BAIT CARRIERS
Introduction
Bait Carriers is a device used to improve Rock and Surf fishing/angling, in short the Bait Carrier is used to carry the bait allowing for more effective bait presentation, improved casting distance and hook up rates. 16 different sizes are available to match bait and hook sizes.
Increasing your casting distance
The norm in rock and surf fishing is to attach a piece of foam to the hook shank, the bait is then build around the foam in such a way that the hook point is proud enough to ensure proper hooking of the fish. The problem is when casting this bait, normally the hook with the bait on is clipped to the sinker. The shape of the bait determines how well the bait will fly through the air, if the bait is nice and streamlined minimal side way movement will occur during casting, the worst case is when you bait acts like a helicopter, the main reason for this is due to the off balance weight of the bait and not pulling through the mass centre point of the bait. When Bait Carriers are used the bait is built on the foam of the Bait Carrier, this allow for symmetrical shape around the Bait Carrier, when the bait is completed the hook is hooked into the bait on the side of the bait when using J-hooks or the bait hang from the bottom of a circle hook. To cast with the Bait Carrier, the sinker is hooked to the small wire hook at the bottom of the Bait Carrier and not on the hook. When casting, the sinker will pull everything in line pulling through the mass centre point of the bait, no sideways movement of the bait will occur, the sinker and bait will fly in a straight line. Less air friction, more distance.
Increase your hook up rate
Most anglers building bait on a hook will build the bait around the foam on the shank of the hook, ending up with the hook sitting on the bottom part of the bait. If the hook is not proud enough it may and had happen that when striking the fish the bait move down and cover the hook point resulting in a miss. Most competitive anglers today use a second hook on the top part of the bait, this increases the hook up rate significantly. When fishing for sharks with casting baits 90 % of the hook ups were on the top hook.
When using Bait Carriers the bait is built on the Bait Carrier and not on the hook, the hook is hooked into the bait on the side of the bait and can be varied in depth to determine how proud the hook is on the bait. The hook position on the bait is determined by the amount of beads used between the Bait Carrier and the hook, normally only one bead is used, this will result in the hook point to be in the middle or slightly above the middle of the bait. Prefer this position as the hook point is at the thickest or slightly above the thickest part of the bait. When striking there is no bait that can cover the hook point. The hook position that is higher up in the bait also result in more hook ups and have a similar effect as the second hook in the double hook trace used to catch sharks.
How to use Bait Carriers
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Trace without Bait Carrier hook unclipped |
Trace without Bait Carrier hook clipped |
Trace with Bait Carrier when clipped |
Trace with bait on Bait Carrier clipped to Sinker |
The eye of the Bait Carrier is not completely closed, the reason for this is to be able to clip and unclip the Bait Carrier in order to change to more or less floatation depending on water conditions, hook size, bait size, depth of water, location and targeted fish species. The eye of the Bait Carrier is kept close due to the tension of the foam pushing the bead to close the eye gap, when installing the Bait Carrier on the trace just press the bead under the eye down, insert the trace line and release the bead, the bead will move back to close the eye opening preventing the Bait Carrier to unclip. Depending on the type and style of your trace the Bait Carrier is attached to the hook snood or hook, the bait is then build on the Bait Carrier and not on the hook, the hook can be positioned before or after the bait is built on the Bait Carrier. When building baits ensure to tighten the bait properly at the bottom bead/s and around the foam, this will prevent the bait to slide up when hitting the water. Several bait grippers are added on the Bait Carriers to improve the bait holding ability when the bait hits the water. The sinker is then clipped to the Bait Carrier with a Bait Carrier Sinker Clip or directly to the sinker. More detail is discussed under the different hook setups that can be used with the Bait Carriers.
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Single J-hook |
Double J-hook |
Circle hook |
Single J-hook setups
A bead must be installed on single J-hook traces on the hook snood to ensure the correct spacing of the hook on the bait and to act as a stopper for the Bait Carrier. Size 4 – 8 mm beads depending on the size of the hook used. The sinker snood must be slightly longer than the hook snood, to ensure that when the sinker is clipped to the Bait Carrier, the sinker snood is relaxed with no tension on. (similar to the normal traces build for clipping the sinker) When the hook is hooked into the bait make sure that when the hook snood is pulled that the hook pull against the bead and the bead pulls against the eye of the Bait Carrier. A few raps of cotton can be used to firmly secure the eye area of the hook when using J-hooks.
Double J-hook setups
With double J-hook setups the same procedures are followed as for single J-hook setups, a second sliding hook is installed on the hook snood and a second bead between the Bait Carrier and sliding hook. More beads can be used to space the hooks depending on personal preferences.
