What baits do get on well with or not so good on most of the time it depends on location, season and weather.
I also know the say summer for fruit/sweet and winter for savoury/meet but this aint always the way.

On a pacific lake i fish quite regular, Luncheon meat seems to be a real killer no matter what the conditions but if things do get a little hard out
comes the flavouring i.e curry/chilli powder or the good old soy sauce. Then i fish another well stocked local lake with the exactly same bait and
leave it out for an hour sometimes longer and it aint been sniffed or nibbled at, pull out the pellets then your almost guarented a fish each cast.

Also on the first lake i mentioned maggots stuck to a cork (maggotball) can score you the odd fish when there aint much activity about.

One bait i never have any luck on is Sweetcorn for some reason shame really because as its bloody cheap. So ive gave up on using that.


Come on anglers lets go right in to detail with this subject.

hi all

i tend to fish boilies over whatever other stuffs knocking around the house at the time. like pellets or seeds .ill use the same boilie all year round and just keep trickling it in ..........

peppi

what flavour of boilies do you tend to use peppi

Bread never go any kind of fishing without, whether matchfishing,carpfishing,pleasure fishing or barbelling.
R.K.

hi mush

at the moment im using a combination of several fruit flavours with some secret agent added also .to this i dissolve some belachan in a little boiling water this is added to the eggs and mixed up with the base mix .then its rolled up as normal

on the subject of baits i dont get on with are those big pellets !!!

what a pain in the ass they are to drill a hole threw .ive tried using them wrapped up in tights this seems to work ok for me



same here bud i just dont seem to catch on corn or proper maize either come to think of it .

peppi

I reckon sweetcorn is a very over rated bait peppi using in on a the hook or hair but thats just my opinon.
I have used it a number of times mixed in with groudbait or my method mix but purely for the liquid to bind it and the corn for visual.

Heres a little tip for the problem you have with pellets peppi, what i do before a session or the night before i get the cordless drill out and
drill through the amount you think you are going to use. This method saves time and frustration on bank. Ive even seen people take a
cordless drill down to the lake and do it there and then, but its possible it could spook the fish with the noise and vibrations.

Nesqit strawberry flavour milkshake powder.

Sprinkle it over maggots, luncheon meat or any other bait you're using. The maggots tend to sweat and get a bit sticky as the day wears on but the fish seem to go mad for them nonetheless.

I've also used this on floating bread crust and that has also worked a treat with the carp.

Going back a few years now i used bananna(spelling) milkshake powder in my boilie mix and had a few good results including my first ever double
down at cofton lakes which was a 11lb common which i was over the moon with. Think i will have to get some more powder and give it ago again
thanks for the reminder Twisted Rizla

The good old days hey.

I can understand folk that dont have confidence with corn as i was the same some years ago

Then one day at a match at the weigh in the bloke that won it came over to me and said i thought you would win the match from that peg

He said i ought to have fished the corn to which i replied i have no confidence in it.Then change it was the reply with colours and flavouring

How could i not take any notice when the bloke was none other than Denis White of England(a good friend might i add)

Over the last few years since carp can be my quarry along with the bream if there are plenty in,ive caught more fish on the corn than any other bait

And my personal fave and a bit of a secret on our open circuit is tinned sweetcorn covered in brasem,frozen,then thawed(shhhhh).No colouring,ive caught fish when folk around me have blanked

Just enough for hookbaits,the rest of the tin,or more tins added,just chuck the lot in a bait tub and chop it with the milky juice,or liquidize it,both ways with brasm or vanilla flavour

Try it......

Owd

Chee:rs Owd im always up for trying new things so will give that a go.

Ive used that flavoured and dyed corn which you can buy in most sports and tackle shops strawberry i think it was but still no luck, that just
got my hands completly covered in red dye and that was a real bitch to get off, i havnt tried that tutti corn so cant comment on that.

