Mussles

[Coxy]

I've been trying to target tenchon a water largely inhabited it would seem by carp, while i enjoy caching carp up tomid doubles, i'ts the tench i'm realy after.

After trying pretty much every hookbait/groundbait mix i could think of, i'm finaly connecting with the odd tenchon mussle hook bait with a few blended up & added to the ground bait. My problem is that when presented either strait to the hook or on a hair or under a float for that matter,smaller fish are ripping the the mussles apart within minutes.

I seem to be connecting with the oddtench on the first or second cast up tight to the reedsso they are realy showing an instantliking to the mussles but then the smaller fish move in.

Tried using method feeders as apposed to cage feeders in the hope that the smaller fish would attack the feeder instead of the hook baitbut it hasen't worked, neither has using a different hook bait, corn & breaddoesen't get touched & boilies, pellets& lunchen meat eventualy picks up the carp.

Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated as i believe there are some good size tench present &i'm starting to tare whats left of my hair out here!

 

[slime monster]

do you mean freshwater mussels? i dont know if its still legal to collect them maybe the fm lads could answer that. all i know is half of one on a large hook can be deadly for big tench and bream. it sounds to me like you are over complicating things and trying too many baits at once .if you can sit on top of the tench and fish the margins that would be better than casting feeders at them <a sure way to attract carp>.

 

[Coxy]

There are freshwater mussels (correct spelling, thank you)present but i've been using the frozen ones from Tesco.

The baits i have tried have been over a period of weeks, i gave the more conventional baits a good golast season as well. i'ts just so frustrating thatnow i'vefound a bait through a lot of trial & error that finaly seems to work only to find it won't stay in one peice long enough to do the bussines.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Coxy,

I think the problem might be that you are using the frozen ones. Typically, anything that has been frozen becomes pretty soft when defrosted.

I'd recommend buying the ones in brine and frying them off in the brine solution (somewhat like a boilie?) giving them a harder outer coating, and then using the brine solutiuon in my feeder mix.

Worth a try?

 

[Alan Tyler]

Cockles might be worth a go. Plain/in brine, not the ones in vinegar.

 

[Neneman Nick]

Don`t enterprise tackle do fake rubber mussels??? i`m sure i`ve seen them somewhere???

If so you could keep these soaked in the mussel brine for a while and then mount on a hair or hookand use the real ones in groundbait/feed.

 

[Paul (Brummie) Williams]

I think Peter has hit the nail on the head.......i never feel as confident with "naturals" that have been frozen, it does change them, in both texture and at times taste.

 

[marcus ballam]

try using that thin bait elestic that the sea boys use?

 

[Coxy]

Right ok, i'm gonna try fresh mussels & maybe cocklesnext week, that does make sense.

There's also redworms i haven't tried yet, never used them but they are supposed to be a good tench baitso i'll see if i can get hold of some & maybe look at some of the artificial baits.

Many thanks guys.

 

[alan]

Marcus, the elastic wont stop the little ones eating the bait. we only use the elastic to whack soft baits out, without them disintegrating during the cast.

 

[Ben Haigh]

have you considered using one of the new enterprise bait cage thingymadoodahs? a mussel squashed down into one of them should make things a bit more selective? although i must admit, i haven't used them myself yet, but it seems like it would be worth a try?

 

[Coxy]

Enterprise bait cage....... Had to do a search on that as i'm not realy up on new stuff but as far as i can see it's a small clear plastic ball, bit like a maggot feeder that goes on a hair with the bait inside...... Blimey, this is all a bit technical for me!

Yes i can see your thinking on this Ben, anyone tried these, i'm guessing they would probablyonly work on a hair as by the time a fish has inhaled the bait it's already hooked?

 

[MarkTheSpark]

Get a load of mussels and blend them, add to plain boilie mix, and make hard, mussel-flavour boilies. It's possible they are homing in on the orangey colour, so dye it if you have to.

 

[Cakey]

I used to fry mine to get a hard coat

 

[Bully]

But the original question was based on catching tench and avoiding carp. So, I'd say pretty impossible. They both munch much the same.

My only observation would be based on my tenching on a local "estate" type lake. I fished early, always raked and fished cockles over hemp. The tench always seemed to get in first. And a re-rake later on always seemed to do the trick again.

At the end of the day though you tell me a bait a tench will scoff and a carp will not?

 

[Cakey]

"My problem is that when presented either strait to the hook or on a hair or under a float for that matter,smaller fish are ripping the the mussles apart within minutes."

 

[njb51]

You tell em, Cakey!

 

[Cakey]

I will

 

[coelacanth]

On Bolton Fish Market you can get frozen surf clams, which are like extra-large cockles, they are pretty tough-textured and should survive the attentions of smaller fish.

They also do live mussels which you could cook yourself with any extra flavouring you like (chilli, garlic, coconut milk, lemon grass....), and try different cooking times to get tougher bait (they are so quick you could do them before setting off, 5 minutes and they're done).

 

[Coxy]

Thanks guys, i'm taking all this in, can't get out to try anything untill next week unfortunetly but this has certainly given mea few ideas to try.