How many baits do you take with you ?

[markcw]

At the moment I have been limiting myself to maggots and pinkies, a few hooker pellets and micros,
I have had some decent results ,apart from yesterday when I only had one roach on maggot, The whole lake fished terrible, out of 15 anglers only 4 caught,
Other venues may be maggots, corn ,pellets, bread, or leave corn and take worms.
One venue fishes petter on 12mm pellets on the pellet waggler and a bright coloured boilie on the hook, obviously the pellet waggler is better on warm calm surface days .again I always take maggots as a back up.The maximum I take is 4 baits, I work on the principal less is more, Its no use having 6 lines going in a swim with different baits and wondering what went where and when.
I always expect to have a throwaway line if a bait does not work.

 

[David Rogers 3]

If I'm float fishing, I invariably use one bait only (usually bread or worms), as I know the temptation to chop and change would be too great if I gave myself a choice. If I'm carp fishing with two rods, I have a different bait on each and carry a "joker" as a standby.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I'm afraid I always take a large variety of baits, typically; red, white and bronze maggots, casters, hemp, corn, bread, cubed luncheon meat and red worms and dendrobaena. as well as pellets in various forms.

I like to know i have a range of baits in case the chosen one or to are just not working . . . . to my mind baits are the cheapest things we carry so why limit myself?

 

[markcw]

I was like that peter, pellets of various sizes, groundbait, tins of meat and corn were always in my carryall no matter what venue I was on, 3 x 1 kilo bags of various groundbait and same of pellets plus tins of meat and corn, soon add up in weight.
Now i take what bait i know what works for a specific venue,
Even when i was match fishing regularly i took what was working plus one i thought may work to be different.

 

[steve2]

Depends on where and when, my small stream fishing baits bread and worms, when match fishing on carp lake it would have been mainly pellet and paste with back up of maggot and worms.
Lure fishing wise at least 50 various shapes, sizes and colours.

 

[silvers]

the majority of venues that I match fish are mixed species, so i may have to target chub, barbel, roach, dace, perch or bream ... or often A mixed bag of these.

hence I usually take
casters
mixed maggot (approx 2:2:1 of whited, bronze and reds)
a few fluoro pinkies
hemp
tares
dendras
lobbies
3mm halibut pellets
a selection of 4,6 and 8 pellet
and sometimes a bit of ground bait and luncheon meat.

however,
1. most venues that I fish don’t take a lot of feed, so I carry 2 pints of caster and generally take the 3 pints of maggots home again for turning the following week.
2. I rarely feed more than a pint of hemp (if that)
3. The dendras and pinkies last for ages if fridged
4. surplus hemp, tares, meat etc go back in the freezer.

so it doesn’t work out very expensive really.

 

[Mark Wintle]

I only pleasure now and don't have a problem taking a limited selection eg just hemp and tares, or bread and groundbait. I usually have a good idea what will work. In my match fishing days I generally did best on the days when you just needed one bait and plenty of it eg 6 pints of maggots, often the anglers who failed were the ones with every bait under the sun....

 

[mikench]

Too many and most dont work or at least for me. Maggots, meat and curried chickpea are my staples. I've always got pellets in forms so numerous i could create a little mobile sideline.

 

[Keith M]

I rarely fish venues that I’m not already familiar with, and the species that I expect to be targeting at that time of year; so I don’t really need to take more than about two or three different baits; unless I’m fishing a team match on a water that I am not familiar with, which is very rare these days.
Keith

 

[S-Kippy]

Depends where I'm going but not many normally. I've always got pellets with me and if I'm "general" fishing then probably maggot and corn. I rarely use meat anymore and I'll only take casters to a known caster water.Bit of hemp sometimes again depending on where I'm going/what I'm doing.

I dont like carrying a vast range of baits because I just find myself chopping and changing about and not giving any one of them a chance to work properly. In my experience Plan A usually works, Plan B often works and Plan C sometimes works....the same is true of bait imo and tbh I suspect most if not all of us know what works on "our" waters.

 

[xenon]

The fewer the better, I cannot be doing with chopping and changing all day in the hope something works. They either want what I give them or they dont.

 

[john step]

If float fishing this time of year its got to be worm/maggot/bread.
If carping then boilies.
If piking deadbaits!!

 

[108831]

I like limiting myself,so as to be forced to make things work,sometimes I come a cropper(yesterday for example)but my satisfaction is the greater for all that,however yesterday I had what seems a compendium for me,4mm feed pellets,expanders,corn and meat,but the last three were just hookbaits to rotate over the feed.

 

[seth49]

Probably like everything I take to much, but one Thursday after trying maggots, corn, pellets, and wafters the only bait that worked was worm, probably would have blanked but for them.

 

[wetthrough]

Sweetcorn, Hemp, Tares and caster 1/4 pint of each at most, usually much less depending where I'm fishing.
Maggots, mixed, just over 1/4 pint.
Half or full slice of bread depending where I'm fishing.

GB depending where I'm fishing it can be between 200 and 600g wet.

I carry with me some micro pellets but don't often use them. Also have with me some Dynamite baits soft hookers - I've yet to catch anything with them and when I get really desperate, some Inky squid Drennan YumYums which I've also yet to catch with. In fairness, I only resort to pellets when nothing else is working so the lack of success with them might not be an indication of poor bait.

 

[silvers]

Depends where I'm going but not many normally. I've always got pellets with me and if I'm "general" fishing then probably maggot and corn. I rarely use meat anymore and I'll only take casters to a known caster water.Bit of hemp sometimes again depending on where I'm going/what I'm doing.

I dont like carrying a vast range of baits because I just find myself chopping and changing about and not giving any one of them a chance to work properly. In my experience Plan A usually works, Plan B often works and Plan C sometimes works....the same is true of bait imo and tbh I suspect most if not all of us know what works on "our" waters.

So you take casters everywhere then?

suffice to say that I share Big Kev’s enthusiasm for the bait

 

[S-Kippy]

No..I will take casters to a water where they are known to be the best bait. I dont take them " just in case".....not at 4 nicker a pint.

 

[john step]

No..I will take casters to a water where they are known to be the best bait. I dont take them " just in case".....not at 4 nicker a pint.

Thats often the way. Some expert or other says you need a ton of this or a gallon of that. They are probably sponsored by a bait firm to say just that. More often than not a tub of worms, a pint of maggots and a loaf of bread will suffice.

 

[rayner]

No..I will take casters to a water where they are known to be the best bait. I dont take them " just in case".....not at 4 nicker a pint.

4 quid a pint! you chaps down south have never had it so good. ?
Bait wise, if I use caster or maggot I take just that.
If I use paste I take a bag of special G plus hemp. They are what I normally take through warmer months.
Colder times I take ground baits worm and dead maggot.
I have gone overboard with bait in the past, the numbers of baits I took did more to confuse me than aid in catching fish.

 

[108831]

I'm afraid I will not pay £3.50/£4 a pint for rubbish,dead casters,I would turn my own,if I really needed them,but half the time at least maggot is best,or at least as good,half the year I don't fish maggot or caster as i'm trying to catch a slightly better fish,when I think of the casters we used to get from Don Wills shop in Newport Pagnell whilst fishing for Blackhorse,they were beautiful,glowing bait,now most are tiny dull horrible things,not fit for use....