Chumming

I always think about chumming but never get around to it. We tend to cover a lot of ground on the reef so my idea is to go find the fish not wait for them to come. I understand that once you chum you gotta wait 10-15 minutes. I use that time to swim around. Many times coming back to the same spot is too difficult because of current. Also you want to cover different ground on the way back. I also have a hard time making myself kill a fish just to chum. Chumming requires calmness and preparedness. Most of the time people are antsy to just get in the water. Not a problem when you're H&L. It's also not feasible to carry chum with you on a beach dive.

Still when I get in the groove again with the boat diving I'd like to give it a serious try. I believe what mostly stops us from doing it right is laziness and the desire to just get in the water. We do alright as it is too.

I prefer Flashing´ over Chummiin´, any day of the week. But that´s a real productive technique though. Frozen green peas work great on some reef dwellers as well. A ball of frozen squid is a hit too.

Burlying

Killing a fish that normally you wouldn't shoot, like a chub, and cutting it up as chum. Scaling it, gutting, and tearing strips of flesh off then leaving all that on the bottom. I don't like killing fish just for chum.

I never find burling does anything. If the fish aren't there they arent going to come out of nowhere.

I dont think it's worth it for spearos. Just an extra expense for a couple more fish if any. If a shark shows up then you're screwed. For H&L it might be the only way to catch good fish so they have no choice.

Quote from seaweed

I never find burling does anything. If the fish aren't there they arent going to come out of nowhere.

I dont think it's worth it for spearos. Just an extra expense for a couple more fish if any. If a shark shows up then you're screwed. For H&L it might be the only way to catch good fish so they have no choice.

Tell me about it, chumming is suicidal in sharky waters, actually they do appear :shark4:

Quote from seaweed

I never find burling does anything. If the fish aren't there they arent going to come out of nowhere.

I dont think it's worth it for spearos. Just an extra expense for a couple more fish if any. If a shark shows up then you're screwed.

You have to admit though if you're lobstering and a few legs break off fish do show up out of nowhere. Too bad we can't tail the lobsters, lobster distress sounds and parts are a fish magnet. If we could shoot sharks you could say chumming works well too.

Whack and crack a sea urchin and the entire trigger and parrot fish population will check the site up

I think it all depends on what you're after. In fishing, "as previously said" it's necessary to bring the fish to you. When spearing, you go to the fish. I've seen both reef and blue water spearing where some sort of chum was used to keep the fish around. It works.
Dan,
my answer to you would be to grind up all your left overs after filleting etc.(no guts), and mixing it with plain old sand or oats. Cheap, and easy. You can also just freeze the left overs and put it in a PVC tube(previously posted somewhere here) and drop it to the bottom.
Sharks can be an issue though.

Too shallow,
I think most people around here just want to jump in and spear. Making all sorts of chumming concoctions is way down on the list. I don't know of any spearo that's gonna wake up at 3 or 4 am to go cast net bait to go spearing. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are some out there. And for them to buy the chum and bait,,,,,, forget about it. They would rather shoot Barracudas to use as Shark Chum. A good friend of Dan does this frequently.:D He has pictures/film to prove it..

LOL

Ramón Bravo, who was a legendary mexican spearo, used to spear sharks for amusement down in Zihuatanejo:crazy:, as depicted in his book " Buceando entre tiburones" (ed. Diana) he used to nail a jack in the tail and tied it up in the reef, when a lemon or a bull appeared he nailed him with a head shot

http://www.diana.com.mx/asp/DetalleTopTen.asp?ITitulo=CL&Ref=21807

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_Bravo

I chum sometimes, but I do not put a lot of time/effort/money into it.
I take my fish skins and bones and grind them up with an old fashion cast metal hand grinder, the same one I use for venison.[ It is tough and easy to clean.] I mix in oat meal, sea water and just enough menhadin oil for it to stick together, shape up balls of this that will fit into my plastic freezer bags and put them in the freezer till needed. [No wife=no grief about what I put in the freezer:)]
When needed I just empty the frozen ball into a mesh chum bag and tie the chum bag to my yak anchor line. That way the chum is always around the yak.
If I start seeing sharks I just toss the chum bag back into the yak. I don't want a shark taking my yak:D
This method works for me to get rid of my fish parts, makes me feel better not wasting anything and works sometimes to attract shootable fish.

