W.A.PILCHADS

[gelgep]

HELLO ALL. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHEREABOUTS I CAN PURCHASE GOOD QUALITY WA PILCHADS FOR BAIT ON THE NORTH SIDE OF BRISBANE AS I HAVE HAD SOME REAL SHOCKERS LATELY.

[raefpud]

Pilchards can be very inconsistent at the best of times, sometimes theryre big, sometimes theyre small. The best way to buy pilchard is in the boxes (or 1kg bag) of IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) Not Blocks, as you probably already know. IQF pilchard show there quality very cleary, size is however another matter. First of all, they shouldnt be stuck together, as this is an indication that they have thawed in transit to your tackle shop and then refrozen - NOT GOOD. Secondly, look at there skin. If it is patchy with bits of skin missing from the individual fishthis is another indication of being thawed and refrozen, and of poor handling practises. Smell is usually a good indication of this. You also want your fish to be straight and not bent.

Blocks of pillies just dont cut it if you are after quality and finnicky fish.

Now to your Question, where to buy good quality pillies on the northside of Brisbane???? DEFINATELY NOT AMART #########. Amart have a rather lucrative deal with an international importer/exporter, and all their pilchards are not in fact Australian products. They are bad for economy, bad for our fish and generally bad quality anyway. They have the potential to introduce disease to our pillies and are probably the reason for the major WA pilchard epedemic a couple of years back when all our wa pillies died of a mystery disease.

Try Jones's Tackle on Lutwyche Road Lutwyche, I am sure they would stock a quality product and i am sure they would be happy to open a box of IQF for you to inspect the quality.

Raef

[sominc]

On the jones tackle topic, i am a big supporter of them.

All of my fishing tackle baits etc... are purchased from there because of the top quality service they provide.

Im quite sure Neil or Will would be more than happy for u to go in and inspect/or pick out a certain bag of pillies.

Cheers
Tom

[agnes_jack]

Just one point on the IQF pillies
The IQF's come mainly in 15kg boxes, and are usually packed into 1kg or smaller bags by either the wholesaler or by the individual stores. Although frozen individually, they usually stick together somewhat in the 15kg boxes. There are 2 choices in seperating these pillies before packing them into smaller bags. One is to thaw them slightly so that they seperate easily, the other is to drop the carton onto the concrete which seperates them without defrosting. A lot of the pillies you see with little pieces of skin missing are those seperated by the second method. The ones that have all their skin intact have often been defrosted somewhat for the seperation. Myself, I would prefer to have pillies that have remained frozen, and not been defrosted and re-frozen, even if there are a few small patches of missing skin.

Regards, Tony ;)

[jaybee]

well if u r prepared to travel to the southside, there is restaurant qulity pillies for i beleive 15kg for around $48, pm me if you would like a contact. btw if too many ppl go chasing this place prices will go up if they know u r chasing bait
cheers
Joe

[kingmad]

Jaybee,
Do you know of anything similar in Sydney?
Sorry to hijack youre post galgep.

[jaybee]

pm the ppl that pm me. hope it helps
cheers
joe

[Lucky_Phill]

Another way to help with the quality of your pillies, is once they are on your boat and ready for use. place the frozen IQF pillies in a saltwater brine. This usually tuffins them up a tad.

Yes 15kg IQF is the go.

I even go to the step of seperating them into bags of 12 - 20 and throwing a mitt full of Course salt in the pack.

Cheers Phill

[Zeeke]

baaaaaaaack a few years ago ;) when i was a smelly smelly baito hehehe.. i used to buy Pillies in 15kg boxes usually 2 or 3 boxes at a time and do them up in 1 kg bags.. i used a Danoz Direct Foodsaver vaccuum bag system, id fill the bag with my 1kg of pillies, a couple of lidfulls of tuna oil and a bit of salt and shake it about so they mix up then id vaccuum seal the bag.. the pillies would absorb the tuna oil making them tons more potent and the salt would make there skin alot tougher.. and being vaccuum packed.. they wouldnt get destroyed by freezer burn and go all mushy at the first sign of defrosting.. then once out on the water id just open a bag and sit them in a small esky of saltwater and crushed ice and they'd be absolutely perfect


Tim

[Reefmaster]

We use IQF 15kg pillies as well but you can get a your good boxes and your bad. Some boxes have small pillies with no colour while others have great colour and good size. Its best to open the ctn and inspect yourself. The price ranges from around 55-70 bucks #but they are well worth it. As tony says best way to seperate is just dropping them on the cement but we usaully use 15kg in one fishing trip and seperating is not needed and they are in good shape by the time we use them.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Cheers Greg

[gelgep]

THANKS A LOT LADS. ONCE AGAIN A FUND OF INFO HAS COME FORWARD
REGARDS GELGEP