Stop losing your bait! Fresh bait vs Salted Bait: Which bait works best?

Sick of losing your fishing baits to crabs and small pecking fish? Fresh bait is always a great choice because it catches fish, BUT it has its downsides! Fresh bait is usually very soft and comes off the hook quickly. Salted baits are typically tougher and last much longer on the hook.

Fishing with bait is a sure-fire way to catch fish, but which baits work best? Does one bait catch more fish than another? Does fresh bait work any better than dead bait or salted bait? Today we are testing three popular fishing baits in order to find out just that. Fishing with shrimp bait and fishing with squid bait are popular for many anglers who bait fish, so we got as much fishing bait as we could find and headed out to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to put each fishing bait to the test. Which bait will reign supreme? Watch now to find out!

0:00 - Intro
1:04 - TEST 1: Fresh Shrimp
9:30 - TEST 2: Salted Shrimp (Shrimpy Bits)
12:52 - TEST 3: Salted Squid (Squidy Bits)
18:11 - Conclusion

If you’re looking for more fishing help, check out our website! We have created fishing videos, fishing tutorials, fishing bait, and other fishing related products to help you get on fish as quickly and easily as possible. As always, thank you so much for watching. We appreciate your support. Let us know what you catch and remember to pick up any trash when you see it at your fishing spot!

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[jokemeyers]

Hi Brandon and Erin, I follow your YouTube for weeks now. And love the both of you. I am Annette and 62 years old, and that's why it's hard to learn fishing.
The way you two show about fishing gives me the confidence to start fishing alone. You show to just try things out. Most people I fished with they do everything for me because they know it all so well and think they help me, but I don't learn.
I ordered my own fishing rod 40% and reel 60% for not to much and can't wait to try it all out.
I can't order your things you offer because I (I am Dutch) life in Malaysia. But beside that I learn and enjoy your YouTube.
Wish you well ❤️

[rhiverlandsong]

Salted shrimp has been a game changer for me. It took me several times to watch you use this technique before I was convinced to try it myself. I’m glad I did! Thanks for these great videos!

[MrTalkingzero]

I work all the time and finally I had two days in a row. I went to the outer banks and the wind is blowing 55 mph, no bites. So, did I despair? No! I am binge watching your videos and loving every minute of it.

[indzonewilly]

Brandon, try peeling the shrimps, then
marinate them in sugar, leave in cooler for 30 mins, drained all excess liquid, add little more sugar and can store in freezer, the shrimp is firm and can stay on hook much longer. Works very well

[williammcmillan]

Yeah im from Wilmington NC., and we typically leave the shell on the shrimp, for added protection you still get robbed but it takes longer..Keep fish i enjoy watching you andyour lady👍🏾

[The_Judge]

Great video!
It confirms what I have used and told other people to use for 35+ years.
If you are not able to use live bait or totally fresh whole/bits/parts, caught in the last hours bait., you should use salted bait.
Sometimes the salted bait, even works better than live bait and/or totally fresh whole/bits/parts.
I highly recommend well salted oily/fatty fish, like sardines, herring, mackerel, tuna and similar.
You should really try that as bait.

In 1998 I went to Chesapeake Bay to do similar fishing to what you did in this video, but without a boat.
When I went into a tackle shop to buy some bait, I were lucky enough to be invited by a very nice gentleman and his friend to join them fishing from their boat.
We went fishing for Striped Bass and the fishing was fantastic.
I ended up catching and releasing 30+ good sized Bass in about 3 hours of fishing.
I took home my 2 fish bag limit and grilled them for my girlfriend at that time and some friends the same evening. Good eating.
My girlfriend didn't believe me when I told her about the fishing, but she finally did when I got the photos back to me developed and showed her.

[DanielLopez-hgnp]

I love this weekly vicarious immersion into FUN with 2 people, while learning fishing techniques. Both are teachers: Brandon, with his humble expertise; Erin, with her ability to step in and "DO IT" with an "Oh, my God" moment that gets the adrenaline flowing. I'm talking about MY ADRENALINE!!!

[georgewinkleman]

Iv'e found that salted squid works great even on the FL east coast marina's and surf.I also cut my strip size according to the hook and target fish size(which I learned from you!) Keep up the great videos.