Fatmanbob you are right carp are smart and know the difference between real bread and some floating rubber. I have some of the fake bread
from Enterprise ive had a few carp on this method, what i tend to do is cut the fake bread into a centremeter square and wrap some real bread
around it. I also put a few pin holes in the fake bread and let it soak in some liquid flavouring which will let off a trace in the water which you
will be suprised how long the scent will last.

:E2A: got Fatmanbob mixed up with someone else sorry

Just been doing a little reasearch on the net and found that cat food is fairly good bait and lets of one hell of a scent off even after
three or four casts. So ive just been out in the shed with my misses tights preparing some its a very messy job and my hands stunk
of it. Any how will let you know how i got on once ive returned from the lake tomorrow.

Just come back from the spring fed lakes and it was very hard going especially with this heavy rain and gale force winds we`ve had
which made the lakes full of natural feeds. Anway i decided to fish the bottom lake which is the biggest out of the five. I had one run
on the cat food resulting in a little carp, then tryed boilies no luck at all not even a sniff chucked on some luncheon meat and managed
to bank another two carp. So all in all i had three carp ranging from 1lb to 6lb not the best of days but a day away from the misses
does all the best. I was the only person fishing, the other four ponds were free aswell im just glad i didnt blank.

when i first got into carp fishing about 30 years ago we used catfood .all we did was mix a tin of catfood(kittykat) with some semolina until it formed a stiff paste this was then moulded round the hook and cast out .it used to work great im sure it would still work now to ......... we also used other stuff like sandwich paste you know salmon flavour or whatever mixed with semo to make a stiff paste .the worlds your oyster with this type of bait as theres loads of different stuff you can use

personally i prefer the boilie approach i tend to bait the fish regular throughout the year whether im fishing or not .just keep it trickling in.get them used to eating it without getting caught

peppi

I for one also like fishing with boilies peppi, but on this certian local lake i fish they dont even touch them no matter what differnt
flavours i use. i chucked in a good 900 boilies in the last 2-3 months and still adding some when ever i get down there so with a
bit of luck by next summer time it should be killer bait down there and result in a fair few getting banked.

[/quote]
when i first got into carp fishing about 30 years ago we used catfood .all we did was mix a tin of catfood(kittykat) with some semolina until it formed a stiff paste this was then moulded round the hook and cast out .it used to work great im sure it would still work now to ......... we also used other stuff like sandwich paste you know salmon flavour or whatever mixed with semo to make a stiff paste .the worlds your oyster with this type of bait as theres loads of different stuff you can use
[/quote]

Thanks peppi will give it try and see what happens

hi mush....

dont know if you have tried belacan dude ?? its made from fermented shrimp powder ,they bury it in the ground to ferment it !!!!

this stuff is used in thai cooking i got a load of it .this stuff could be used as a paste as it is . mould it round a boilie it,ll still be there in the morning after been cast the night before.i remember a while back i told owderb about it he went out and got a liquid version. he spilt it in the house this stuff smells so vile its unreal .this type is more managable than the liquid

check it out dude this stuff may work well on your non boilie water if it hasent been used to death already .theres lots of scope with this stuff .hot water will dissolve it in a instant ,goes great then into boilies ,method you name it !!!!

the second picture looks almost good enough to smoke

peppi

Hello everyone, Mush I have noticed the same things as you with the weather, location etc, at my local lakes different bait works on each, Prawns seem to be favorite at the mo for carp. sweetcorn always works here as does meat i do add a bottle of vanilla flovoring to corn(from the cake shop not the bait shop)either hair rigged on the hook or on the maggot ring. If i'm fishing the canal for bream then casters work all day if its warm in combi with a white maggot or alone. Best day i have had on a lake tho was with sensas hallibet and squid luncheon meat it stinks and needs drying out a bit before use but tench and carp love it on float or feeder. I have never used pellets or boilies as I tend to fish quite raggo with whatevers in the fridge or cubboard.


take it easy!!

Thanks for your input Hoodism most appreciated.


Peppi will deffiently give that a try where could i purchase it from.

