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[@Clive]

Clive, they sound great but will they catch roach?

Yes, a quarter of a biscuit mounted on a 6mm bait band. I have had roach rudd and carassins on them. Parisian anglers mount 6 large biscuits on a string with bits of rig foam between the biscuits for buoyancy to take large catfish from the Seine.

 

[peterjg]

Clive, many thanks for the info, I will definitely try them out!

 

[The bad one]

barbel, haven't fished for carp since the late 70s mate.

 

[The bad one]

Pete there's quite a lot of crossover between bait made for carp and bait made for barbel. Take dog biscuits as a for instance, Bakers made a beef and liver blend of biscuits.
Stevie said give them I try for chub, as they float and would make great popups. I did and had a lot of chub on them, several were over 5lb. After crust they are my next go to bait for big chub.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I believe if we tried sweet fruity baits for barbel we would catch on them,especially the better quality ones...

 

[The bad one]

Al I think you are probably right! But we seem to be stuck in the mindset it has to be fishy smelling.

 

[Alan Whitty]

Colours are more varied too,which helps in carping,so why not barbel...

 

[nottskev]

There used to be a bit of a trend for dairy-based boilies for barbel, iirc. I sometimes make a paste/pellet wrap with egg, ground pellet, fishy stuff (anchovy paste; comes in a tube like toothpaste) and dairy (calf milk powder scrounged from a farmer's daughter). There's one FM member who will point out that a sandwich with cheese on crusty bread contains two good barbel baits and he catches plenty. I've hardly used a big pellet or boilie for barbel in years - they seem to like meat, often flavoured up and in modest size bits, better. Ok, it can't be rigged to stay on for hours like boilies and big pellets, but I don't do that kind of fishing, so a softer bait is no problem.

 

[The bad one]

An interesting thought that Al. I wonder what John Baker's thought are on colours and sweet baits for barbel?

 

[peterjg]

The Bad One, I've attempted to send you a pm - sorry but I am hopeless with computers.

 

[The bad one]

Thanks Pete I've got it. I'll give it a go making it.

 

[Alan Whitty]

I read an article many years ago by a well known angler,he had bought 5kgs of a fishmeal bait for barbel and the same in pineapple boilies for tench both in 12mm,he went on the Wye and was struggling on his favourite fishmeal offering,in the bottom of his bait bag were five leftover pineapple baits,he put one on the hair and within minutes he had a barbel,to cut a long story short he caught several barbel on the pineapple baits before they had smashed them up,in between catching on them he put the fishmeal back on and never had a bite,he never goes barbel fishing without having a few yellow pineapple boilies now...

 

[Skoda]

There’s a story that American pilots flying over the South Pacific had asparagus in their emergency rations. In case they were downed they were supposed to eat the asparagus then urinate in the water to attract fish by the S-methylthioacrylate and S-methyl-3-(methylthio) thiopropionate taint in the urine. Then catch the fish with the tackle supplied in the emergency kit. It was known that fish respond to Sulphur compounds.

Anyone used canned asparagus juice in their groundbait? I’ve never tried it.

Andy

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Anyone used canned asparagus juice in their groundbait? I’ve never tried it.

Andy

Never used asparagus water but I remember the match anglers in Sweden used to swear by a large glug of their home brew spirit in their groundbaits.

 

[@Clive]

German and Austrian anglers fishing the Bodensee (Lake Constance) used a lot of camphor in their bait recipes. Mind you, that was back in 1460's. It might have blown now.

Other medieval Germanic baits incuded a strip if cow's udder that you kept inside your shoe for five days and a paste made using woman's milk and human blood. It makes the Yorkshireman William Lauson's suggestion of a newly whelped puppy for pike bait seem reasonable.

 

[Philip]

There are baits in places you would never imagine. Take a look at the back of an Alpen packet ...thats a bait.

Stuff by Peter Regan is well worth a read. Thats a guy who knows about bait...yes its Carp orientated but there are lots of spins offs that could apply to other species that can be gleaned from it.

 

[peterjg]

I fished the Kennet again yesterday, started about 1pm and stayed on for a while after dark. Still using the HP sauce flavoured groundbait etc, and caught two bream weighing around 2lbs and 4lbs, two obligatory signal crayfish (yuk), had a hook pull, lost a fish in a snag and last of all a 7lbs 5oz barbel - my first while using the HP sauce and also my first barbel this season. No roach yesterday? Water temperature a surprising 44F.

 

[@Clive]

Many of the modern bait innovations can be traced back to the early books on angling and fish culture. Pellets are found in 16th century as bait and feed for pond fish. High protein paste baits made from rabbit meat or fish livers and bean flour are mentioned by several authors, fermented baits that were all the rage in carp circles can be found in the 15th - 16th century in various forms and there were hundreds of bait additives, scents and flavours to choose from.

 

[seth49]

Well I’ve bought the ingredients for this, my word the geranium oil is expensive, £10.50 for a tiny dropper bottle from Holland and Barrett’s, still if you only using a few drops it should last a long while, will give it a try when it warms up enough to go fishing,

 

[peterjg]

Seth, can I suggest you make a paste (you don't need much). Squeeze half an inch or so of HP Sauce into a small pot then add 3 drops of the geranium oil, then add some corn flour (a little at a time) so as to make a smooth paste. Smear the paste on bread flake.

Groundbait, add the HP Sauce and a FEW drops of the geranium oil to some filtered water then add your dry groundbait.

The above really works, I caught yet again yesterday using it in cold conditions in daylight. However; whether or not it will still be as effective when the water temperature goes up I don't yet know?