Chum - Chumbags & Chumballs

CHUM

What to use? Fresh chum is always best for bluefish, kingfish, weakfish, flounders, stripers and sea bass, but damned hard to get without going to extremes.

Frozen chum is good, but should be enhanced with the addition of bunker oil or Shedder Scent or both.

Presentation of the chum can be achieved using several methods, first of all is the old standby – the chum pat. Perfect for kingfish and flounder, both summer and winter, each pot holds a quart of chum. In soft currents, the quart will last about thirty minutes.

Note – just because there maybe quite a lot of meat left in the pot, most of the scent will wash out pretty quickly and there won’t be any scent left. A simple way to check it, when in doubt, pull the pot in, check it, smell it. The odor of which ever chum used should be strong. If it doesn’t small good, that is if it doesn’t smell strong, dump it and insert a new container.

CHUMBAGS

An onion sack, as well as a commercial bag will work. If needed, add a sash weight or two to get it down to the bottom. Anything from a single container to a large block of chum, shake periodically when submerged. Works great, but beware of using this method as some years ago while sitting at Anchorage Point I had a large shark eat the whole bag, sash weight and all.

A helpful addition to the above is to use an absorbent rag such as a towel or heavy sock. Let the rag absorb as much bunker oil by filling it directly from the container, insert it into the bag, wringing out frequently, about ever fifteen minutes, and saturating it again

CHUM BALLS

I learned the Chum Ball system in the Keys one winter from one of the best hand liners down there. I have made some improvements on this system since then.

If you’re fishing for blues, striper bass, weakfish or kingfish, start with four quarts of chum, bunker or mackerel. For flounder, grind up four quarts minnows, add half cup of bunker oil, one ounce shedder scent, two cups oatmeal and two cups of bread crumbs. Go to the beach and get a five gallon bucket of dry beach sand. Damp or wet sand won’t work.

Put all the ingredients except the sand, which needs to be free of shells by shaking them through a window screen. Use a clean, five gallon bucket for the mix. A painter’s mixer attached to a drill makes the job easier. Slowly add the sand until it reaches the consistency of stiff dough. You should be able to make a baseball size lump and be able to throw it like a ball. Too little sand and the ball won’t fly. Too much sand, and the same result.

The oatmeal and breadcrumbs act as stiffeners, absorbing the oil scents and allowing it to float and drift. What you are doing is creating an artificial feeding ground for little shit, who attract the bigger fish, with the intention of creating a feeding frenzy beside your boat.

After the desired consistency is reached, shape the balls to the desired size, slightly smaller than a baseball for throwing, slightly larger than a baseball for dropping from the boat. Freeze the balls in one gallon zip lock plastic bags, about four to eight per bag, and use a small cooler specifically for storage and transportation of the balls. The cooler the balls the better they work.

Anchor your boat where ever – throw a ball to each side of your boat and drop one behind. A large ball dropped directly behind the boat about ever fifteen minutes should be adequate. In addition, a chum bag with a chum ball and a rag soaked in bunker oil tied directly behind the boat in the water will bring in a lot of fish and give you an estimation of the disintegration of the chum balls.

It’s a hell of a lot of work, but the rewards are awesome. This should cut the luck factor in half.