In Mexico, chumming is not normally utilized. Maybe this is because so many large game fish are hooked and fought one by one over some longer period of fighting time. But there are two cases where we have employed it there. The first is when fishing Dorado, which tend to travel in pairs or small schools many times. They are so curious that free fish will follow and hang around a hooked one, almost right up to the boat. Tossing a few chunks or small baits over can keep them interested so another angler can get hooked up as well.
Also, when a Blue or Striped Marlin is mildly interested in a slow trolled dead bait or trolled lure but just won’t commit itself, a small free bait thrown out can sometimes be enough to raise the fish’s arousal level and it will finally attack the hooked offering.
The epitome of a little bait going a long way is the case of a chummer on a commercial “lift pole” tuna boat. His job is so important in keeping the school around the boat and in a frenzy that he is the only crewman that is not fishing. Even the cook and engineer both get in the racks with the other fishermen when the action is on. The chummer usually gets an extra share of the profits at the end of the voyage as well because of his value. Again, there is no way the few baits doled out around these boats are feeding every tuna. But the chummer’s goal is to keep the waters active to stimulate that feeding urge we mentioned before. Crewmen will often thrash the water with long poles to add to the commotion. In Australia I saw them employ a large fire hose, spraying the surface water to further excite the fish. There is a deep-seated belief among professional fishermen that if you chum too little the fish will not stay around, and just as importantly, if you chum too much the school will become satisfied and move away. Another reason for not tossing more baits over at any one time is that they will tend to find each other and school up. That seems to lessen the effects over a wider area you are trying to cover.
Another way chum is used is to draw fish from some distance away to the boat. This is the purpose of buckets or bags of ground up fish parts or oils, which create a “slick” that streams out from the boat with the current. Chum buckets can be purchased ready to use or made up personally and kept in the freezer until needed. The slow thawing is another way to have a time-release action, extending the effective life of the bag’s contents. Mako and Thresher shark fishermen in California say that fish will come from more than a mile away when the slick has spread down current. It may take patience, but if you chum them, they will come.
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