Velvet Swimmers

[Ell]

This bait seemed to turn up in Tackle shops relatively recently ( 6 months or so) and I remeber it being discussed on the board. At that time it was a bit to soon for people to have formed opinions about it. It\'s not cheap and most of us aren\'t loaded (apart from Richie) so buying it is a bit of an issue. Any experiences or thoughts on the matter? Personally I\'m not bothering.

 

[sless]

well my opinion is
they are softies,not peelers
they are for human consumption
but they were getting close to their sell by dates
so they got the tackle shops to sell them as bait
i never bought one i got offered some for nowt but i refused
you cut them in half and the contents spills out so i saw when others used them
just my opinion though

 

[Rab]

A while back one of the guys I go fishing with was at a Chinese supermarket and he bought all the stock of crabs as they were mis-priced at £1.60 a pack. Needless to say the next time he went in they were up to £6!

He said they were ok for cod but nothing spectacular.

 

[Patrick_Pending]

For the price of them the fish should be jumping out of the water and dragging themselves up the beaches for them, but they don\'t

I usually hedge my bets by fishing two rods with different bait on each. I have never caught anything on the crab bait; all fish have gone for the lug, rag or mussel bait.

One thing I have noticed is that they are very watery and need loads of bait elastic to hold them on the hook. Also because they are so soft the bait elastic squeezes all the liquid (water?) out of them and you end up with a considerably smaller bait than when you started.

The October edition of Sea Angler proclaimed, \" Super Crab could trigger shore fishing revolution\" - if there was one I missed it :exclam: I think I will just wait for some proper peelers
I am sure others will have had more success but I don\'t think they are worth the money compared to other baits.

 

[mark]

Also because they are so soft the bait elastic squeezes all the liquid (water?) out of them and you end up with a considerably smaller bait than when you started.

try wrapping em in little bits of old tights, plennty lots on little holes, let the scent out but keep it in one piece, or buy some tube gauze finger bandage from the chemists, and stuff it into little sausage shapes.

I\'ve seen it done with a cocktail of allsorts of sloppy stuff and it works!

 

[Patrick_Pending]

Cheers Mark,

I will try that technique, but I\'m not sure it will be with velvets.
Until someone can convince me otherwise, they just don\'t seem to be worth the extra expense.

 

[jeff]

Hi All,

Can\'t comment from the shore but the majority of Cod I\'ve caught from the boat during the winter has been on this crab, (see my catch reports in the boat section).

Jeff.



[Edited on 16/1/2004 by jeff]

 

[LING_BASHER]

Anyone know what the sea state is like today?

 

[Stores]

Somehow I can\'t see myself standing in Cullercoats harbour and having rummaged around in the basket shouting to Rod the Cod \"have you seen my tights anywhere?\" They are seemingly big business though. Hopefully they will satisfy those who can\'t collect and allow those who can to continue. With regard to Patricks comment I never use peeler during the winter as it does not fish as well as worm or mussel

 

[TIM]

If the fish are taking the bait then you can,t grumble. There have been plenty fish landed on this bait!, Many of which made the local and national press.
As to the price £3.25 for 8 bait ups is not that bad when you are catching fish.
In an ideal world we would all love to fish \"normal crab \" but if we did I am sure stocks would soon run low.
Not everyone has time to dump tyress in the tyne, or nip out at low tide when they could be fishing.

 

[willywetegg]

I have caught fish using velvets but the jury is still out. I will have to try them a few more times yet. Different baits can do better at different times as we all know.

 

[Norman]

Tried them from the boat last year, they look good (having legs and all that) but it takes a full one on the hook when you elestic it down. Got to be honest, I`m yet to catch ANY fish on a one ..... nothing like real peeler.......... , still, I`ve got some left in freezer to try again soon

 

[Ell]

Hey thanks lads for the replies, the jury still seems to be out on this one I think. I said before if we all had unlimited wedge then bait choice wouldn\'t matter that much. You could have a load of everything, regardless of season and a well formed small naked lass carrying it for you. I do think these velvets are not a patch on salt water peeler shore crabs though, and the price of them is not far off normal peeler. Got to type, computer good

 

[alan]

I\'ve tried them twice and have blanked on both occasions whilst using these,it may have been bad luck (again) or i was expecting too much of them,i think i\'ll give them a miss until they are a proven bait.

 

[Tat]

Tried a full pack once,codling being caught on everything but.Put a worm and mackey on got whitey but still no cod.Moral of post ,swimmers no work(for me anyway).

 

[peter.m]

I\'ve seen posts on this before. In my opinion they aren\'t as good as proper shore crabs but they do work at times. I\'ve had codling, dabs and whiting on them. The dabs loved the legs and nippers tipping off rag at south shields. Whiting were taking them meant as codling baits in a match at Roker in December.

The best weigh-in of this winter in our club was helped by a few fish to these and one of our lads finished about 4th in the CIU using them.

They are not the done deal but if you tip off or use in conjunction with other baits throughout a session I think they\'re better than no crab at all when it might give you the edge. Keep them in a flask and only use them a couple at a time and they can go back in the freezer without getting wasted.

 

[Brashy]

I dont use them, me mate had a few flatties on them off the groyne and thats all iv see, thats taken them.

 

[Ant]

I\'ve caught fish on them which I didn\'t think I would do because they don\'t look as though they going to be that effective. I agree with what Peter said as I always use cocktails of baits rather than just a single bait. I don\'t think there are that expensive either considering the size of them.

 

[crack-off!]

Tried them twice,the first time by themselves in a perfect sea on cresswell carrs and they were crap!(did get 2 fish on plain worm) the second time i used them to bulk up \"proper\" crab baits at craster and managed a couple of fish.I would never use them again by themselves,but would mix with the normal crab to bulk up baits. . but then again mussell will do that for a fraction of the cost and probably fish better too!
VERDICT? =SH**E!!

 

[Ell]

Anyone tried eating them