Chumming the water is one of the oldest methods that an angler can use to attract fish. Chumming the water is a technique that anglers who drop the correct material into the water to attract the attention of the fish have used for a very long time. Unfortunately, if anglers perform chumming the water incorrect, they waste their money because they are essentially pouring their money into the sea.
There are a few mistake that anglers make when they chum the water that result in the wasted effort of the day. These mistakes can happen on party boat and private skiffs alike. These mistakes result in wasted bait, spook the fish, and transform an exciting fishing experience into a day in the water where the fish are all dead and inactive.
However, anglers who pay close attention to what they find on their next fishing trip can easily fix most of these mistakes.
Common Mistakes Anglers Make When Chumming
1. Using the wrong material for target species
One of the most common mistakes with chumming the water is use the wrong material for the target species of fish. Using oily menhaden chunks will attract bluefish and striped bass but will overpower the scent receptor of flounder or black sea bass.
Fine-ground menhaden will attract weakfish but will pass schools of triggerfish that are looking for a different scent altogether. The texture of the chum should match the feeding behavior of the target species. Pelagic fish prefer larger chunks of bait so that they can be seen from farther away.
Bottom feeders will be attracted to a cloudy cloud of bait that will allow it to slowly fall to the sea floor where the fish are congregating. If anglers use chum from the local bait shop that dont show what kind of fish bait was ground up into the chum, they will sit in silence as someone else twenty yards away from them reaps the fishing benefit. The placement of chum into the sea is just as important as the type of chum anglers use.
2. Improper chum placement and current considerations
Many anglers will simply toss a frozen block of chum over the side of the boat into the sea. However, the current of the water will play a vital role in the placement of the chum. Factors such as the speed of the current, tide, and depth will play a role in where the chum will come to rest in the sea.
If anglers drop chum into twenty feet of water during an outgoing tide, the chum will never reach the fish that are living on the ocean floor in that area. Anglers must think in three dimension before dropping chum into the water. They must determine where the fish are located and calculate how far up current the chum must be placed so that the fish will be able to smell the chum..
Using a weighted chum bag or dropping chum in small handfuls while drifting the boat will ensure that the fish can smell the chum. Randomly dropping chum into the sea will result in a failed fishing trip by the angler.
3. Over chumming the water
Over chumming is another mistake that many anglers make. New anglers often feel that if a little chum is good, then a lot of chum is better. These new anglers will dump as many bucket of chum into the sea as they can stand until the water is filled with chum. Unfortunately, the fish will eventually become full of chum and will no longer come to the hook that is baited with the fish that they are targeting.
Using a light stream of chum works best. Anglers should begin with small amounts of chum and watch for the activity of the fish and the birds. If the fish are swimming in the area but not biting on the bait, then a little more chum can be added.
If the fish suddenly stop moving, then the angler has over chummed the water and must reduce the amount of chum that is being released into the sea.
4. Using old or rotting chum
Using chum that is past its prime is another mistake that will ruin the angler’s day. If the chum smells bad due to being old, the fish will find that something is wrong in the water.
If the chum is rotting menhaden that is full of bad bacteria that changes the amino acid in the bait, the fish will avoid that chum. Anglers should always smell the chum before dropping it into the sea. It should have a strong but clean scent of the ocean and should not have a terrible smell.
If anglers would not want to store the chum in the cooler for many days, the fish will most likely not want to have that chum in the water either. You can prevent most of these problems by freezing the bait and then only thawing the amount of bait that you need for that day. The extra minute that you spend preparing the bait will pay off in the form of catching more fish.
5. Incorrect timing of chumming
The timing of when you begin chumming is another important skill that separates the fishers who are consistently successful from the anglers who find themselves to be lucky in only some of their fishing effort. Some anglers begin chumming the moment that they drop their anchor into the lake or ocean floor. These anglers will eventually find themselves wondering why they are not successfully catching any fish during their first hour of fishing.
