Bait Brining Guide | Tougher, Better Bait

Full guide on how to brine bait to toughen it up and make it more reusable.
Our method for filleting flathead and preparing fillets to store and cook. Get completely boneless, skinless fillets without wasting meat.
Angling Untangled is a fishing adventure and tutorial channel showing off some of the beautiful fishing locations and fish species found in the saltwater and freshwater environments of New South Wales, Australia.
Expect in-depth guides into gear selection, rigs & lures, tactics, locations, filleting, gear maintenance, and more, covering both bait and lure fishing as well as land based and kayak/boating adventures.
With a whole host of inshore and estuarine species available, targets will include dusky flathead, yellowfin bream, Australian bass, trout, yellowfin whiting, tailor, Australian salmon, mulloway/jewfish, luderick, drummer, squid, kingfish, sharks and more.
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Tight lines!
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[@casterakabadman805]

🔥🔥🔥

[@Stevos_HookedonRods4844]

That process produces a better quality product Louis, far better than straight salting. Will certainly be doing that next time. Appreciate the tips. Cheers Stevo

[@anglinguntangled]

Yeah hands down the best way to treat pillies and makes fillets actually usable from the freezer. Cheers Steve!

[@PaulSmith-b4t]

Hi mate this is really great so thanks. What type of salt is required and where do you get it? Is pool salt in 20kg bags an option or must it be fine salt?

[@michaelosullivan1248]

Great video thanks will certainly be giving it a try

[@lavell696ify]

Nice!! Thanks..was looking for a solution for using Shad in the surf for bluefish...lost a lot of bait.

[@PaulSmith-b4t]

Hi mate this is great. Can you use pool salt in 20kg bags or other salt and if so where do you get it?

[@anglinguntangled]

Cheers Paul, I’ve used pool salt in salting baits before and it goes good, no different chemicals or what not to cooking salt that the fish pick up on. But most pool salt comes in coarse grain which might be a bit harder to dissolve. But it could work just as well, and I think some places have fine grained pool salt too. I got my salt from a whole foods place

[@franksaunders6534]

Good video - most useful like your other videos. Good luck with the guiding business too.

[@anglinguntangled]

Cheers mate! Guiding should be kicking off soon, will share some details in future videos

[@mub3ady]

Hi, nice video, thanks for sharing. Can you use fresh pillies instead of ready frozen ones? I want to give your method a try it seems better than normal salting but the problem is I can't get ready frozen pillies where I live, so I hope that it is ok to start with fresh ones.

[@anglinguntangled]

Fresh would be even better! I’d use fresh if they were available where I am but unfortunately not.

[@mub3ady]

@@anglinguntangled thank you so much, appreciate your kind reply.

[@brpitt7796]

Brilliant vid, cheers mate. I've always just chucked salt in the bag night before - I'll definitely give this a crack

[@anglinguntangled]

Cheers mate, comes out looking the goods 👍🏼

[@leewood509]

Hi Mate How do brine pillies compare to pillies that are salted (I put a layer of pool salt, layer of pillies then another layer of salt and so on leave for a max 36hrs) Is there a difference in appearance, flexibility, toughness?

[@anglinguntangled]

Similar results but I feel brining results in a much better looking bait (whether the fish care or not is another thing) and just better in general. After three days of brining they look as good as just thawed pilchards but twice as tough. I’ve noticed also that salting doesn’t really stop the guts on pillies going bad and they blow out pretty quickly when you go to use them which is understandable as the gut cavities are left unrefrigerated and in effect unsalted for atleast a day until the salt seeps in and/or they’re frozen again. The flesh on the brined pillies still looks amazing too when you cube them up

[@jb-es5zj]

salted pillys look alot like leather compared to brinned ones

[@comfortably_numbat]

Does using tap water rather than rain/distilled affect the quality of the finished product to the extent that its definitely not recommended ? Or is it only advisable not to use it ? Also , .book me in for a Jewie trip on Tathra Beach on the 18/9 and I would like to catch 2 of them with one over 90cm please.

[@anglinguntangled]

😂 I’d like to get one over 90 down here as well. Mate and I got one each off the beach around the 70 mark which is encouraging but seems the fishing for them is a bit more challenging down here - half the battle is having your baits constantly getting smashed by salmon! I’m sure some bigger ones will come as I figure out their haunts and habits down here. With that being said I’d love to book you in! The gear is ready to go and I’m working on the online aspects as I go. As for the water choice, I think that it really shouldn’t matter too much. Our drinking water isn’t that chlorinated that I think any fish would turn its nose up at it. I might just have to do a little experiment with it and fish rain vs town water baits side by side to settle it

[@danoutdooroz6580]

Wait.. there's jewies off tathra beach!? Tell me more

[@anglinguntangled]

It is true. Have one legal one under the belt and hoping a few more come pretty soon. Have been able to start throwing live baits for them again now with the beach cart I’ve built. Have heard a few times now of metre+ fish being caught as well

[@scottnothintodowithya979]

Cheers mate

[@channa7507]

Hey mate , great video! Can I ask where you get your bulk pillies? Cheers 👍

[@anglinguntangled]

Boss outdoor Merimbula mate. Should have 4kg boxes in but safest to call 👍🏼

[@channa7507]

@@anglinguntangled thank you 🙂

[@cakedecoratingsuppliesaust8805]

Nice1 mate. I salted mine and work fine. Pillies sitting in a bag after salting for about 2 months now and still doing g fine. Tailor seem to like them. But this is interesting will give it a go very soon. Thumbs up. Where abouts in AUS are you?

