hooks and baits

[khampson]

Hi I've just started match fishing and need some advice, I went on a match on Sunday but I had trouble with my bait, I fished a size 16 barbless hook but I had trouble keeping and getting bait to stop on it, I bought some 4mm pellets but they were to hard to hook on, I wet them and they just broke up so I ended up just loose feeding pellets, I cut luncheon meat up but that was to soft and came off the hook after about 20 seconds , my sweetcorn was same and this kept covering my hook point so I missed bite after bite, everytime the sweetcorn had gone after every bite, I did use worm and that stopped on ok but they did seem a little long for hook bait, if I chopped them down I never got a knock, I did use double maggot and got the odd fish, same with bread, 20 seconds and it had gone from my hook

What am I doing wrong and how can I learn the best way to stop the baits being a problem as I it was very frustrated, I know other fishermen were using these baits and were catching. Any help and advice to help me.

Keith

[dangermouse]

Hi Keith.

It sounds to me like you were trying to hook feed pellets which as far as I know won`t work. You`ll either need to use hooker pellets or to use a pellet band to keep them on the hook. I will say though that I don`t fish with pellets so I`m just going on what I`ve heard/read and maybe someone else will have another solution.

Luncheon meat can tend to fly off on the cast (presuming you were using a rod and reel) one option is to hair rig it, the other is to toughen the exterior of the meat by gently frying it. If you were using a pole then someone else is going to have to supply an answer because again I don`t fish that way.

Quick question about the corn, was it frozen or out of a tin? Frozen corn tends to be a bit soggy and is better for loose feed than hooking. Use tinned corn for the hook it tends to be a bit firmer. Not sure why you couldn`t push it on so the hook point was exposed, a 16 hook is definitely big enough. Anyway here`s a short vid that shows you how to hook corn

How to hook Sweetcorn | Fishing For Tench

Don`t worry about worms looking long on the hook. I was fishing small dendrobenas today on an 18 hook.

I`ll leave the bread question to someone else b`cos I sometimes struggle to get the damn stuff to stay on too lol.

What I would say is that you might want to avoid match fishing for a while until you get the basics down otherwise you`re probably just throwing money away.

Hope that helps a little.

[mark brailsford 2]

Hair rigging is the way to go mate, if you cannot be bothered tying your own (which to be honest, is easy if you learn to tie the knot less knot) you can buy them ready tied and most hook companies do them...go on give it a try, you won't be disappointed!

[sma]

Ref using bread. Get yourself a drennan fllake punch, simple to use and very effective.

[chav professor]

Originally Posted by khampson

What am I doing wrong and how can I learn the best way to stop the baits being a problem as I it was very frustrated, I know other fishermen were using these baits and were catching. Any help and advice to help me.

Keith

Best thing to do is to chat to your match fishing competitors and ask them to help you out and ask how they either prepare there pellets for soft hooking or banding. I have no experience of match fishing in fresh water - But match fished on the east coast sea fishing circuit for about 5 years......

I learnt more in about six months from my competitors (now great mates) than I would if I had spent 10 years working things out for myself. Of course, due to the nature of match fishing not all secrets are revealed easily, but good quality basics and advanced techniques are passed on freely.

Stick with the match fishing, stick with a method you know and feel comfortable with - Don't be afraid to ask your match fishing colleagues about pellets! Your fishing techniques will vastly improve as a result of match fishing!!!

[agamemnon]

with the meat i presume you push the hook through then turn the hook 90 degrees and get a bit of grass between the bend and the meat, this will help keep the meat on till you get a decent bite.
with corn thread the point of the hook into the corn and bring it out the side, corn is so soft that it really shouldnt matter if the point is covered as a good strike should easily hook the fish. always use tinned corn as well, i find that green giant or aldi own brand is about the best corn you can get.
the thing i found when match fishing was the need to fish as light as possible due to all the preasure on the water at the time. if its small fish your after (under 4lbs) then use a real light hook link and maybe go down to a 20 hook. i tend to use double maggot rather than single and i find the way i hook the maggots makes a real big difference to the amount of bites i might get, give the maggot a gentle squeeze and then hook it through the beard if lots of juice comes out throw the maggot away and get another, also i find a bronze and red together a really good combo

[frederico]

use soft hooker pellets for rod and line, expanders for pole. You can use expander pellets on a rod and line but you cant cast that far with them. I like the sensas and sonubaits soft hooker pellets, and I feed micro pellets with them but I soften these and mould them into small balls for throwing in. Also with regards to hair rigging, if you learn how to tie the knotless knot you can attach a band to your hair which you can pass through meat, corn, soft hooker pellets etc... and let the band expand after you've passed it through the bait with a baiting needle... korum quick stops are great to....

[itsfishingnotcatching]

I don't fish matches but I use a fair bit of bread, the critical thing for me is keeping it really fresh and soft, once it's been exposed to sun and heat it starts to harden and never seems to stay on the hook as well. If you dont have a bread punch, pinch off a piece proportionate to the hook size compress it, fold over and hook through the folded side, (well it works for me). If you put flake on the hook as the magazines and books instruct i.e. just pinch the bread around the hook shank, you need to ensure the natural (not compressed) part is slightly smaller than the compressed otherwise it retains too much bouyancy. Warburtons and Hovis have always seemed to give better results for me but I'm sure there are those who will swear Aldi sliced works just as well