bait casting.

Question
Hello Trevor. I mostly fish from the beach, which means I cast my bait as far as possible. The problem here is that a lot of the times the bait flies away especially if its soft like shrimp or sliced sardines both of which are very effective for many species of targeted fish in this reigon. Could you recommend any special technique of hooking the bait or treating the bait (maybe sundrying) before hand? Any other info would be great!
Cheers,
Musa Sharkawi.

Answer
This is a very common problem that I have run into and I'm sure anyone that fishes regularly has also run into. Here are a few techniques and suggestions.
1.) If you have your bait beforehand and you haven't juts purchased it on the day your fishing. Add some common table salt to the bait about a day or so before hand this will toughen the bait and make it harder to come off the hook. Remove the excess salt from your bait when your ready to fish.
2. ) check your line and ensure that it comes off the reel freely. sometimes drag when casting can cause minor slowdowns of the line flying off the reel which in turn jerks the bait as it is flying through the air and could cause it to come off the hook.
3. )Check your leader knots and how far the leader goes into the rod eyelets. if the knot hits the eyelets of the rod this can also cause the bait to fly off.
4. ) Sun drying can work but sometimes will dry the bait out so much that it loses its "tastiness" to the fish. BUT it can help.
5.) Check your hooks if you have some sort of "Bait" holding hook or the potential to purchase a bait holding hook they will have small barbs that point the opposite direction of the main shaft to allow for the bait to hook on when moving on the hook.

Hopefully these small tips help but unfortunately no matter what I have tried I still have that problem as well but doing these steps or tips may decrease the occurrence some.