A question about shop bought pellet/ground baits.

[no-one in particular]

I fish a river for bream, roach and chub mainly and a canal for tench and rudd if I can get them going. Last year I bought a whizzer, an old moulinex one which works fine. I have been whizzing up any left over bits of bread, no fuss just breaking it down into small pieces, to this I have experimented with all sorts of kitchen ingredients, peanut butter, jam, gravy powder, and a few others I cannot remember now but also some hemp on a few occasions. The thing is I cannot say it has made much difference to my catch or nothing I can perceive.
I have never used pellets, wafters and the huge array of stuff you can buy in a tackle shop these days. I did experiment with robin reds a few years ago but had no luck with them on the river or the canal. my knowledge/ experience of these things is almost zilch.
So, my question is - is there a good packet of something worth a go, not expensive, that I can mix with my whizzed bread groundbait that will attract all the species I have mentioned or separately, bream roach chub for the river and tench and rudd for the canal. but still using my conventional baits like bread and sweetcorn on the hook. I am just after enhancing my ground bait..thanks
Oh and mullet also but not important, just anyone has something; always worth hearing about...thanks.

 

[@Clive]

Additives like vanilla have been used to attract roach for a long time. Mix it into your groundbait and add a few drops into the sweetcorn. Fish based additives such as tuna or krill powder will certainly attract chub, bream, tench and carp. Grated cheese and Marmite provide a vitamin B boost that I find attracts many of the cyprinids. But the simplest and cheapest additive is to mix your breadcrumbs with groundbait made from maize.

 

[mikench]

I have regularly said to Gordon, and he has agreed, that I wish there was a bait or additive that never failed and enabled us to catch fish after fish after fish. We have yet to find it. Yes we can catch one or two on a given bait but the success never lasts. I have had very successful days with curried chick peas and Mainline Cell pellets but on other days they have failed. I have recently tried bread punch with truffle marmite sandwiched between two slices of bread and then rolled out. No joy . I love marmite but the truffle flavour is horrible to me and , I suspect, the fish agree. I possess and have tried every additive you can imagine with temporary success. It would make life just so much easier taking just one bait but I never know which one .
That is why it’s called fishing and not catching.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Lo-salt is my favourite additive, you can add it to groundbait or to many hook baits. I liberally dose sweetcorn with it and luncheon meat. I sprinkle sliced bread with it prior to rolling for punched bread. It also goes in the liquidised bread too.

it is difficult to know if what you have done makes a difference or not. About ten or so years ago I fished a very lightly fished irrigation reservoir. I decided to do an experiment to see how effective artificial baits were compared to the real thing. I had two identical set up’s. I made some feeders up that had about eight inches of the rigid plastic tube that carp anglers used to use for anti-tangle tube firmly fixed to the feeder with about 1/2 inch of tubing protruding. To this protrusion I slid on a short piece of silicone rig tube to take a swivel to which I attached a short hooklength. This resulted in a semi-fixed feeder rig. On the longer part of the rigid tubing I slid a rubber bead, a swivel and another rubber bead. I fixed a short hook link to this creating a helicopter rig. So each of the feeders carried two hook-links. The hook-links were just short enough to not tangle. I used corn and artificial corn on one rod and maggot and artificial maggots on the other. Every half hour I would swap the real baits for the artificials. I did this over a few trips and kept notes on what was caught on each bait. I also swapped the rods over periodically. I found that roach much preferred natural baits and I would catch at least three to one on naturals. That was with both maggots and sweet corn. While carp and tench didn’t really seem to show a marked preference.

it’s difficult to tell if what you add to a bait or groundbait makes much difference, as there are so many variables. I am sure that Lo-salt works, as when the fishing is hard on colder days for example, when I am using it I seem to do at least as well or better than anglers around me. But how can you actually tell though? You may be a better angler, be using the best bait for the day or be sitting on a swim full of fish.

I suppose you could fish two feeders, one with the additive and one without but once you had made the first cast you would have to stick with the same ground bait on each rod and even if they were fished fairly close there still would be no way of knowing if one was just in a more productive spot. Not unless you were prepared to do numerous trials to collect enough data, which I’m not, lol. Added to that; is it all goes out of the widow if the fish are really on the feed, as whatever you baited with or put on the hook would be taken anyway.

 

[@Clive]

The way that you experimented with double baits Ray is going to give you as accurate a result as you could expect for stationary tactics. I often think that with moving baits such when trotting or waggler fishing in rivers the more competition for bait the better an artificial would be taken. Even with sight feeders like roach. Bream, carp and barbel cannot see what they are eating. The latter two have means of taste with their barbules, but when they are ploughing through a baited area I don't think they notice artificial baits from naturals.