Other anglers do not begin chumming until they have been fishing for half of the day. These anglers are employing the same incorrect technique as the anglers that begin chumming too early. The most effective technique is to begin chumming between fifteen and twenty minutes before you begin dropping your baited fishing rig into the water..
This allows the scent of the chum to begin spreading through the water without overloading the fish with food. Once you begin to catch fish with your baited fishing rigs, you should continue to chum the water. However, you should not allow the chum to get ahead of the rate at which the fish are biting at your baited rigs.
If the fish begin to stop biting at your baited rigs, you should stop chumming for a ten minute period, after which you can restart chumming with a different scent or texture. Changing the texture of the chum will eventually lead to the fish beginning to bite again at your baited fishing rigs.
6. Ignoring water visibility
If you do not take into consideration the visibility of the water and the amount of light that enters the water, you will find yourself employing a series of methods that waste your time and fishing effort.
If the visibility of the water is very clear, using heavy chum will look like an oil spill to the fish. If the visibility of the water is dirty and murky, dumping a fine powder of chum into the water only a few feet from the surface will also be futile. Most anglers will use the same type of chum regardless of the visibility of the location in which they are fishing.
The visibility of the chum that is being used should match the visibility of the water. If the visibility of the water is clear, use larger chunks or even whole baitfish instead of ground fish bait. If the visibility of the water is stained or murky, switch to using a coarse ground fish bait instead of fine ground fish bait.
Additionally, consider the distance that you are able to see your anchor line. This will help you to understand whether or not the chum that you are using needs to be obvious or discreet to the fish. If you take a few minutes to adjust your chumming strategy to the visibility of the water, you will have stopped educating fish that should of been eager to eat.
7. Poor storage and handling
Poor storage and handling of chum will ruin a good batch of chum very quickly. If you leave a bucket of ground menhaden bait in the sun for six hours, you will have cleared the area around the boat of your fishing buddies, as well as the fish. The oils in the bait begin to separate, the texture of the bait begins to break down, and the bait begins to ferment.
Most of the fish-attracting quality of the bait have dissapears by the time it hits the water. To properly store chum, you should keep it on ice or store it in a live well in the boat that is shaded from the sun and that has a pump running in it. Excess liquid should be drained from the container every few hours to prevent the chum from sitting in its own juice.
If you are using frozen blocks of chum, thaw the blocks slowly in a separate container to prevent the meltwater from joining with the batch of chum that is stored in the live well. These storage habits will preserve the natural oils and proteins in the bait that attract the fish. If you do not take these steps to properly store and handle your chum, you will find yourself purchasing the best chum recipe in the world, but the chum will repel the fish that you are attempting to catch.
8. Failing to adapt to changing conditions
Finally, a strategy should be adapted once you are out on the water. The conditions of the water change frequent. A strategy that was successful during the slack tide of the morning may not be successful during the middle of the day.
The anglers who have successfully learned to use chum understand that the chum must be adapted to the bites that are being received, or the lack of bites that are being received. For example, if the water is moving quickly, you may need to switch from chunks of chum to fine ground chum. If the fish are discovered to be moving to a different area of the water, you may need to move the chum bag to a different location.
You may also need to stop chumming for twenty minutes to allow the fish to rest. The anglers who are successful with fishing are the anglers who are willing to experiment and find the signs of fish activity, instead of those that rely upon the rigid strategy that they established when they were still on dry land at the docks. Mastering the art of chumming does not have a secret recipe.
However, there are mistakes that should be avoided. Pay attention to the type of chum that you are putting into the water. Pay attention to where the chum is going.
Pay attention to how the fish are responding to the chum. Should you pay attention to these three aspects of chumming and fishing with chum, the ocean will begin to work with you rather than against you. The next time you begin to feel the boat movement with the tide and begin to see fish behind the boat, you will understand that this is not the result of chance alone.
Instead, you understand what the fish want, and you are giving the fish what they want.