Nice one.

just google belacan!!!

theres lots of places out there via mail order. try to avoid fishing shops as it costs more .look for chinese cookery stores where its cheaper.........

peppi

bread, bread with cheese or really smelly cheese and bread. vanilla essence and sweetcorn or really big juicy worms dug up from the chicken run are my faves. i also use corned beef and hemp seed mush occasionally. i dont do maggots i tend to leave them about and then flies hatch. more of a fly fisher really into lures and wax jackets

Cheers mate will have a search about.

Would the supermarkets like tesco sell it?

doubt it mate !!!

peppi

Mainlines maple basemix and attractant anyone used it, whats your views.

Sorry, I know this is all about Course fishing, but any suggestions for Cod, Sea Bass and Skate? I've read a lot about lurid coloured plastic lures, Lug and Rag worms. Also various people have mentioned, fish hormones, Mackerel and Squid too.

Yes, I'm a f**king newbie, I could just do with a little experienced advice, please

Cheers,

CPU

cant go wrong with live shrimp for saltwater

yes makeral, squid, bluey, herring rag and lug worm, sandeels, peeler crab, razorfish anything think with a fishy smell will
catch as along as your in the right location. with lures i find its a little better around rocky areas rather than the shore.

Garlic, Rock Salt, Pepper & even Chilli powder, tinned TUNA additive's in WINTER Fresh Water fishing...
"paste" hand rolled boilie or pellets "
Rock Salt & Chilli mixed in wiv ya red maggots & the same added to a ground bait,
( I make my own "6 peices of bread wiv crusts chopped off, (+1 egg white if makin paste/pellet) & a few handful's of hallubet pellet & hemp seed in da blender") for ya feeder.
Small pva bags of this shit tied to hook gets werx well*
Strawberry,bannana,Vanilla flavourings from any supermarket for an additive or maggot dip werx fine also*
(Still OR moving waters)
If fishing silty waters the obvious pop up maggot is killa also, kill the maggot by droppin it in hot water(or ya tea ) then the maggot will float (2 dead + 1 live)
On another note when making boilie's try different shapes rather than the norm ball shape boilie. ( u will be surprised*)
Cat & Dog buscuits including the little packets of "chicken lickins" do VERY well as hook baits.

OR you could even try to find the limited edition "garlic spam" on ebay lmfao

I've had great success all year round on Nash's White Chocolate Bollies for the past few years. That and my trusted stick mix. When targeting smaller fish inculding carp I find yellow plastic sweetcorn ideal for the hook. I mostly fish for carp and tench.

LS

Ive also had some great results with white chocolate boilies mixed in with some whiskey

I get on really well with pva bags but i find in the winter it takes that little more longer to dissolve as the water temperature is alot lower,
so i tend to use a small method feeder.

As for tuna fish it can really make a difference especially when mixed in with fishmeal ground bait and a litte mayonaise OR hemp in the Spod.
I for one hate using garlic stays on your hand for ages and only ever had one carp on it just dosnt appeal to me.

This last week or so ive been fishing a 7acre lake and caught carp to 26lb using the snowman method bait and spod, but as you said Gromore
trimming your boilies into differnt shapes and sizes can be very effective. It will also let off more flavour/scent but will not last as long as the
protective layor holding the sent in is taken off.