Circle hook setups
The Bait Carrier is installed on the hook and not on the hook snood. When the bait is built on the Bait Carrier the bait is hanging from the bottom part of the hook with the circle hook completely open, due to the standard eye size on the Bait Carrier circle hooks up to size 6/0 can be used, if bigger circle hooks is used a swivel is hooked onto the hook and the Bait Carrier is hooked onto the swivel. The eye of the Bait Carrier must be slightly closed with pliers on the circle hook to prevent the Bait Carrier to unclip from the hook when hitting the water. If the Bait Carrier can be easily removed after clipped onto the hook the chances are good that it will unclip when hitting the water, when the eye is closed with the pliers the Bait Carrier must still be able to swing freely around the hook.
Bait Carrier Sinker clips
In order to attach a sinker to the trace fast and easy, Bait Carrier Sinker Clips can be used, the advantages of these clips are as follow:
- Fast and easy clipping and unclipping of the sinker onto traces.
- Any shape and size sinker with a wire eye can be used.
- Sinkers without clipping hooks can be used.
- Automatically align the bait with the centre line of the sinker during casting.
- Clip hook is higher than the eye resulting in less interference with the bait.
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Bait Carrier Sinker Clip |
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Bait Carrier Sinker Clip clipped to sinker and bait. |
Traces for Bait Carriers
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Trace ready to install a Bait Carrier |
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Trace with a Bait Carrier installed. |
The table below indicate sizes that can be used as a guideline to build single hook traces, for double hook traces the second hook slides on the hook snood, sizes are similar as for the single hook traces, the sizes may vary depending on personal preferences
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Hook Size |
Size A |
Size B |
Size C |
Purpose of trace |
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2/0 - 4/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
500 mm of 0.6 mm diameter nylon fishing line (50 mm longer for circle hooks) |
450 mm of 0.7 mm diameter nylon or Flouro carbon fishing line. (B+C) |
Edible fish 1 kg up to 5 kg |
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5/0 Gamagatsu 6/0 Daiichi |
550 mm of 0.6 mm diameter nylon fishing line (50 mm longer for circle hooks) |
500 mm of 0.7-0.8 mm diameter nylon or Flouro carbon fishing line. (B+C) |
Edible fish 2 kg up to 10 kg |
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6/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
550 mm of 0.6 mm diameter nylon fishing line(50 mm longer for circle hooks) |
250 mm of 0.8-0.9 mm diameter nylon fishing line. |
250 mm of 60 lbs carbon coated wire |
Non edible fish up to 10 kg |
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8/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
550 mm of 0.6 mm diameter nylon fishing line |
250 mm of 0.9-1 mm diameter nylon fishing line. |
250 mm of 90 lbs carbon coated wire |
Non edible fish 5 kg up to 50 kg |
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10/0 Daiichi |
750 mm of 0.6 mm diameter nylon fishing line |
700 mm of 150 lbs carbon coated wire (B+C) |
Non edible fish 10 kg up to 200 kg |
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Examples of a few baits build on Bait Carriers
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Mackrel head, gill plates cut off & belly. |
Mackrel Cutlets |
Chokka |
Red Eye head with chokka |
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Sardine belly & chokka |
Chokka & Pink Prawn |
Chokka with ink & tassels |
Chokka with tassels(Circle Hook) |
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Sea lice (Circle Hook) |
Mackrel head (Circle Hook) |
Mackrel cutlets (Circle Hook) |
Mackrel head (Circle Hook) |
Available Sizes
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Size |
Recommended hook sizes |
Foam size |
QTY per pack |
Cost |
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S3 |
2/0 - 3/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 8 x 20 mm |
4 |
POR |
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S4 |
3/0 - 4/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 8 x 28 mm |
4 |
POR |
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S5 |
4/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 8 x 36 mm |
4 |
POR |
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S6 |
4/0 - 5/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 8 x 44 mm |
4 |
POR |
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M3 |
3/0 - 4/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 10 x 30 mm |
4 |
POR |
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M4 |
4/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 10 x 38 mm |
4 |
POR |
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M5 |
5/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 10 x 46 mm |
4 |
POR |
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M6 |
5/0 - 6/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 10 x 54 mm |
4 |
POR |
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L3 |
6/0 - 7/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 14 x 38 mm |
4 |
POR |
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L4 |
7/0 - 8/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 14 x 50 mm |
4 |
POR |
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L5 |
7/0 - 8/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 14 x 60 mm |
4 |
POR |
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L6 |
8/0 - 10/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 14 x 70 mm |
4 |
POR |
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XL3 |
8/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 17 x 44 mm |
4 |
POR |
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XL4 |
8/0 - 10/0 Daiichi & Gamagatsu |
Ø 17 x 58 mm |
4 |
POR |
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XL5 |
10/0 Daiichi |
Ø 17 x 75 mm |
4 |
POR |
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XL6 |
10/0 Daiichi |
Ø 17 x 95 mm |
4 |
POR |
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Description |
QTY per pack |
Cost |
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Bait Carrier Sinker Clips |
10 |
POR |
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FOR ANY WHOLESALE ENQUIRIES OR TO ORDER BAIT CARRIERS SENT AN EMAIL TO: orders@baitcarriers.co.za
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