smelly baits

[riverman]

my brother uses sokolow (polish garlic sausage) when legering and the stuff is lethal on lakes.i've seen him rattle out countless numbers of carp on the stuff and boy does it stink.I've already stashed 3 of them in the freezer and hopefully the barbel will take it when i start fishing again in february.

 

[nottskev]

Bait Tech Polony Oil had a meaty herb and garlic smell that positively fumes enough to knock your head back. I used every drop of mine, for innumerable barbel and carp. It's no longer available, sadly, but a friend has offered me his because it's so hard to wash off and his wife can't stand it. The alternatives I've tried - Sonubaits Sausage and Hemp or Cheesy Garlic, for instance - have no such power to attract fish. They proved so insipid I made a pint of my own spicy oil with Mazola Corn Oil (what fish doesn't like corn?) with loads of thin-sliced garlic and chillies left on a warm window sill through the summer and I've been glugging hookbaits and feed pellets in that.

 

[mikench]

JB additive really stinks as does the fish sense stuff. The fish might like smelly stuff but I don’t. I did catch a few tench on spicy pepperami which was 3 years past it’s sell by date.

 

[Steve Arnold]

Bait Tech Polony Oil had a meaty herb and garlic smell that positively fumes enough to knock your head back. I used every drop of mine, for innumerable barbel and carp. It's no longer available, sadly, but a friend has offered me his because it's so hard to wash off and his wife can't stand it. The alternatives I've tried - Sonubaits Sausage and Hemp or Cheesy Garlic, for instance - have no such power to attract fish. They proved so insipid I made a pint of my own spicy oil with Mazola Corn Oil (what fish doesn't like corn?) with loads of thin-sliced garlic and chillies left on a warm window sill through the summer and I've been glugging hookbaits and feed pellets in that.

That's got me thinking!

I made a litre of flavoured oil which is a fantastic additive to Asian foods or sprinkled on a pizza. It has garlic, ginger, chilli, star anise and Szechuan pepper steeped in hot (not quite sizzling, do not burn the aromatics!) oil for an hour, then allowed to cool and bottled with just a few of the peppers.

Will try a little as a bait glug

 

[@Clive]

I use aniseed, smoked paprika and garlic salt as flavours for luncheon meat and krill oil soaked into boilies and pellets. Fish seem to like baits with yeast in them, like cheese and bread so Marmite is a good glug, coated onto boilies or mixed into cheese paste recipies.

 

[Notts Michael.]

AHMED GARLIC PICKLE 300G

www.falcononline.co.uk

I really love this stuff... a dollop in baked beans or in soup, and on cheese on toast is awesome, (if you like garlic!) when I visit a friend in Walsall which has some great Indian supermarkets, I get a couple of jars. but the stuff has loads of oil in the jar, which I used to pour away, but have poured the very garlicky spicy excess oil into a small jar this time with a view to using it on pellets.

 

[Notts Michael.]

I use aniseed, smoked paprika and garlic salt as flavours for luncheon meat and krill oil soaked into boilies and pellets. Fish seem to like baits with yeast in them, like cheese and bread so Marmite is a good glug, coated onto boilies or mixed into cheese paste recipies.

I imagine Marmite or Bovril would stay on most baits well when smeared on straight from the jar too. I drove past the place in Burton on Trent where it's made recently and you can smell the stuff even with the car windows closed.

 

[@Clive]

I am convinced that it is the vitamin B's in Marmite, bread and cheese derived from yeast that is attractive the fish. There used to be a groundbait called Pometeg that had yeast in it. Fred Wilton used it to make his hnv baits. I ferment my groundbait and seed particles to add natural yeast to them. As you say, Marmite is very sticky and stays on hook baits especially in winter. A little mixed into cheese paste is good for chub, barbel and carp in the colder months.

 

[no-one in particular]

I have fermented a little bread yeast and sugar in a jar and poured it over maggots, very good, makes the maggots a bit sticky though so you have to keep the lid on but attracts fish.

