How often do I change my fishing bait

I have recently started sea fishing and want to know how often I should change my bait?

The answer to this is the Million dollar question. You never know if a fish is just about to mouth your bait. You need to consider the situation you are in. The faster the flow or the more disturbed the water the faster the bait will get washed out, but also the scent trail will be longer. Try and cast in the same area a few times to allow the fish to follow the trail to your baited hook. If your fishing rig comes to the shore clean every cast then something is taking your bait (crabs most likely), so increase the change frequency so you are not wasting time.

As a rule of thumb fish small worm baits for between 10 and 20 mins depending on the conditions. Large tough fish and squid baits should last longer. Also consider swim feeders and ground bait to increase the scent trail.

Clean you hooks down every cast, remove the bits of skin on the hook.