[@anglinguntangled]

Yeah salted is good brining gives just a slightly better product in my eyes. But depends how many pilchards you can store or go through to make it with it. I’m on the far south coast NSW 👍🏼

[@joeahyek47]

Can you use salt ice instead of normal ice bro?

[@anglinguntangled]

As in make your own? Yeah I’d reckon it would work sweet. One thing I’ve been meaning to try is make a super salty water by boiling it and adding salt until it stops dissolving, put it in the freezer (in theory shouldn’t freeze) and then soaking the bait in it. Save having to keep adding ice and salt to the Eski

[@terrytailor]

Ahhh, your on to it! I reasoned that some time ago. Works fine, and an upgrade on just throwing salt on them, although I haven't compared your method. A square bucket of brine in the freezer. Frozen pillies in for 24 hrs and then transfer to the fridge for as long as they aren't in the way. Pack em up and into the freezer. I have a question, though, and opinions I have sought are divided. I'm not sure if the brine penetrates a frozen cell and crosses the cell membrane to suck the fluid out under osmosis, or it has to slowly thaw a bit? Do you know.? Thanks for the video. Love your style.

[@anglinguntangled]

@terrytailor Yeah good to know it works a treat Terry. Now just need to bite the bullet and throw out all the old bait I’ve been hanging onto to free up some freezer space 😂. Yeah I think that the salt slowly draws the moisture out even if the pillies are frozen solid. I’ve found that even if they’re a bit thawed, they freeze solid again in the brine mix because it’s so cold, but they start to become bendable on day two even though they remain below 0C.

[@channa7507]

Hey mate, excellent video. Have you tried reusing the salt leftover to do another brine or should you always start fresh?

[@anglinguntangled]

Cheers mate, nah I’ve always just used clean brine each time but I don’t think it would be all too bad to keep reusing it. If it’s salty enough there won’t be any bacteria or anything

[@mrgreenswelding2853]

Awesome info.

[@jaredparkes8556]

Awesome video thanks for the tips. I would love to see a follow up video surf fishing with brined baits vs fresh baits.

[@anglinguntangled]

Thank you very much make and I like the idea. My prediction is that they will get just as many bites as frozen but will just be that bit tougher, but will be one way to find out!

[@jaredparkes8556]

Thanks for the reply!

[@the_fish_whistler]

Awesome video we’re there any problems with smell looking to do indoor

[@anglinguntangled]

Cheers mate. No not that I noticed, might get a bit when opening Eski to stir and add ice but would be able to take it outside to do so

[@the_fish_whistler]

@@anglinguntangled appreciate it good bait is very seasonal where I fish so being able to have something like this would be very interesting during the off season

[@johnmichael1220]

Brilliant video mate, question please. What is the difference from between the way you do things in that esmo. And getting a freezer bag with salt and water and throw in the freezer. Apologies never done before but exstreamly interested Cheers

[@anglinguntangled]

Thanks mate. The method of putting the brine mix into the freezer is something I’ve thought about for a while but haven’t tried yet. I think for small batches it would work great and wouldn’t need so much attention as keeping the esky icy. Would be interested in hearing the results if you give it a go

[@johnmichael1220]

@@anglinguntangled Yes mate I will be giving it a go within week sometime mate, I believe it may have some interesting result tbh. Plenty of salt in a freezer bag/zip lock bag and fish and add water, I deal with all my fish outside mate, so waiting for this storm highwinds 50+/raining week before I do anything. Give me a couple of days I'll come back to you. Cheers John

[@anglinguntangled]

Yeah will definitely want to be as salty as you can make it or you might find it will freeze solid on you (depending on what your freezer is set at). I was considering even boiling the water and adding salt until it stopped dissolving and then using that in tubs in the freezer for putting baits in but that may not be needed

[@johnmichael1220]

@@anglinguntangled there's plenty of options lad just have to see how this pans out. It may also be worth using Himalayan instead of table salt. I'll do a test on both this week probably at the weekend so my boys can also learn also

[@antebilic9259]

Salt solubility in water is around 350g per 1L (from my memory) at the room temperature. For the ice slurry it would be even lower. So, it seems you're unnecessarily throwing away a fair bit of salt.

[@anglinguntangled]

It seems you’re about right which is good to know! Although with the water added from the ice, which I sometimes have to use 2 times as much as the bait, there’s usually not too much left after. I’d say I’d usually end up with only 1kg of salt left when doing 8kg of bait which is fine and only costs me an extra $1

[@humesy69]

Cheers for that. I am having trouble dissolving 1kg of salt in 1 litre of water. I tried last night and the slurry isn't cold enough to freeze a bottle of water. Trying again today with a more carefully measured mixture.