plastic fantastic

[jonnie]

no, not jordan... im talking about plastic baits. I wondered what everybody else was using....

so far I have; rubber maggots (old and new), floating corn, sinking corn, hemp, dog mixer, bloodworm, hook skins (grubby looking hook covers) and rubber pellets... I have to say the hemp, bloodworm and hook skins were not worth the packaging they came in but the rest are fantastic- no more worrying about small fish damaging baits or the bait coming off on the cast! I also use foam on zig rigs/paste rigs.

what do you guys think? am I missing any other good fake baits?

[j_peg]

Not exactly plastic, but I remember using pieces of cable insulation as artificial hemp. The old style mains wiring had black negative wire which had a white inner lining. When cut up into hemp sized pieces and just slid onto the hook bend, it would stay on all day. Loose feeding with hemp on the tidal Thames used to catch plenty of Roach and Dace.
This time of year elderberries were a brilliant alternative

[Ron The Hat Clay]

Artificial baits are nothing new.

We have been using artificial flies for over 3,000 years.

And it's quite possible to create an artificial that is even more attractive to the fish that we pursue than the natural!

[newbieneil]

ive used `pop up`rubber worms (in real worm flavour apparently-although they stink and ive never smelt a real worm that stank like that-if at all)....i bought them to ledger for perch in my local river blythe to escape crayfish on the bottom-but have caught nothin on em yet... ive seen fake bread that looks good-im never confident ledgering real bread,i always think i could be sitting there and its come off the hook 20 mins ago or fry just attack it and whittle it down to nothing so might try that

[Stick_Float]

I've got absolutely no confidence in plastic imitation baits whatsoever, I know others swear by them but I just haven't caught on them. I was tenching recently and decided to use plastic corn that I'd soaked in scopex but after having nothing but after a few tentative enquiries I changed to real corn and within a few minutes a pb tench came to the net.

[Nathan]

Dont discount the old palstic fantastic - especially the floating varieties as they can be used with ordinary baits to make your hookbait appear more natural in the water.
An example of this was when I was fishing a local carp water with a feeder & maggots on the hook. I was only getting little knocks with no real bites so i put a fake maggot on with 2 real maggots to create a slow sinking almost neutral bouyancy bait. Within 2 minutes of casting out I was into my first fish of the day yet when i went back to just normal maggots the bites dried up.

[jonnie]

crafty fish nathan! neil, I have used fake bread and can't say that im hugely impressed, it works well freelined on the surface but its not a very good imitation, nothing really comes close to real bread. A piece of crust is usually enough for me, and when freelining I give it a quick dunk to add casting weight.

fake maggots are brill, I use them popped on on a method rig with maggots in the method mix, canal carp go crazy for it.

fake baits are great when you want the hookbait to last, put up with casting abuse and heavier leads imo. how did you catch the tench stickfloat?

[jonnie]

[Ray Roberts]

I've been using artificial maggots on a short hair with a couple of real ones on the hook, the artificial maggots counter balance the hook and the bites are very positive indeed.

I intend to flavour some artificials by keeping some garlic salt or granules in the same container as the artificials, I will then fish a heavy ground-bait feeder with ground-bait and dead maggots flavoured in the same way.

I have been fishing a two hook rig recently and this lets me fish two different baits in close proximity to the feeder. I intend fishing artificial on one hook and real on the other. I will report back once I have given it a go.

[jonnie]

Originally Posted by Ray Roberts

I've been using artificial maggots on a short hair with a couple of real ones on the hook, the artificial maggots counter balance the hook and the bites are very positive indeed.

I intend to flavour some artificials by keeping some garlic salt or granules in the same container as the artificials, I will then fish a heavy ground-bait feeder with ground-bait and dead maggots flavoured in the same way.

I have been fishing a two hook rig recently and this lets me fish two different baits in close proximity to the feeder. I intend fishing artificial on one hook and real on the other. I will report back once I have given it a go.

nice one ray, I like the sound of that. I take it your after bream or tench, possibly big roach? If you dont mind as well how is the rig constructed? I've seen some like you describe as a helicopter rig.