Chumming Question from a non spear fisherman

I always wanted to find out if chumming works for local spearfishing. I've seen an episode of Speargun Hunter where a mixture of sand, oatmeal, fish oil and ground up oily fish is dropped in balls to get their prey excited and easier to shoot.

Do have any special chum you use?  Does it make a difference for RF and Lings?

I've fishing the salt for over 20 years and just snorkel during vacations.

Your opinion and experiences would be appreciated.

Some of the guys use abalone gut. Bloodbath said cabs love them. I've also seen guys just break open an urchin underwater and disperse the content. What? You wanna start diving?

Some of the guys use abalone gut. Bloodbath said cabs love them. I've also seen guys just break open an urchin underwater and disperse the content. What? You wanna start diving?

Not taking diving anytime soon    I been wondering if it makes a makes a difference cause I can't see what's underneath my yak.  Just what the fishfinder shows, my unit is not too accurate.

I dropped a bunch of bait in a bag once while diving and did not really notice much attracted to it.  I also have gutted my fish while on the yak and then dove in to take a look, not much attracted other than senoritas.

Bloodbath uses a baitbag with ab guts and seems to always draw in a cabbie or two....

Sincerely,

Jim

Mesh bags full of ab guts and trimmings work well, especially for cabs and greenlings. Put a few rocks in to weigh it down.

The key is to get about 10 ft from the bag, and approach from the side. If you dive down directly on the bag, you'll spook anything away. Just approach slowly and carefully examine the rocks around the bag for any camouflaged cabs.

I've heard stringing blues/blacks up and keeping the stringer on a rope on the bottom is effective for lings.

I recently saw a video of a diver in the Pacific NW who used a dead squid to entice a wolf eel to come out of its cave/crevice. Pretty cool watching that wolf eel swim around the diver chasing the squid in his hand. Right when I saw that footage I thought of you Jim! I think ya should give that a try and see if that works well 

I do what Rick says.  I hang a really long stringer from my float with blacks and blues that I've shot.   Works good not only for lings, but for more blacks and blues.

Thanks everybody for your feedback.  I went out for RF this weekend and experimented with dried cat food and poured some Pro Cure Shrimp and Crab attractant oil. 

Big mistake on the dried cat food it floats and doesn't sink.  Oh well, cheap ingredients anyway.

I recently saw a video of a diver in the Pacific NW who used a dead squid to entice a wolf eel to come out of its cave/crevice. Pretty cool watching that wolf eel swim around the diver chasing the squid in his hand. Right when I saw that footage I thought of you Jim! I think ya should give that a try and see if that works well 

There's another video of a diver using some kind of bait to lure a morey eel out of its cave......the eel attacked his hand and death rolled the guys thumb right off, they grafted a big toe in place of the thumb and the last shots were of the guy playing xbox with a toe thumb.....have at it jim 

My friend will use his ab iron to poke a hole on his uni and mix the contents inside by scraping his iron inside the uni.  He then leaves it at the bottom and waits for the fish to feast on the uni.

Jonathan

I've only given it a half hearted try breaking urchin up underwater. I lost interest when the only fish that came in were perch.

Here's the eel/toe/thumb vid.

My connection is too slow, so I'm not watching it.  Is this the one where the guy was feeding that big moray hot dogs?  If it's the same one, you can hear the "pop" of the thumb getting ripped...then a lot of "AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH" 

I thought they grafted his middle toe or something. 

I tried chumming on Sunday, but chumming for uni wasn't that effective.   

Nate

Yep! Thats the one! I was surprised to see the guys coordination with it was so good afterward.

Chumming for uni works....Only when you've eaten a nice kelp salad beforehand. 

Big toe.....little toe.....its still a toe thumb