:Edited for grammer

Cheers lads

CPU

Think its worth noting baits and baiting stategies are different in different scenarios. There is (in my opinion)no ultimate bait, just the right one at the time.Naturals like maggot and worm are readily accepted because they are just that,natural. In all honesty its been a long time since i last picked up a float rod and a pint of maggots so that is best left to people who are more in line with 'modern thought'on that. There seems to be a good of carp anglers on here and far from teaching granny how to suck eggs,here's a few of my thoughts and hope that they get the old grey matter working and put you a few on the bank. Most are fishing on boillies these days and there more varieties than ever.Dont be fooled into managing winter and summer baits by flavour,the base is more important on a water you are going to put some time into. On a day ticket water the best advice is to 'have a bit of everything' and ring the changes. Bright highly flavoured are good to fish as singles and keep them moving around.the beauty of this approach is often if its not particularly the right time(ever been on one of those lakes that has a two hour window and then nothing till 12 or 24 later?) a fish will swim straight past a baited area or spook off a pva bag. Just one food source in the water can often instill a fear of loss if there is more than one fish in the area and induce a fish that would otherwise seem rather complacent over a bed of bait to take your hookbait.This method catches well for me during the winter and spring,although observation is key.All the books advocate it but many anglers seem reluctant to put it into practice early on in a session and that is casting at showing fish.Perhaps its the £15 worth of bait that has just been put on the lake bed that they are reluctant to pull off. Ask the Question,"have i seen fish on my bait?" If not cast at the one you just saw,there is no substitute for being on the fish. You should know where your bait is to but it back on after a few hours if you don't pick it up.A friend of mine who fished Wraysbury some time ago told me once "it doesn't matter what you have on the end if the nearest fish is two hundred yards away!" Right just looked up been rambling that'll be the cheese!!!Gotta go but loads left to say will look in and leave it up you good folk if you want to hear any more of an old carp addicts thoughts.Happy New year and tight lines guys. J.Bee

thats the one mate if your not on them your not gonna have them ...........

it dosent matter if its a puddle or inland sea if there not near your baits your not going to catch

location is half the battle won !!!

peppi

Ohhh, bait, where do you start!!

Would probably be easier to make a list of stuff that doesn't catch fish, than to look at what does catch fish!!

But as already mentioned, no matter what it is, if you put it in the wrong place, you won't catch sod all!!

As a lot of people have mentioned, your best options with bait is to do something different from the rest, Sweetcorn, excellent allround bait but on numerous waters it has blown, add something different, such as a colour or flavour and it is a totally new bait again, the fact the corn contains betaine naturally will always make it a good catcher of fish, only problem is everyone is now using betaine!!

Hemp has always been a good catcher but that was sort of improved on by adding Chilli, yet again, slight change and off it goes again untill it gets hammered by everyone!

Boilies have become a norm and fish do recognise these as a natural food source, only problem is nobody really knows what actually goes into making boilies!! One company will sell a Low temp fishmeal boilie that will only contain 5% of normal fishmeal, try and prove otherwise, it would cost you thousands!

There are some excellent Boilies on the market at the moment, problem is there are also some awfull ones that probably cost the manufacturer less than £1 per kg to produce and will contain a high amount of semo and soya and not a lot else, you can test these by dropping them in a glass of water overnight and if they swell up loads and disintergrate with a small amount of pressure, then basically they are cheap!

Also the initial texture of a boilie is a dead give away, hard smotth boilies that take a fair bit of pressure to break are usually cheap, you can tell a good quality bait by the spongyness, a firm skin but nearly moist in the middle and will retain a certain amount of those traits after being in the water overnight!!

Be different, try slightly different things from the norm and don't follow the crowd, the going bait on the lake is normally down to one guy having a good session and then everyone jumping on the same bait, something out there will fish better if you put it in the right place!!

