IT’S PROBABLY THE area that we worry too much about, always thinking there’s a ‘Holy Grail’ just around the corner that will totally turn our results around. Yes, there are good baits out there, but none will catch if you’re in the wrong place. I’m not going to go into too much in depth on each one as I’m going to show how I use each type of bait in later articles.
Naturals/Particles Most of the baits referred to as naturals are anything but – I mean, how often in the UK do you get Maize plantations next to lakes? But they tend to be more acceptable to fish than some of the manmade baits, at least until you can establish boilies. They are also an excellent alternative to boilies when the going gets tough. They are normally much, much cheaper than boilies – apart from maggots! Some of the best include:
There’s an excellent guide to preparing particles on the Hinders of Swindon website, but you can buy readymade particles from various companies these days that take the worry out of preparing them properly.
Meats Meats such as Spam, luncheon meat, plus dog and cat foods have been used since the mid 60’s, and will still catch fish today. I prefer the stronger, garlicky ones, and tend to tear lumps off rather than use cubes. I’m not sure whether it makes any difference though!
Cat meat
You can also experiment by putting the lumps in a bag and covering them in spices like chilli powder, garam masala, whatever takes your fancy. If it’s a soft meat, you can fry it to make it tougher, but be careful it doesn’t float! When fishing meats I like to use it in conjunction with groundbait, and I use a cheese grater to grate some into the groundbait as it releases the flavour and oils out there. Peperami in the hotter varieties, and some of the European sausages are worth a look too, just try not to eat them all!
Boilies The all singing, all dancing super carp catcher! Easily the most widely used bait, and for a lot of fish, they must look on these as natural baits these days.
Boilies
There are two types of boilies, ‘instant’ baits and ‘food baits’, though these days the lines are getting blurry. In theory you could cast out an instant (or high attract) boilie, with no pre-baiting, and be fairly sure a fish would take it – but they may only take it the once before ‘learning’ to avoid it, whereas a ‘food bait’ is slightly less attractive in an instant appeal kind of way, but in the long term fish will associate it with a good food source, so continue to feed on it after being caught. The problem is, look how many fish get caught on little yellow pop-ups with no food value!
The problem I have with the ‘pre-baiting food baits’ idea is that on many waters there are so many different baits going in, how can a fish work out which one is doing it any good? It could have eaten dozens of different baits around the lake, some good nutritionally, some not so good – so if doing short, one off trips, I might go for the higher attract boilies as I just want to get one quick bite. For ‘campaigns’ or longer sessions I will go with a food bait, though I’ll have some “instants” with me.
When choosing a bait, have a look through the magazines and see what is catching, or talk to people who are doing well on the waters you are fishing. If you are going to be fishing ‘blind’, then don’t be afraid to use baits that have caught well in the past (and still do). Choose any from:
INSTANT BAITS Dynamite Baits: Any of the Frank Warwick Range (especially the yellow ones)Mainline : Diamond Whites, Essential OpalRichworth : Tutti-Frutti, Honey Yucatan
FOOD BAITS Active Bait Solutions : Malarkey (or anything else Geoff recommends!) Nutrabaits : Big Fish Mix Poacher Baits : Fruit Frenzy, Nutty Crunch Premier Baits : Aminos GLM, Matrix Richworth : MultiPlex Solar : Red Herring, Club Mix Mainline : Grange or Activ8 (still reckon they are the best two baits they’ve produced) Essential Baits : B5, Creamseed mix Nash : Scopex Squid Livers, Monster Pursuit – thought they’ve changed the reciepe since
I’ve used all of these at one time or another, and would happily do so now.
Paste
Paste Very much an overlooked bait these days, it could be the paste form of your boilies, a specialist ‘active’ paste, or something as easy as cat food stiffened up with groundbait, but definitely worth a go if you can present it to a fish. They will really pump out attraction, and when was the last time most of the pressured carp have seen paste used?
Pellet There is a bewildering array of pellets out there, with trout and halibut being the best known, as well as the dedicated ones to match your boilies. Personally I think the halibuts are by far the most effective; but why? It’s mainly down to their oil content, which is a controversial point as some people think (rightly) that too much oil is harmful to the fish. It’s only really a problem if it’s all that the fish have to eat – if it’s a balanced lake with plenty of natural food, boilies, and particles going in, then it’s not really an issue.
Pellets
As much as I prefer the oilier pellets, in winter they might work against you as the attractive oils wont leak out as quickly, so the ‘carp’ pellet or boilies type might be a better bet. When using pellets as free bait, it’s always worth mixing lots of sizes (and types) together – it keeps a steady stream of attraction going, and keeps the fish guessing.
Groundbait Groundbait isn’t just limited to Method fishing! It’s a great way of getting attraction into the water, and people don’t often use it on ‘serious’ waters as it only catches small fish, or so they think. Another use is to create a clear area in weed, keep feeding it in and the bream, tench and carp will rip the bottom up for you.
Groundbait
I have a bucket in the shed where I put all my base mix remnants, pellet dust, old boilies, biscuits, dried bread and the odd bag of proprietary groundbait into, and make sure it’s all nicely crumbed up. Problem is, I can’t ever replicate a successful mix!
Liquids
Liquids Liquids such as the various liquid liver compounds, Corn Steep Liquor, condensed milk, fish sauce and fish oils are all worth including in your bait, whether it’s as a soak to boilies/particles, or included in your groundbait or stick mix. It’s also worth seeing if your chosen liquid will melt PVA, if they don’t then it can be a decent method to pour them neat into a bag with a single hookbait. Don’t forget to save the water you’ve cooked your hemp or particles in though!