[matejudaric]

Hey there, I usually prefer lures over bait but I'd like to share 2 stories I have about my experiences with different baits. First is about the right way to use fresh squid which I learned from a local on an island here in Croatia where I usually spend my summer. I was actually on a team with him and we were taking part in a red sea bream fishing contest but before that we went to check a few of his traps and after that caught some squid which we used as bait as it is the most popular bait for sea breams there. So what he did with the squid is basically he cut the head and tentacles off and just threw it away, same with intestines. Then he cut the body in a way that he can lay it flat on a board, peeled the skin off and then hammered it a bit and cut it in about 0.5cm wide strips and he put the strips on the hook so that squid covers as much of the hook's body as possible and left about 2-3cm of squid to just hang off the hook. Before that I didn't really care about preparation of the squid and I just cut it and put it on the hook but after he showed me that I did some testing and can actually confirm that fish do like strips from the body more than tentacles and they also prefer skin to be peeled off rather than left on the body. Hammering part is to release more juices or something, although it doesn't seem to make much difference, at least not as much as peeling the skin. The second story is about a bit less conventional bait and that is chicken breasts which I also learned from locals. Chicken doesn't take much preparation, just cut it into 1x1x1cm cubes and put it on the hook. Similar to the fresh shrimp in this video chicken does fall apart and is easily destroyed by fish but does so a bit slower so you don't really have to check the bait every few seconds. My grandpa usually checks the bait after 2 or 3 strikes if he doesn't catch the fish or when he does catch he throws away what's left on hook and changes the bait. I'd say chicken is the absolute best bait I ever tried for sea bream and mackerel also seem to like it but I still use squid a lot because you just don't have to change it as often and usually same amount of squid is going to get you much more fish that chicken. One more tip about squid, avoid using frozen squid if possible. If you can catch your own squid or buy fresh squid at a fish market, leave it in fridge and use within next few days, if not treat the squid in some way, either salt it or wash it with salt water and leave it clean salt water over night.

[jeanpierrelouw]

Always great fishing tips from you thanks

[decwow]

Yeah I tend to hook through both sides of the shell on shrimp. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not... I've noticed that they have to commit to the bite more often with the shell on, but on the other hand if the shrimp is already warm when you try to hook through the shell it will frequently turn the meat into pudding before the hook goes through. I keep it on a little ice.

[gjoelzul]

Hai....skipper. Im from Malaysia... Im also fishing... The bait that i usually used is sea worm...here we called it ruat bakau.. Fresh shrimp....live shrimp, squid and mullet also... Its depend on what the fish most like... We must keep change bait... I will try after that your tip the salted shrim n squid...tq for sharing....skipper. 😅

[Jo_and_HisJK]

I usually leave the shrimp peel on and gives it that extra holding strength when fishing.

[BasicFishingNZ]

hmmm interesting. i usually found salted prawn to b least successful and always found the fresh one to be much better. it is soft as but i usually tie it with bait elastic onto the hook but doesn't stop the pickers!

[dougstayton]

I catch a lot of perch on razor clams... clam snouts work great as well and require very little re-baiting.

[philjohnson]

Sea salt or iodized or does it matter, loves y’all’s videos

[brockmabin]

I dont think something like this determines the best bait. With fishing it's about finding the right place, the right time, right tide, and what the fish are feeding on

[bryanjackson]

best way to catch white perch at the Bay Bridge is to anchor right to the side of the pyling with about 4-5ft between the boat and the pyling fishing straight down using live grass shrimp. Fishing straight down instead of casting out will give you less missed bites.

[marijusvaskelis]

Dude, there's stuff called "bait elastic". 10-12 times around ur shrimp and u don't need to change ur bait too often. Would be perfect for fresh shrimp. I use it when fishing from the bottom, that elastic stuff saves ur bait from crabs and lobsters

[chrisstephens]

We use bloodworms to good effect around Chesapeake Bay. Catch perch, rockfish, trout. Also use peeler crabs and they work just as well. Imma get a salt bait box to preserve shrimp/squid for surf fishing.