and they hopefully arent as appealing to the men in grey coats


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

Burley works -mostly when stationary-ie bech rock boat at anchor.

Burley attracts small fish -which buzz in the flurry of free food, sending waves offinto the surrounding area- this attract smid size predators chasing the bait fish - this in turn can bring in the bigger trophy fish /pelagics etc. I have fished the harbour and seen tens of boats not turn a handle and its gone off for me based on a stready stream of burley!!!!


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## Jeffo (Sep 10, 2006)

i'm a fan of berley when i'm anchored. Use it in the river for bream flatty & offshore for snappper. Use it in conjunction with bait fishing mostly, but have had success with SP's as well.

Cheers

Jeffo


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

Berley - Ok my tip from Big Alex Bellisimo (sydney fisho legend) if you really wantto catch fish and hedge you rbets - you slowly cube up one of those big blocks of pillies. You have several rods on the go -one on the bottom, one on a float (pillie bait) - maybe a livey out in the trail -and than also chuck lures out into the trail. Its a numbers game for sure and expensive to a degree - 12 bucks for the pillies - but over a couple of hours you will bring any fish in the area to you - all bases are covered. This was taught to me from the rocks - but could be achieved from the yak anchored up???? You would also be a bit of a shark magnet but we have got a big piece of plastic between us and them!!!!??


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## JimH (Apr 10, 2007)

For stink boating, I purchased an el chepo blender at the local op shop $7 - no certificate then had to find a new drive dog $3 to get it working.

Now blend all waste seafood - well small bits (plus a bit of water) into a slurry and freeze.

I now need to work out if I can use all these reprocessed prawn shells, and other garbage in a kayak! (the fridge needs a good defrosting)

Thinking of just throwing it in the foot well and occassionally throwing some water on it. At the end of the day use a liberal amount of tank water to hose clean.


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## yakfly (Jun 8, 2006)

i use an old hand mincer to grind up all my frames and shell then freeze into small butter or ice cream containers.i then take this out in the boat or yak and pop into a weighted cage that i can set at whatever depth i want.then all i do is give the cage a bit of a rattle now and then to get the trail going.
the other way was to put it in a brown paper bag with a stone in it and lower to the bottom,wait a while then give the cord a yank which busts the bag open.this then releases the burley
the trick is not too much and keep it consistent otherwise if you drop too much at first the fish will follow that away from the boat/yak


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## Daveyak (Oct 6, 2005)

Wattie, I don't do much fishing with bait at anchor but find find berley useful for skippy & KG Whiting around here when I do. For KGWs, some crushed up cockles dropped over every few minutes will bring them from some distance away. Chopped up mulies have attracted squid, snook, slimey mackeral, breaksea cod, harlequin fish and even salmon & bonito when I've been fishing from a boat along the coast near here.

Unfortunately berley can also attract hordes of leatheries in some places so it's a bit pointless when that happens.

Anything planned for the long weekend? Weather forecast is looking good, we must be due for a reasonable weekend - it's been a while.


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## andybear (Jan 15, 2006)

I prefer to use other peoples burley. Just paddle through a group of stinkboats, dragging my lures. I always thought that was the reason they were out on the water!

No...... so far it has not worked..... but I do give it a try from time to time! :lol: :lol:

Not so much from the point of view of getting the fish, but more from the point of view that if I do catch their fish right from under their noses, just how peeved off will they be? :twisted: :twisted:

Cheers all Andybear :lol: :lol:


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## onemorecast (Apr 17, 2006)

I also mostly now use it to attract baitfish. For yellowtail or slimy mackeral, chook pellets are easy to carry, they don't stink, and these fish love them. Also the first one caught always immediately gets a hook in his back and sent back down, as bait fish congregating often attact what I'm after anyway.


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