But regarding additives fermentation is my preferred method, but that takes time in preparation. Not what the op was asking for.

 

[no-one in particular]

I take the point how do I really know, its all about perceptions really. I just don't "perceive" that the additives I have tried to my whizzed bread have made any difference. I am not going into some big long winded data orientated experiment on this, just going on my minds eye so to speak..
All it is that I go into my tackle shop that is quite large and has an enormous collection of baits, maybe 20 different types of flavoured sweet corn, hemp not far off, then don't get me into the jars of pop ups, pastes, boilies, wafters, pellets, groundbaits and more, its just bewildering. However, I wouldnt mind a packet of something that I could just add to my whized bread, just a handful or two that make it more fish attracting. A £5 packet of something that will just help a bit for the species I go for, it would probably last quite a few sessions.
I know the holy grail does not exist, been there a few times Mike, like you the same, one day something works and next week it don't.
Its just something I can buy off the tackle shelf, not too expensive, anything in the pellet range, maybe boilie as well, that you think might just improve my whizzed bread given the species I go for, not so interested in the hemp and sweetcorn, I have a lot of experience with these but the boilie, wafter, pellet etc route I know nothing. Not for the hook just the whizzed bread, I would just give it a try next time I am down the tackle shop, some recommendations might help to start with, I don't have enough life left to try them all or even work out and read all the packets so that is why I am picking your brains first. Thanks.

 

[@Clive]

For me hemp and maize groundbait mixed with boiled water then fermented a few days with a few small pellets added on the day. Chicken pellets as loose feed.

 

[no-one in particular]

For me hemp and maize groundbait mixed with boiled water then fermented a few days with a few small pellets added on the day. Chicken pellets as loose feed.

All too much trouble for me, I am a very lazy angler, I want to whiz some bread, add a couple of handfuls of something and off I go. But I would like the something to be easily bought, stored and has some record of working as well. but thanks.
I have a packet of ready hemp in my bag unopened, usually do and often use it, that's no trouble, just thinking of trying something else not too complicated though..

 

[Ray Roberts]

Try the Lo-salt then. Whizz the bread chuck in copious amounts of low salt. Get some sliced bread, cut the crusts off, sprinkle liberally with Lo-Salt and roll flat with a pin. Then bag up in sandwich bags, about three slices per bag. It can’t really get simpler than that. I usually chuck a bit of cooked hemp in on the bank as it helps the bread to sink better and use hemp, or more often tares on the hook a a change bait. Anything you don’t use can be refrozen. Next trip you don’t have to prepare anything.

 

[no-one in particular]

Try the Lo-salt then. Whizz the bread chuck in copious amounts of low salt. Get some sliced bread, cut the crusts off, sprinkle liberally with Lo-Salt and roll flat with a pin. Then bag up in sandwich bags, about three slices per bag. It can’t really get simpler than that. I usually chuck a bit of cooked hemp in on the bank as it helps the bread to sink better and use hemp, or more often tares on the hook a a change bait. Anything you don’t use can be refrozen. Next trip you don’t have to prepare anything.

Ok, I will give that a go once I get river fishing again, thanks. I am still going to browse the tackle shop though to see if anything looks suitable or appealing, just got a bee in my bonnet about it now but, I will try the low salt with the bread as well. I will look for some next time I am in the supermarket.

 

[Philip]

I have a box full of dried food products all past their expiry date...these range anything from hot chocolate power to dried soups, cup a soup sort of thing. All are destined to be chucked into groundbait as an additive one day.

 

[no-one in particular]

I have a box full of dried food products all past their expiry date...these range anything from hot chocolate power to dried soups, cup a soup sort of thing. All are destined to be chucked into groundbait as an additive one day.

I tried a few kitchen leftovers, peanut butter, gravy powder, jam and a few i cannot remember now, the problem was I never felt they made any difference although that is hard to ascertain but it is all a mind thing. This is why I am thinking of venturing into lets say the more professional products. The only one I felt did make a slight difference was some packets of dried insects you get in pet stores and general stores quite often as bird food. Put a packet in my whizzed bread and whizzed it all together so there was bits of dried insect in with it... just felt the couple of times I tried it it did make a bit of difference, just a few more bites than normal.
My last try out was a packet of dried cranberries, did try that last time, nice red bits in with it but it was on a very difficult winter canal that hardly ever fished any good anyway but, might try that again in the summer for a bit of fruity tooty, may try on the hook as well but I am not overly confident it will make much difference but, you never know, if you don't try you never will.
I have some sweets as well to try, long stringy red worm like things, tested left in a bowl of water and it went white and sticky after an hour as the dye leeched out, might give that a go in the summer as well but am thinking I aught to try a couple of the professional products now.