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Another method of chumming is with a meat grinder , manual or electric.
This method makes a good chum slick , but brings a different set of
problems. Meat grinders tend to clog up and you have to feed them as long
as you want to keep chumming , taking away time that you could be fishing.
If you have an electric grinder you still have to feed it , and with all
my experience with electric motors and saltwater and salt air , well they
just were not very good experiences.
They are also bulky and it seems like they are always right in the way ,
and not to mention how much one of those units cost.
Another method of chumming is buying frozen pre-ground chum. This is less
mess and good chum , but does not seem very cost effective. One box of
chum will cost about $6.00 or $7.00 and after you put it in a mesh bag and
throw it overboard it thaws out very quickly. Because the chum is ground
so fine it dissipates very rapidly. It would be nothing for a serious
angler to use 5 or 6 boxes of chum in one trip.
The last method of chumming that I have seen is dry chum. But just like
the pre-ground chum ,it does not seem cost effective. Dry chum cartridges
cost around $7.00 each. To me , dried chum particles just do not seem to
do what fresh blood and guts will do.
The advantages of the unit I have designed over the other methods are :
Less mess , less time consuming , non-clogging , no motors to maintain ,
you do not have to constantly feed it , totally out of the way when in use
, provides the best form of chum , all non-rusting materials , highly
affordable , and most of all it will not pollute the environment.
The Chum Churn works like this , when you get to your fishing destination
you hold the unit over the side of the boat. Holding on to the shaft or
the hook , open the filler cap , the blades will be out of the way in the
top part of the body , fill the body about two thirds of the way full with
whole fish up to 12" long. Menhaden make excellent chum , and are
generally very cheap , especially if you own a cast net. If you know
someone that owns a shrimp boat , you can get all the trash fish you want.
Another good thing about the Chum Churn is , if you catch a trash fish and
you need some chum , just drop it in the filler cap and you have got
instant chum. After you are through filling the unit , place the filler
cap back on. Holding on to the hook or the shaft , submerge the body
underwater , work the shaft like a plunger back and forth. At this time
the chum will really start to flow. Because the blades are on a 45 degree
angle , the blades work
like a guillotine , they cut on the push and pull stroke of the shaft.
After the slick is going , simply set the hook in the rod holder or hang
it over the gunwale of the boat. The body of the Chum Churn is left
overboard , out the way , and constantly doing it's job. When the flow of
chum starts to slow down , simply pick up the hook and pump it a couple of
times , you don't even have to set your rod & reel down , all it takes is
one hand. The good thing about this is you just never know when the big
one comes around , and you know as well as I do , as soon as you set your
rod & reel down , it never fails "Murphy's Law" will strike. It always
happens when your not paying attention , or when you set your rod rod &
reel down. The most important advantage the Chum Churn has over all the
other methods is the amount of splashing , thrashing , and turmoil you
create in the water when you start working the shaft like a plunger. The
sound the Chum Churn makes sounds like big fish busting in bait fish on
the surface and if there are any big fish in the area , they will come
right up to the back of the boat to see what's going on. Once the fish has
arrived it does not leave due to the amount of chum in the water. And now
for the best part , "clean up time" , you can totally clean out the Chum
Churn in less than two minutes. Remove the quick release pin at the bottom
of the shaft , and unscrew the bottom cap, Holding on to the hook , hang
the unit overboard and shake it until it is clean. The blades on the shaft
will prevent the body from falling overboard.
After you are through , replace the cap and the quick release pin , and
head back home. Nothing left to pollute the water , everything is totally
biodegradable.
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