Traditional baits - how many of you have used these?

[dezza]

I may have mentioned such baits as creed wheat before, but how about something really traditional

"Bullock's Brains, Pith and Chandler's Greaves!"

To prepare bullocks brains, split open the skull of a bullock, scoop out the brains and place in a large saucepan. Boil up for about a hour.

The pith is basically the marrow which it taken from the spinal cord in the tail of a bullock. Boil it up until it becomes firm and will stay on the hook. Chub and barbel love this combination, you throw the brains into the river to attract the fish then use the pith on the hook.

Chandlers's Greaves came from the bottom of a tallow chandler's boiling pot where animal carcases were rendered down to extract the white fat which floated to the top of the pot. This was removed and made into candles. In time the bottom of the pot was coated with a meaty substance called "greaves". Some people also called it "scratchings" because you had to scratch it with some force to remove it.

This was barbel bait supreme and it stank something awful!

But how many of you have tried these baits? They were held in very high regard by the Victorians, especially by the Trent anglers of the time.

 

[ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)]

I may have mentioned such baits as creed wheat before, but how about something really traditional

"Bullock's Brains, Pith and Chandler's Greaves!"

To prepare bullocks brains, split open the skull of a bullock, scoop out the brains and place in a large saucepan. Boil up for about a hour.

The pith is basically the marrow which it taken from the spinal cord in the tail of a bullock. Boil it up until it becomes firm and will stay on the hook. Chub and barbel love this combination, you throw the brains into the river to attract the fish then use the pith on the hook.

Chandlers's Greaves came from the bottom of a tallow chandler's boiling pot where animal carcases were rendered down to extract the white fat which floated to the top on the pot. This was removed and made into candles. In time the bottom of the pot was coated with a meaty substance called "greaves". Some people also called it "scratchings" because you had to scratch it with some force to remove it.

This was barbel bait supreme and it stank something awful!

But how many of you have tried these baits? They were held in very high regard by the Victorians, especially by the Trent anglers of the time.

Pith off Ron !!!

 

[Stealph Viper]

To prepare bullocks brains, split open the skull of a bullock, scoop out the brains and place in a large saucepan. Boil up for about a hour.

This is a much easier job if the Bullock is already dead, however, not quite as much fun.

 

[Wobbly Face (As Per Ed)]

What quantity of feed do you get from a bullock's brain?
People moan about the feed some modern carp anglers put in!!!

In a nut shell, never used them.

 

[Mark Wintle]

You can get that bait in convenient tins - it's called 'luncheon meat'...

 

[dezza]

Or sausage meat.

In the 60s we used to use sausage meat to catch lots of barbel and chub. We used to stiffen it up with a little corn flour.

When we first started using sausage meat for barbel, we were looked on by some as being a bit cranky. I think it was Tag Barnes who may have been the first with sausage meat for barbel. Then Fred J Taylor wrote about it. Walker reckoned that baby lampreys were the very best barbel bait.

 

[flightliner]

baby lampreys were the very best barbel bait.

A seventeen lb Barbel was taken off the Trent using lampern in the late nineteenth century- the method was set lines. The guy these days who has done the business with lampern is Nev Fickling.--hANG ON -- am I on the right thread????

 

[blankmeister]

Or sausage meat.

In the 60s we used to use sausage meat to catch lots of barbel and chub. We used to stiffen it up with a little corn flour.

When we first started using sausage meat for barbel, we were looked on by some as being a bit cranky. I think it was Tag Barnes who may have been the first with sausage meat for barbel. Then Fred J Taylor wrote about it. Walker reckoned that baby lampreys were the very best barbel bait.

I caught my first (and I think last) Barbel in the Thames at Shepperton on chipolata sausage in the '60s.
(If I remember correctly I also had a Pike).
Ah, those were the days

 

[cg74]

Rather predictable BUT what a load of old "bullocks" this thread is..... (sorry just couldn't resist)

Besides don't all catle brains and spinal cords now have to be incinerated, BSE preventative measures?