I'll use non-native carp . I freeze them as chunks or pressed into blocks. What doesn't get utilized as dog food or trapline bait, gets used as chum. Good oily fish.

When I used to live down south, I used to chum whenever I could. Most of the time, I would just drop a block of chum in a chum net with a 2LB weight and have enough rope to just have it hover about 5-10 feet off the reef. For spearfishing, I do not receommend to just tie a chum net to the back of the boat and put a chum block out. The current takes most of it away and does not attract much of the bottom fish. Another good chumming method is to thaw out a few blocks of chum, add sand and oats. Mix well and compress into balls and drop off the side of the boat on a given spot. Works very well and my buddy has done it with huge success down in the keys. You can save some lobster heads and fill them up with the chum/oat/sand and drop them down, great for the muttons.

All this being said, I hate chumming on my boat. It makes the rinsing much more cumbersome and some of that crap gets into every crack and crevice in the boat. I also have not chummed up here in PSL, with sub par viz and huge sharks roaming around, it is not a good idea.

One things I still do and always done is to freeze all the fish carcasses after filleting and dump them in the ocean the next time out. I don't really do this for chumming, but to give it back to the ocean and not have the waste management personnel dislike picking up my garbage. This can work well sometimes by bringing in some pelagics or jacks that are attracted to the skin of the fish floating downward.

Quote from Rolo

When I used to live down south, I used to chum whenever I could. Most of the time, I would just drop a block of chum in a chum net with a 2LB weight and have enough rope to just have it hover about 5-10 feet off the reef. For spearfishing, I do not receommend to just tie a chum net to the back of the boat and put a chum block out. The current takes most of it away and does not attract much of the bottom fish. Another good chumming method is to thaw out a few blocks of chum, add sand and oats. Mix well and compress into balls and drop off the side of the boat on a given spot. Works very well and my buddy has done it with huge success down in the keys. You can save some lobster heads and fill them up with the chum/oat/sand and drop them down, great for the muttons.

All this being said, I hate chumming on my boat. It makes the rinsing much more cumbersome and some of that crap gets into every crack and crevice in the boat. I also have not chummed up here in PSL, with sub par viz and huge sharks roaming around, it is not a good idea.

One things I still do and always done is to freeze all the fish carcasses after filleting and dump them in the ocean the next time out. I don't really do this for chumming, but to give it back to the ocean and not have the waste management personnel dislike picking up my garbage. This can work well sometimes by bringing in some pelagics or jacks that are attracted to the skin of the fish floating downward.

Rolo,
I agree whole heartedly. It would be great to clean all of your fish out in the ocean before coming in.
Dan,
my grandfather use to tell me stories about using lobster as bait all the time( Large Cubera and Groupers etc.. ).

Chumming works great especially in Mutton areas.

Here in Puerto Rico you can't eat barracudas and there are plenty. You can imagine the rest of the story...:rolleyes1:

Y also keep the fish carcasses after filleting for my next fishing trip, but nothing beats fresh barracuda chunks sinking slowly to the bottom. But you have to be in the right spot. And yes, fishes come out from nowhere. It is amazing!

Also mackerels, triggers, jacks and of course, sharks come by. We never chum in murky waters.

I was told that cuda is a big shark attractor. Does anyone have an idea why? I figure cuda is a predator so not too often does it get eaten? Then there shouldn't be such a strong association for sharks between cuda smell and a ringing dinner bell. Maybe this is not the case and cuda is hunted by sharks or maybe cuda are cannibalistic and a cuda feeding on other cuda is a common occurrence. I once shot a big cuda that had what looked like a serious semi circular bite mark on it's rear half.