 

[The Sogster]

I use marmite in the cooler months usually on bread or meat. I think the yeast extract helps rightly or not in the same way as butryic acid in suggesting an easily absorbable food source.
As far as I am aware fish don't have a long intestine (I could well be wrong) so the nutrients have to be absorbed and extracted on a much shorter journey from intake to expulsion. Food 'on the turn' will often take less digesting to release the nutritional value I think this is where similar ideas about pre digested baits were thought of.

 

[mikench]

The little fishes are not having my marmite. I might give them the Vegemite which was festering in the cupboard for years as it’s horrible. Just checked and it’s been thrown.

 

[@Clive]

I use marmite in the cooler months usually on bread or meat. I think the yeast extract helps rightly or not in the same way as butryic acid in suggesting an easily absorbable food source.
As far as I am aware fish don't have a long intestine (I could well be wrong) so the nutrients have to be absorbed and extracted on a much shorter journey from intake to expulsion. Food 'on the turn' will often take less digesting to release the nutritional value I think this is where similar ideas about pre digested baits were thought of.

The pre digestion as in fermentation is definitely a big plus. Possibly due to the ease of digestion or because it contains vitimins that are not easily found elsewhere.

 

[barbelboi]

I use marmite in the cooler months usually on bread or meat. I think the yeast extract helps rightly or not in the same way as butryic acid in suggesting an easily absorbable food source.
As far as I am aware fish don't have a long intestine (I could well be wrong) so the nutrients have to be absorbed and extracted on a much shorter journey from intake to expulsion. Food 'on the turn' will often take less digesting to release the nutritional value I think this is where similar ideas about pre digested baits were thought of.

Carp have a long intestine but don't have a stomach.

 

[Philip]

Recently read an interesting peice from an Angler who did really well on Sutton at Hone for' the Carp there. This was a very tricky days only big fish water down in Kent. When asked what made the difference for him and why he caught so well he said it took him ages before the penny dropped that the fish where avoiding fresh baits which of course all the anglers put on when they started to fish each day. He started to use washed out baits left in water for a few days and he catches sky rocketed.

The point being that sometimes with flavours, smells and additives less really can be more.

 

[Steve Arnold]

I have fished the river Lot for almost six years now, mostly for barbel.

At first I tried the balls of groundbait techniques, along with the usual feeder. If I put in some groundbait the night before there were usually a few barbel hanging on in the swim the next day, sometimes a few more small balls of groundbait was like "ringing the dinner bell" and bites would follow soon after.

Now I have caught plenty of barbel I am getting a little lazy. Often I don't pre-bait a swim and frequently don't bother with grounbait of any solid form. Instead I rely on extra smell attached to the bait in the form of paste or glugs......and still catch plenty of barbel!

Recently I took it a stage further by adding a glug soaking material to the hook. When thinking how to do this I remembered a trout fly called the "Wooly Bugger! which had a body of chenille. I had found some old fashioned pipe cleaners in a craft shop (remember making animal shapes as a kid with these?), chenille on twisted wire.

After mounting the boilie on a hair rig twist a few wraps of the pipe cleaner around the hook shank, then cut off the excess. The fibres of the chenille stand up and when this is dipped in the glug will hold the flavour for some time.

I had 5 small barbel on that arrangement, none could have swallowed the double boilie and all were hooked neatly on the Chenille fly.

So the "fly" has been Christened the "Wooly Stinker". Next I may try fishing it without the boilies!

Barbel are quite remarkable in their efficiency searching for food. If they can smell anything, they will find it!

 

[@Clive]

I have fished the river Lot for almost six years now, mostly for barbel.

At first I tried the balls of groundbait techniques, along with the usual feeder. If I put in some groundbait the night before there were usually a few barbel hanging on in the swim the next day, sometimes a few more small balls of groundbait was like "ringing the dinner bell" and bites would follow soon after.

Now I have caught plenty of barbel I am getting a little lazy. Often I don't pre-bait a swim and frequently don't bother with grounbait of any solid form. Instead I rely on extra smell attached to the bait in the form of paste or glugs......and still catch plenty of barbel!

Recently I took it a stage further by adding a glug soaking material to the hook. When thinking how to do this I remembered a trout fly called the "Wooly Bugger! which had a body of chenille. I had found some old fashioned pipe cleaners in a craft shop (remember making animal shapes as a kid with these?), chenille on twisted wire.

