It's a great subject, it's kept me interested for decades (how sad is that!). Be careful with the geranium oil because it's very strong but it's difficult to overdo the HP sauce. I used to make a 50:50 mix of betain and garlic salt to put on cut up pieces of garlic sausage and that worked very well for carp. I have never tried LO-salt, it's on my must try list. Another flavour was a child's medecine called Panadol Elixier mixed with oil of anniseed, it worked really well until they changed the PE smell. And another favourite was Hutchinsons Monster crab mixed with Nash Chocolate Malt. That reminds me, different makes of flavour with the same name can be good or rubbish!
Your weirdest bait additive?
- Thread starter Aknib
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Ray Roberts
Well-known member
Oh well, another idea in the bin, lol.
Ray Roberts
Well-known member
I vaguely remember Ron Clay saying that in SA they put TCP in the carp bait.
Alan Whitty
Well-known member
I know about salt licks, but I wonder which other substances are sought out in such a way, it may be the reason why some baits are more readily taken at certain times of year, but that is speculation on my part....
@Clive
Well-known member
Possibly when female fish are preparing to spawn and afterwards they might need extra proteins and vitamins?
markcw
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I knew a brilliant canal angler ,now deceased who fished pearl barley in conjunction with liquidized bread .
Am unusual bait we used a few years years ago was cutting the top of milk bottle sweets . This made the bait look like a piece of bread . We caught plenty of fish doing this .
We went to Banbury for a weekends fishing and were catching carp and good sized bream on it .
A young lad came over to see what we were using . So we gave him a couple of full sweets to try . He hair rigged one . 10 minutes later a 19lb carp . We photographed it for him and it was showing hair rig in lip with the bait, a full sweet,
Am unusual bait we used a few years years ago was cutting the top of milk bottle sweets . This made the bait look like a piece of bread . We caught plenty of fish doing this .
We went to Banbury for a weekends fishing and were catching carp and good sized bream on it .
A young lad came over to see what we were using . So we gave him a couple of full sweets to try . He hair rigged one . 10 minutes later a 19lb carp . We photographed it for him and it was showing hair rig in lip with the bait, a full sweet,
Alan Whitty
Well-known member
As carp eat plain old rig foam on zigs and cut down pieces of red foam imitating maggots with no flavour it becomes difficult to research the subject seriously, fish are not like us, who can feel with our hands, their mouths do that job and hooks go in those....
seth49
Well-known member
Well the HP sauce and geranium oil seemed to work for me yesterday, 5 carp hooked and 3 landed, including a new PB for me of 17lb 14ozs, bait was Lidl garlic sausage, using 8mm sections punched out and on the hook.
ian g
Well-known member
Exactly Alan, I've always thought that
Alan Whitty
Well-known member
'Work' is a broad term Seth, as would you have had them using garlic sausage without the geranium oil and sauce, I'm not saying it isn't a brilliant additive, just that we can't say that the stats didn't just align to catch that PB, or great catch, over the years certain things have proved reliably effective, not just bait wise, but tackle wise too, but there is always variables to deflect opinion... just yesterday where the lake fished poor, there were several anglers fishing yet the people using normally poor techniques for the venue caught best, maybe they were using a super additive...
seth49
Well-known member
Maybe it’s just a confidence thing, but I have had some very good bags of fish on it, and it certainly doesn’t put them off.
and the groundbait and sauce was the thing that brought the carp into the margin in the first place.
and the groundbait and sauce was the thing that brought the carp into the margin in the first place.
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@Clive
Well-known member
The confidence aspect can be a mixed thing imo. I used to buy Garlic Spam and had a lot of good barbel on it. I was always confident when using it. However, all that came to a crashing halt when I moved to France. I never got a touch on Garlic Spam or the Lidle garlic sausage. I could catch bream, chub, carp and barbel on normal luncheon meat of any brand, but using garlic flavour I never got a bite.
After a few years here I realised that maize was the bait that consistently got results. Whether it is crushed or whole grains simmered until soft or sweetcorn from the tin, maize works anywhere and that is where my confidence now is. Also Frolicks dog biscuits on the hook. Whole biscuits or fragments will catch anything from large catfish to roach and rudd.
After a few years here I realised that maize was the bait that consistently got results. Whether it is crushed or whole grains simmered until soft or sweetcorn from the tin, maize works anywhere and that is where my confidence now is. Also Frolicks dog biscuits on the hook. Whole biscuits or fragments will catch anything from large catfish to roach and rudd.
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Alan Whitty
Well-known member
There is nothing wrong with having confidence in baits or rigs, it keeps you honed in expecting a bite.... whether or not it really works is another thing entirely, but we will keep trying...