Off the shelf boillies hmmm...........been making my own for years now its the only way to guarantee the quality of the bait.Big believer in nutritional recognition,granted, there are the anomolies like fake corn and such used on its own but i still dont particularly have much faith in that as a consistent catcher. Personally i like to pick a water, catch em all then move on. A nutritional bait applied consistently and sensibly does it every time. I never include more than 50% 50/50(soya and semolina) try for 2 or 3 different fishmeals(improved amino profile), a bird food is a must(texture and carbs),a touch of milk protein, too much and baits will float plus its HIGHLY potent and will cause digestion probs if inclusion rate is too high.A tin of hungry baby milk is a good alternative because the casiens and lactalbumin are pretty pricey. That's essentially a good base to build on. as for inclusion rates think balance.30% protein,(before Boiling) anymore and they cant digest it anyway,match it with carbohydrates,think Dr Atkins and then the attractants. My faves liver its full of iron and vitamins etc,G.L.M, beware the bream are particulary partial to a spot aswell. Kelps good too. and then the fast leak liquids minamino etc that are full of those all important amino acids. As for a flavour, and this is purely my belief although experience has kind of instilled it as fact to me, and it really DOES NOT MATTER what it smells like to me or you because a carp works on a much more finely tuned chemoreceptor than you and I. Flavour is just a labelling attractor ie the bait has been approached, the amino profile assesed and found to be good and bait is then taken. This can then lead under the right conditions to fish feeding almost exclusively on said bait.However this can also lead to the reverse if they dont find your base up to scratch. For those who do roll your own,do your homework,find something that has previously work and then mix it with something abscure. I fished a local pit of about 10 acre a few years ago and the place had been hammered a few years before on the Squid.this was common knowledge and the odd fish was still caught on it by the few who still fished it so I mixed it with some bbq i managed to lay my hands on25% squid75%bbq. Between April and the end of june that year I caught all of the known fish except 1 and some of those twice(one 3 times!) and a lake record of 33lb 4oz that still stands(dont think that fish has kissed the net since).The one that evaded me was then caught on a day session in the september.TWICE!.

hi all

to be honest i think you would be hard pushed to buy a poor quality boilie nowdays as companies selling rubbish generally dont last that long ......

im sticking to my homemade bait for the foreseeable future this been a fishmeal,birdfood combo !!! well i cheated really its not a homemade base i got a fishmeal base and a birdfood-hnv and mixed 50-50................

works for me and at £3-50 per 1kg of base its cheap to and shows it dosent need to cost the earth to establish a food source!!!!

peppi

hi
im a whole wild brownie type guy wen fishin for pike..... ..????
killer bait on any loch..
followed by the trusty herring......whole not filleted....
you have to catch the brownies so blackhead worms are the badgers....!
as in any fishing you have to know your prey..!
research your lie an learn how the fish feed....
thats my key an also never give up...
big fish are still about but theyre wider these days...

what do others think of fluoro pops ??

ive used them a fair bit and caught plenty on them ....

i like to use them with a small bag of pellet ,ground bait, belacan

my favourite and most productive by far as been the "dyanmite baits" pineapple flavour ........

peppi

Yeah ive had some good sucess on fluoro popups my favourite being home made Blackcurrant and Blackpepper.
Once the depths are sorted and your starting to get takes they can be a real killer bait, camo rig putty is also very
handy stuff to use. Tight Lines..

Used to love em on day sessions. Don't see the point in the night, but in the shallows, gravel weed or silt two thumbs up. Have caught with them pva baggin but prefer them on their own. not so many nuisance fish.perhaps if you wasn't sure you were on fish the extra attraction would be a great confidence boost, it can be alittle daunting looking out at all that water knowing your relying on a single however many mm bait. Pink Dynamite squid for me. did find they loose their edge if kept too long though. Oh and the tubs are a bit crap really.

Out of interest Peppi have you had any paricularly notewothy catches on the belachan. Me and some pals did some with it years ago(found it the chinese supermarket, they're full of goodies on the cheap) and wasn't really struck with it so shelved it. Only its big news again now so was just wondering.

crabs and live sandeel

i use cheese grated belacan in bags of pellets with boilie hookbaits and add it to my boilies at the egg stage couldnt say if it makes any difference tbh but its another gun in the armoury innit

peppi

when im out doing a bit of Fly Fishing, i usally sneek a couple of cans of Jolly Green Giant Sweetcorn in to the reserve. eyebrows get raised when ur pullin 5+ rainbow trout an hour in a Non Bait reserve. id get white wellied if i was caught! mofo

tanglefoot have hit it right on the head for sea fishing.

I reckon Lobworms have got to be the best bait ever, they catch everything that swims.

But, I've never been more confident fishing than when Im using my own boilies and paste, especially if you have pre-baited with it. Oydessy XXX has caught me lots of fish.

The question I want to ask is, if the rivers are in flood come opening day do you think I should use lobbies or boilies and paste?

big bunch of lobs on the hook, chopped worm in taped up heavy feeder.
R.K.