Crap Pillies Bait

Annual Straddie fishing trip and we purchased our pillies at a tackle shop in Brisbane Road, Gold Coast. A cursory look into each box revealed average sized and whole baits. When we got to the island we discovered that the 2 x 4 kg boxes of "Tweed Bait" pillies were a variety of very small, medium, and the odd good ones. They ranged in size from about 6cms to about 13 cms. If this wasn't bad enough, in the bottom of each of the 4kg boxes we found many broken and headless pillies.
When we rang the tackle shop about the crap bait, basically we were told that, 'shit happens'. When pressed to do something, the tackle shop said if returned the boxes we could sort them and replace the undersized and broken ones. Yeah right! .
A member of our crew coming down from Sunny Coast bought 2 x 4 kg boxes of pillies from a Tackle World shop there and these baits were absolutely first class. Every one of the baits was 13 - 14 cms and no broken ones amongst them. So, be warned . Thoroughly check your bait at the tackle shop or be selective about which brand you buy and where you buy it.

I've noticed a similar trend in the Tweed Bait pillies. What brand were the Tackle World ones?? You can't really check in the shop as the 4kg boxes are sealed with tape.

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Originally Posted by joffo81

I've noticed a similar trend in the Tweed Bait pillies. What brand were the Tackle World ones?? You can't really check in the shop as the 4kg boxes are sealed with tape.

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Some shops will open them up if you ask them too....Tackle Land Castledine is my go to place for good bait (No affiliation)

I called Tackle World Kawana and they advised me that the pillies were supplied to them by a local...I can't recall brand name but as I said earlier the ones they supplied were crackers.
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G'day
Here in Adelaide I get my wife to buy bait at the fish mongers in our central market, much better quality and cheaper
Cheers
Rod

Hi Guys
Totally agree about bad pillies.
I have found Spinnaker Bait and tackle, opens the box and wont sell to you if he or you think they are crap.
I have always ended up with good 13cm+ pillies.
Price is good also.
Cheers
Kelvin

It's hard with pillies - as a wholesaler you get what you get from the fishing companies and bait is, believe it or not, a sideline fishery for at least some if not all as due to the processing times they can only process part of a catch as bait - at least this is what I have been told. If Tweed actually have their boxes done at sea - they won't know what is in them themselves short of opening them all. The company I have done a bit of work for get pillies from a couple of suppliers - from S. Aus and W. Aus. It's certainly not uncommon to have variation in size within a 15kg box and even between boxes as an average size from within the same shipment. We manually break down a 15kg box and repackage into smaller sizes and thus have some degree of quality control but sizes can vary from about 12cm through to 20+cm - all in the same box. Some guys want small pillies for flathead, some want mediums for tailor and some like big pillies for offshore. We do make a point of not putting in any broken fish that we see but some will get through - nature of the game. I would imagine that with a company the size of Tweed though that they would machine pack or have them packed at sea by the fisherman - hand packing would be impossible simply due to turnover. Morale to the story - check yourself I guess prior to heading off.

Tackle Land Sandgate always have fresh and in tact pillies. Got some good tailor on them the other night.

Cuzza

Howdy all.

Haven`t posted for awhile but thought this needed addressing. To start with I deliver for Tweed Bait between Nambour and 1770 each week and over the last 6 months have built up some great relationships with many great tackle shops and servo staff.

When I started, management changed and they have tried to deliver the best service and quality bait to each customer. This has proven to be a very hard task as some shops want small pillies (land) and some want large (offshore). The supplier (to us) has the control over quality and size and we have to machine pack them as we get them. Throw in the White Spot debacle and I was happy to be away for 4 days each week :o

Tweed Bait have now put in place measures to control supply and quality which will ensure it wont be hit and miss anymore. I can`t say too much more yet but ....... yeah no I cant say anything else ;)

Scottar is dead right in everything he said. Smaller companies can hand-sort when you are not selling much but when you sell sooo many pallets per week, automation is fantastic.

They got a bit of work ahead of them to rebuild faith in their brand....

As I said Crunchy, they have a lot of things planned :)

It`s a bit like major car brands. Most people swear by them but when a small quality issue pops up, they are the worst brand in the world.

As they get shops back then the customers will follow.

Edit: DELETED

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Originally Posted by Crunchy

Some shops will open them up if you ask them too....Tackle Land Castledine is my go to place for good bait (No affiliation)

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+1 for Tackle LAND (not world) - they have two shops, one above and one in Rainbow Street at Sandgate. Lovely people, family owned and first class baits... Never had bad bait.. and last time I was there - they were out of crushed ice... I could have easily walked to servo over the road - but they insisted I take some block ice for free and were incredibly apologetic for not having crushed in stock. I travel the extra distance now for good old fashioned service when I am launching from that side of town.

i buy food quality pilchards from a wholesaler, they are always awesome, big and have been very well looked after so you know they are quality,
Always open the box and have a look,