Which is best: brown or white crumb

[peytr]

I like to grind my own ground bait. A dominant ingredient is and allways has been bread crumb.

I get stale and dry bread from people around me and a lot of it is wholemeal or 'brown bread' as we would call it. As a result: he meal I grind from this is brown as well. In literature there has allways been a bias towords white meal. I even remember some autors claiming: the whiter the meal is, the better without ever explaining why. To be honest: I cannot think of a reason why fish would prefer white crumb.

So: what is your idea, experience or knowledge (first hand or third party) on the subject?

 

[fishface1]

I’ve put both in the liquidiser. As you say, I don’t think there’s much difference.

White is cheaper and seems more glutinous, so stays on the hook better, so I generally use white.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

To be honest I am not a fan' of bulking out my grounf baits with bread crumb of either colour.

Crumb is nothing but 100% feed whereas a decent continental mix has all sorts of attractants, flavours and colours and little in the way of feed . . . . .

I'd far rather invest in a few extra bags of a continental mix than to try to save a few bob by using more feed stuff.

The only time I ever used crumb in addition was in those large Danish or Swedish matches where the bream and ide shoals were simply huge . . . and almost impossible to feed off.

 

[108831]

To add,the brown crumb you buy is 'toasted more and not brown bread. Personally I find brown crumb is more versatile than white,but white crumb helps bind it into balls for distance,as for feed value of breadcrumb,yes,there is a lot of feed there,but not as much as many of the fishmeal groundbaits being used for bream during the warmer months,the other side of it is how much groundbait is actually being put in,obviously roaching you would want less feed in the bait(unless your fishing the punch,lol).Many years ago I used to feed a cat litter tray full of sloppy brown crumb at the start,used to catch plenty,so it all depends how hungry the fish are...

 

[nottskev]

Before Sensas and VDE imports, the choice was white or brown bread - with some crushed biscuit-type stuff that looked like pet food by-product a third option. The general wisdom seemed to be brown for subtle/light fishing on still or slow waters, white for a heavier, stickier feed if needed. Some mixed them to suit their own purposes. Brown almost always suited me. I bought the occasional sack of white for heavy baiting on Irish holidays. Tending to clog, it could be a pig to mix nicely. In the days before feeders, getting a mix that carried feed was a tricky business, with a risk of balls that never broke down or did so in flight. I still buy brown crumb now and then as I find a proportion of it improves the texture of some "continental" type groundbait (and lowers the cost).

 

[markcw]

At one time my go to groundbait was brown crumb with vanilla powder and some desicated coconut with a touch of white crumb to bind it.
This was before VDE and the other continental mixes hit the shelves
Vince Hedley a one time Welsh international I was led to believe told me about it. I used to go into his shop in Chester.

 

[nottskev]

There's a blast from the past, Mark. Hard to imagine Chester once had two tackle shops within the City walls. Martin's in Bridge St, later Hedley's and a move to the other side of the street. And Dave Gibson's, first by the fountains roundabout on Northgate St, later in Pepper Row around the corner from Hedley's. He defected to stocking trout stuff.
I think the premises of Martin's/Hedley's original shop is a wine bar now. Very Chester. You were lucky to catch Vince in the shop. In my experience he was mostly next door in the King's Head. When I lived there last, these had both gone and my ts's were Jones Tackle - Ian Jones started a shop with his steelworks redundancy money in Vernon Rd, near the Cop on the tidal. Very considerate as it gave me a bait stockist 300 yds away. And Wendy Locker's - Wendy was in the vanguard of female match anglers and an international - shop in Hoole.

 

[The bad one]

My go to mix for big bream fishing before vitalin and continentals was 2 to 1 mix. 2 of brown and 1 of white with half a pot of Red Cap (remember that?). Then went on to Brasem half a bag with a 2 to 1 mix of crumb. Ground up Vitalin with ground up waste bread from the house followed, which could be either brown, white and/or granary with additives used by the carpers.
Vitalin would be mixed at 3 to 1. 3 Vitalin and 1 crumb as binder.
When using groundbait on the river these days I tend to use the ground vitalin, crumb at 3 to 1 with around 4 oz of fishmeal. Works very well for chub as a draw in bait.

