I do not fish from a boat and have questions about effective chumming. I fish rocky areas with deep drop-offs and in the past have tossed an occasion handful of herring chunks out in hopes that it will attract fish. I witnessed one guy who filled a plastic two-liter bottle with chum, put some puncture holes in it and tie a rope to it, letting it bob around in the surf. I live within a minute of a herring processing plant so I have an unlimited supply of fresh herring.

What tecniques do you folks use for chumming?

What killer chum recipe have you concocted that you are willing to share?

Is it feasable to use chum to attract fish while using plugs to catch them?

How much is too much chum?

How do you keep the flying rats (gulls) from slurping up all your chum before it becomes effective?

Thanks for any chum-related info!

spinn

Fishing freak should chime in on this one.

My technique depends on what I'm fishing for. It varies from a custom chum recipe frozen and dispensed simultaneously in two 5 gal buckets starting with a power slick (for shark tournaments) to a small cage with a pint of ground herring or mackerel for mackerel fishing. I typically do not chum for stripers, but some do.

My recipe includes menhaden oil, sand to fill the water column, oatmeal for bulk, and glitter for visual (not sure how affective glitter is but I use it). Try newenglandsharks.com for some good chumming info.

Where is your herring processing plant? What are their prices?

I chummed a few herrings in North Shore when I was fishing off the pier. I chopped, sliced, and filleted herrings and toss them into the water. I used the heads or tails for chumming.

if your feeding them chunks i'd stick a chunk on the hook too.
bass respond well to "fresh" chum but they have to be in the area in the first place or your just feeding the crabs.

another little hint.. cut your chum chunks SMALLER than the bait your using. if the chum is bigger than the bait you are using the fish will go for the chum chunks and not the bait.

that tech. has worked well for us

The key to chumming is keeping the chunks tiny and constant and sloooooow. Over chumming is too easy to do, and will actually do more harm than good. Fishing freaks comment about having bass in the area b4 chumming is really not accurate, cause you shouldn't be wastin anytime fishing at ALL in an area where bass aren't present. If there is a striper within reasonable distance down current from your area, chumming will draw them in. I myself chum quite a bit, and can't argue with my results so far.

I suggest chumming tiny little pieces, about 2 or 3 every 2-4 minutes, and don't alter too much from that rate. The small pieces get the fish excited, but does not fill their hunger. The smaller pieces create competition, and that turns on the natural predatory response of mineminemineminemine. Be sure to chum a bit before throwing a good size piece with a hook on it, or even better, work a lure or an eel back through the slick once fish make there presence obvious. Offshore, the chumming technique accounts for huge numbers of tuna, which have better eyesight, are faster and warier than bass, so I say chum yer ass off!!.

Thanx for the tips guys. I have done the oatmeal/rice thing for macs. But macs are the easiest fish in the ocean to catch with a hook/line. Its the stripers that I seek and I am hoping to chum them in closer.

The herring plant is in Gloucester at the State Fish Pier and the prices are reasonable. $10 for a 5 gallon bucket. They also sell by the tote but I am unsure of the price per.

spinn

I go with artificials early then when June rolls around it's time for chummin' and chunkin'. If you get on them the chum seems to keep them around and fire them up. I do have the advantage of boat fishing but if you can find a good method it must work good from shore too. I use fresh ground herring we usually freeze them in one gallon ziplocks and throw them in a mesh chum bag, I'm really good at forgetting the bag is over and power chumming back to port.
I also think that it will bring fish who are not in the immediate area to the slick, maybe not from as far away as a shark but stripers use smell (and sound) to locate food before they can see it.
Give it a shot, the fish around Gloucester get fed a lot of herring chum by the commercial guys. You know they are catching. Good luck man!

Fishing freaks comment about having bass in the area b4 chumming is really not accurate, cause you shouldn't be wastin anytime fishing at ALL in an area where bass aren't present.

thats what i said :fishslap:

hey spincognito is that the herring plant in gloucester? is that the only one around here? :P and are they processing herring yet? was gonna pick some up for some chum preparation, but its a 40 min drive up to gloucester... so i'd appreciate any info :)

Yeah that is the one. Not sure of others (New Bedord?)
As of last week they were still landing mackerel. Usually the first part of May it becomes easier to obtain.
Hmmm... just looked out the window and both boats are taking out right now. I may hafta take a ride down there.

spinn

There is a herring/mack plant just on the new bedford side of the nb-fairhaven bridge. You can't miss it. It is called "NorPel." I don't know what they are processing, but there was a pretty big gang of seagulls out there at lunch time.

Zac

I was just in Archie B&T in Riverside....he had a little film cannister sized chum vial for Fluking. Said it works great when hunk from a 3-way swivel before the fluke rig. I usually use a Atom bullet there and get hits on that but the vial thing got me wondering-will the additional scent be more of an attractant or would the jigging action of the chrome ball?