l wanna try fishing with mussels but the raw mussels are too soft and mushy to tie down onto the hook properly for casting... so l thought of the idea of cooking them first. but will that work? wouldnt cooking them get rid of all the scent and the taste of the mussels? please help me! how can l make mussels a useful bait?

''Cooking'' any type of bait makes it immediately less viable as a bait, EXCEPT when fishing for rough fish such as Catfish, Carp, Gar, Sturgeon, ETC.

Try fresh dead shrimp, or cut squid.

Both of these stay on a hook much more easily & attract the same type of fish mussels would.

I've found mussels/oysters CAN work in 1 environment. If u r fishing a heavy-weight Cane pole for Sheephead/Drum in a jetty atmosphere. When using a HD Cane pole there is no distance casting;thereby eliminating over-casting soft oysters/mussels off ur hook.

The only other option l can think of is super-glue. You could super-glue a wad of mussel to ur hook. Some savy fishermen have been using superglue to keep small pieces of Shrimp on hooks for years. It does work! Albeit, eventually it ruins ur hook.

Hope this helps somehow. Good luck!

UPDATE: l know it must sound crazy but u CAN use super-glue, (saltwater Flats fishermen have been using it on bait for Bones, Permit, Etc.)

If u salt-treat mussels they shrink into almost nothing. In this case, u must use MANY mussels to bait with. How much time & effort do u want to take on making bait?? Esp when u could substitute a rather natural bait that works just as well? Logics answer is sound, but u must have quite a few mussels to salt-treat because of ''shrinkage (ala Seinfeld! lol)

Richard K gets my thumbs up for reminding us about a UK rigging that works ok. Binding thread.

You can keep fresh mussel on your hook by binding them with elastic thread, fishing shops sell it. Works a treat on any soft bait.

use raw

Try soaking them in salt. That should toughen them up enough to stay on the hook, and will make them more tasty to the fish too.

Try curing em in Platskes krill cure.