 

[markcw]

Wendy still fishes the matches at Hampton Springs,
I last saw her a couple of years ago at a race night in Warrington
It was to raise funds for the England Ladies match team.
She was there helping out, along with Helen Dagnall another England ladies international,a Warrington girl who when she first started fishing got into more tangles and busted pole pole floats than anything, We were forever sorting her out.
I never let her forget it either ?
I remember a tackle shop stocking trout tackle and sundries, I think he carried on a bit longer than Hedleys.
Warrington used to have a few tackle shops at one time, now there is an Angling Direct and Warrington tackle and guns formerly Bailey's Tackle.

 

[markcw]

Anyone remember Silver Cloud and Picardie ?

 

[nottskev]

Picardie? Was that a gudgeon groundbait with aniseed? I do recall something called ZX72 (or something that sounded like a Kawasaki bike model) which was yellow and mixed into a sticky slop that allowed you to load squatts into your feed for canal wide bream. Brown crumb wasn't great for holding lots of feed.

 

[rob48]

I recall Picardie being favoured for catching gudgeon, think it had a quite high garlic content but I could be wrong. Was the ZX72 the one with a little bottle of something that was diluted into the water prior to mixing, and came in different colours?

 

[rob48]

I remember one groundbait contained finely ground sharp sand which was supposed to aid the clouding effect, and another popular additive at the time was ground sausage rusk.

 

[peytr]

Thank you all for sharing your ideas.

I use a number of Van den Eynde prepared prepared formulas as well. I like to mix these (or the plain bread crumb) with RIngers dark, making for a bright green ground bait. In summer we tend to put in lots of casters, maggot and worms, so I'm not too worried about high nutririon values of the bread crumb. I do recognize the binding properties of white are higher (compared to shop bought brown, which might be heated to get it's color, as well as the whole meal crumb.

Using my diy ground bait is not realy about money and I know it's not necessarily the most effective. But then again, the same goes for my home brew pole floats etc.

 

[keora]

I've been chub fishing recently, using bread on the hook and that old recipe, mashed bread in the cage feeder. The trouble with mashed bread is that it's messy . It sticks to hands, clothes and unless you cut off the crusts, it gets stuck in the feeder. I'm looking for a ready made groundbait mix that's easier to use. I wouldn't be adding any particles, I'd just rely on the mix itself to attract chub. I've got some method mix but that would be too claggy for this type of fishing.

Should I go back to using white or brown crumb. Have members any suggestions on what type of groundbait I could use?

 

[fishface1]

I've been chub fishing recently, using bread on the hook and that old recipe, mashed bread in the cage feeder. The trouble with mashed bread is that it's messy . It sticks to hands, clothes and unless you cut off the crusts, it gets stuck in the feeder. I'm looking for a ready made groundbait mix that's easier to use. I wouldn't be adding any particles, I'd just rely on the mix itself to attract chub. I've got some method mix but that would be too claggy for this type of fishing.

Should I go back to using white or brown crumb. Have members any suggestions on what type of groundbait I could use?

I just use liquidised bread rather than mashed in a feeder. Still messy, but somehow not as bad as the mashed stuff.

 

[108831]

Liquidised bread is better in the feeder dont whiz it for long,to give bigger bits.


Picardie was indeed good gudgeon feed,Z72 was my go to feed as slop on the canal,many roach and skimmers added to my bank balance....

 

[The bad one]

I find stale dry bread of either type wizzed in the blender roughly doesn't go claggy, sloppy and can be cattied 40 yards across the river if needed. It's about getting the water to bread right. I think it was Ivan Marks that once said, "You can put more in but you can't take it out!" Never a truer word said where groundbait is concerned.
PS if after letting it stand for 15 minutes and it sticking to you hands as described above then you've put to much water in it. I also take my g/bait dry to the river and the first job when I get there is to add the river water and let it stand whilst I ready my tackle and peg.

 

[The bad one]

And here's the fruits of my labour from a few years ago, after robbing a bank on the way to river, on a very cold night where the temperature got down to about -6
The weight for those who want to know, was 6lb 4oz.

 

[rayner]

When I was a lad I used to get my mom and the neighbours to save stale bread for me to pound on the step. I would put the broken up bread in a towel the pound it with a hammer, thankfully, those days are gone.
After starting work I used to go down the continental route and my catches vastly improved. Truthfully, there are so many fish to catch now anything will attract them, I have no time to mess with mixing crumbs together Sonu baits have everything you could ever need. At a decent price for a kilo bag.