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to chum..or not to chum..that is the??

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C

cubanoperdido

New Member
Apr 23, 2008
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hey boys (& girls i suppose),

i been huntin all over....i'm no expert..for sure...but i've never been chummin' and i been thinkin bout it recently. problem is, i had a few encounters with predators (black tips) in asia for one (that was without chum, and i take the kill out the water right away), an i think its a question of risk versus reward.....any chummers out there??

z-ya
 
Good Question cuban..
I am the same as you i have never chummed,
but i will say that i have never caught anything descent yet so thats prolly why.
I have a fear of sharks, and untill i see one and find out how i react i dont think i will start chumming YET..
Sry i couldnt be of any help, but im sure others will be soon enough
 
I chum often when BW, 9 in 10, and often use my own chum which is mostly fish (little if any guts or blood), and I chunk when fish are in(which means idealy you want one person on the boat)...My experience is mostly in Miami with the regular pelagics (mahi, king, 'hoos)...I've also chummed on reef fish (2 in10) with a similiar chum recipe and it works quite well, especially when things are slow...from an ethical standpoint some spearos frown upon this technique while others feel OK with it...I for one find it fair(heck H&L swear by it) I probably don't do it as often cause its messy and its a specific technique one must use for one to reap from it.
 
You go out the first time and chum and see one shark.

You go out the second time and chum and see some more sharks.

You go out the third time to the same place and before you chum they are all ready there

To them Boat = food

Kinda scary thought
 
Hiya

Alot depends on your location. Inshore we have a good population of great whites and therefor almost nobody chums here. Further off-shore, there is virtually no great whites and the water is 100-500m+ deep. With no structure or reefs, finding fish in the blue off-shore water is extremely difficult.

For our yellowfin and albacore tuna, chumming is pretty much THE only way to attract them and hold their attention for a long enough time, so that you can get a decent shot in!! Flashers also work, but simply don't hold their attention like chumming does.

In shallower locations, chumming also attracts plenty of smaller bait fish, which in turn attracts the larger fish.

Unfortunately, in certain sharky area's, chumming is most definitely not advisable. If you have known problematic shark species, like bull's, mako's, Great Whites or Tigers, rather don't chum!!

Regards
miles
 
Reactions: Mr. X

True sharks can be "conditioned" either with chum or even with the "click" of a gun...heck there's a place in the Lower keys that one fish shot equals 3 bully bulls, but aside from that its been my experience that alot of blood&guts draws in sharks more so than say ground glass minnows...As stated by Miles generally chum (at least how we use it) is to draw in the bait balls (in bluewater)...this in turn draws in the pelagics. On the reef we take the bag down and tie it to a rock this usually brings in the usual reef suspects...same chum to different methods.
 
Try "chumballs", chum mixed with sand. Pack into balls and let her rip!!! The sand helps some of the chum sink to the bottom, not creating such a big slick, and brings up bottom fish...
 
FREEK said:
Try "chumballs", chum mixed with sand. Pack into balls and let her rip!!! The sand helps some of the chum sink to the bottom, not creating such a big slick, and brings up bottom fish...
Click to expand...


the chumballs work great on yellowtails
 
I have only done this once in the keys while yellowtailing we noticed some big shadows under the boat that wouldn't hit.. I jumped in to check it out and saw the biggest damn mango Ive ever seen, grabbed my first most incredible gun in the world "Bandito" and chummed some more. The fish gathered round the chum and so did I, nailed the mango only to have the spear not penetrate *sigh* :head

The method seems to work quite well on the reef, thats for sure, I just don't use it because its messy and a bit of a hassle.
 
In Hawaii we chum probably 60 to 70 percent of the time(to some degree).

In fact, I dove an a wreck yesterday and chummed up a couple of opelu (mackrel scad) and was able to nail a 8lb uku(green jobfish) in mid column as I was comming up off the bottom. He was munching on bits of chum and paid no attention to me swimming towards him.

The current is what plays a big factor in chumming. If there is lots of current there really is no point (unless you are doing drift dives).

If you chum on reefs generally you WILL see sharks, and it is true that the sharks will become accustomed to this. Spearfisher=Food. We usually dont hit the same areas more than a couple times a month so I havnt noticed too much of a problem.

We definately dont bother chumming in areas known to be frequented by Tigers, or hammerheads. They can get a little intimidating underwater. Smaller reef sharks are more of a neusance than a threat.
 
Reactions: Mr. X
Try live bait, we use small(4" long) threadfin hering type. Throw handfulls out and they school up beneath and around your boat. It's like ringing the feeding frenzy dinner bell for pelagics Sharks do tend to show up after it really gets going...
 
Reactions: settingsteel
Noah said:
Try live bait, we use small(4" long) threadfin hering type. Throw handfulls out and they school up beneath and around your boat. It's like ringing the feeding frenzy dinner bell for pelagics Sharks do tend to show up after it really gets going...
Click to expand...

Indeed, we've used this method before and it has worked well....good tip!
 
Chumming makes all the sense in the world......Next time i go to the reef, I'm chummin.....I stay out for about 4 hrs anyway, so I will let yall know.
 
A couple of weeks ago when the seas were 4' and 3 seconds down in the keys, I was re-rigging a gun. Thus I was looking down for about 5 minutes. Thus I chummed.

My buddies thought it was funny, so they climbed in to get a drink and joined me after straightening out some of their gear.rofl

But i must say that a few hogfish heard the invite and were waiting for us when we got back in.
 
We chum quite a bit in hawaii and once on a while amberjacks will come in to eat the palu (chum). Amberjacks here have a high rate of ciguatera and worms so we dont shoot them. But Im sure that if your in an area frequented by amberjacks they will come in on chum!
 
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