Used to use cows blood in my tench groundbait mix about 15 years back, does that count?

 

[dezza]

Fred J Taylor told me of a massive pre-baiting he and his brothers did at Wotton Lakes in Bucks using many buckets of oxblood they got from a slaughter house in Aylesbury.

They also used several buckets full of duck **** that was seething with brandlings, that was obtained from a well known breeder of Aylesbury Ducks, who also lived in Aylesbury, and which stunk to High Heaven, or should I say Low Hell!

But they caught enormous catches of tench.

I remember, along with Steve Crawshaw and Ray Webb, getting Fred Carter of Garnafailagh (Ireland) fame to organise a vast quantity of bullocks blood from the slaughterhouse in Athlone. By crikey the stench was hideous, but we caught huge catches of tench. bream and rudd.

Duck guano, bullocks blood, spinal pith, chandlers greaves, aye well the anglers of today don't know they are born!

 

[slime monster]

I am just off out now armed with a logsplitter , barrow and chainsaw.and I should get two yeds in the barrow
It is only a 5 min walk across fields to find a bullock or two ...
many thanks Ron for this superb tip it will save me going all the way to the Newton Abbot tackle shop .....
now where is my leather apron?

 

[preston96]

You can get that bait in convenient tins - it's called 'luncheon meat'...

Hahaha luv it.

 

[Morespiders]

When we first started using sausage meat for barbel, we were looked on by some as being a bit cranky.

Who would have thought that Ron?

 

[dezza]

Now you know where this old saying came from:

"Old Fishermen never die,
They simply smell that way!"

 

[Philip]

I think it was Tag Barnes who may have been the first with sausage meat for barbel. Then Fred J Taylor wrote about it.

I thought it was Jim Gibbinson who was one of the first to use processed sausage meat. I seem to recall reading he was using it on the Kennet a long time back.

 

[Derek Gibson]

I thought it was Jim Gibbinson who was one of the first to use processed sausage meat. I seem to recall reading he was using it on the Kennet a long time back.

I don't know who was first or not.
What I do know however is that Tag Barnes was using sausage meat up on the Yorkshire rivers in the mid 1950s. And it's still a good bait.

 

[Cakey]

oooooooooooops wrong box sorry

 

[dezza]

Prior to a weekend on the Swale I used to get a couple of pounds of uncooked sausage meat from Castle Market in the centre of Sheffield.

Not only did the meat make good barbel and chub bait, it fed me for a couple of days too.

As regards cooked pork luncheon meat as supplied in a can, I think this didn't start getting popular amongst anglers until the early 70s, but I could be wrong.

I fished with old Tag Barnes on quite a few occasions. He was very innovative and was always experimenting with different baits. He was the first angler I can think of that used dead maggots on silty bottoms. He killed the maggots by scalding them. These days I kill maggots by deep freezing them.

 

[Philip]

I think UK anglers in general are probably one of the most inventive & the leaders when it comes to bait in general.
In France for example Carp anglers are always trying to find out what the latest “must have” bolie in the UK is and cheese rather than sauasage meat would be the first bait suggested for Barbel over there.

 

[Derek Gibson]

Still on the theme of baits, I was reminded only yesterday, by an old friend, of the strange baits, (at that time) we used for Barbel and Chub, up on the Yorkshire rivers.
Lamprey, we were put onto that bait by the old Bailiff on the river Ure, ''Mr Steel''. He assured us there was no better bait for Barbel and Chub, than a small section of Lamprey whilst they were running. We were sceptical initially, but after a few trials we became converts.
Peeled prawn's, Shrimps, Chicken skin, Bacon rind, scraps of Yorkshire Pudding and Sausage meat. All the above have taken good bag's of Carp and Perch. These were effective baits over forty years or more ago.
Yes, we anglers are an innovative lot, long may it continue.