After mounting the boilie on a hair rig twist a few wraps of the pipe cleaner around the hook shank, then cut off the excess. The fibres of the chenille stand up and when this is dipped in the glug will hold the flavour for some time.

View attachment 25143

I had 5 small barbel on that arrangement, none could have swallowed the double boilie and all were hooked neatly on the Chenille fly.

So the "fly" has been Christened the "Wooly Stinker". Next I may try fishing it without the boilies!

Barbel are quite remarkable in their efficiency searching for food. If they can smell anything, they will find it!

That is facinating Steve.

It does lead to the question though of whether the barbel took the fly for its scent or its looks. The Wooly Bugger is a very versatile fly and I have had perch, chub, trout and flounder on it as well as trout and grayling. There are French anglers specialising in catching barbel on rubber lures from the Dordogne and Dronne. Some of the lures look like caddis grubs, similar to the WB, others are like baby crayfish.

There is an old technique that was mentioned years ago by our late friend Peter Crabtree of putting foam inside a small swimfeeder and glugging the foam before every cast. The idea being to attract, but not feed the fish in winter.

And Phillip's account of fish wising up to fresh baits demonstrates that you have to be prepared to adapt to suit the species and locations.

 

[Steve Arnold]

That is facinating Steve.

It does lead to the question though of whether the barbel took the fly for its scent or its looks. The Wooly Bugger is a very versatile fly and I have had perch, chub, trout and flounder on it as well as trout and grayling. There are French anglers specialising in catching barbel on rubber lures from the Dordogne and Dronne. Some of the lures look like caddis grubs, similar to the WB, others are like baby crayfish.

There is an old technique that was mentioned years ago by our late friend Peter Crabtree of putting foam inside a small swimfeeder and glugging the foam before every cast. The idea being to attract, but not feed the fish in winter.

And Phillip's account of fish wising up to fresh baits demonstrates that you have to be prepared to adapt to suit the species and locations.

That chenille pipe cleaner I first tried twisted onto the weight and glugged. I caught fish but had plenty of missed bites!

Pretty sure the fish attacked that glugged pipe cleaner in the same way they often pester feeders. Certainly it will work to attract fish without introducing solid feed, I guess that may be useful in winter.

I have a few litres of liquid flavourings in my garage fridge. Krill, salmon oil, monster crab, hemp etc. I make up a mix and add some water, then thicken with xanthan gum powder (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthan_gum) which may also have some attractive food qualities. It's cheaper than buying commercial glugs and seems to work at least as well!

I funnel the mix into used ketchup squeezy bottles. You do not want to spill this stuff!

I have had barbel, bream, carp and chub on baits treated with these mixes. The only thing I can be sure of is that it does not put them off!

 

[@Clive]

The acid test would be to fish with an un glugged WB instead of a hook bait. I wouldn't be surprised if you did hook a barbel on it.

I'm rotally in agreement about using scents or flavours to attract fish into the swim and stimulate appetite. The pet food industry have been onto this for years which is why Frolicks work so well. Pet treats are laced with stimulants.

 

[rayner]

I won quite a lot of cash with my fermented worm juice in the 70s team fishing. I used to use plenty of belachan paste that was nearly as stinky as the worm juice. Fermented hemp seed was another favorite that fish loved, it appears fish love anything that stinks especially if it is fermented.

 

[@Clive]

I won quite a lot of cash with my fermented worm juice in the 70s team fishing. I used to use plenty of belachan paste that was nearly as stinky as the worm juice. Fermented hemp seed was another favorite that fish loved, it appears fish love anything that stinks especially if it is fermented.

I agree. But it is important to stress that it is only the aerobic fermentation that I would use. If the ingrediants aren't regularly stirred or sealed like silage it can quicky become manky. If it doesn't smell sweet and is more like cat pee then I bin it as it is past the point of no return.

I don't use worm juice preferring to take some of the soil from my wormery along with the worms. Then I can roll balls of the soil along with chopped worms and put them in by hand or by a feeder.