Super size hemp for hookers

[tiinker]

No Problem Ravey.
Had a quiet day today, decided it would be too bright to go fishing (and I had promised to take the Mrs out for a meal) so I updated my picture album on here as well.

---------- Post added at 13:16 ---------- Previous post was at 13:13 ----------

BY the way, I need to make a small correction, I used to use Dylon cloth dye for Tares now I use a black food dye that I bought from a cake shop.
For the life of me I cannot remember what it is called but it comes in a little bottle.

I was taught to add a desert spoon of bicarb to every pound of tares to make them go shiny black have you tried this.

 

[Keith Speer]

Yes Tinker I do that as well as the dye, bicarb alone leaves some Tares a bit brown and I like mine proper black, also a mate of mine recons that bicarb helps to "fix" the dye.

Not being a chemist I don't know if this is right.

Of course in season I drop the Tares and use Elderberry, these can be absolutely deadly for Roach, Chub AND particularly Barbel.
And there does not need to be a Elderberry bush anywhere near the river for miles, they still work a treat.

Mac used to pickle them in small jars and use them all year around, I just cannot stand the smell of vinegar on my fingers, he also tried formalin, to me that smells even worse and I am sure it must put the fish off, but Mac always seemed to get bites on them.

He would also often use Hemp alone in winter on milder days, it nearly always took him a while to get fish going, but once he did start catching, he would often catch me up and then surpass my catch rate.

As I said he was mustard on the seed, I could never get them going in winter as well as he did, I much preferred Caster and chopped worm, in milder weather and punch and puff when it was real cold.

These days in winter on the tidal Thames (or summer for that matter) I use "wet bread", Keith Clarke (Clackers as he is known) showed me how to use "wet bread" from the punts on the tideway, done properly that does take some beating.

 

[dorsetandchub]

Keith,


Heard a lot about this "wet" bread. Are there any articles anywhere detailing its preparation?

Thanks a million for the input so far - fascinating stuff.

 

[peter crabtree]

Keith,


Heard a lot about this "wet" bread. Are there any articles anywhere detailing its preparation?

Thanks a million for the input so far - fascinating stuff.

Wet bread? New thread maybe. I'm interested too...

 

[tiinker]

Yes Tinker I do that as well as the dye, bicarb alone leaves some Tares a bit brown and I like mine proper black, also a mate of mine recons that bicarb helps to "fix" the dye.

Not being a chemist I don't know if this is right.

Of course in season I drop the Tares and use Elderberry, these can be absolutely deadly for Roach, Chub AND particularly Barbel.
And there does not need to be a Elderberry bush anywhere near the river for miles, they still work a treat.

Mac used to pickle them in small jars and use them all year around, I just cannot stand the smell of vinegar on my fingers, he also tried formalin, to me that smells even worse and I am sure it must put the fish off, but Mac always seemed to get bites on them.

He would also often use Hemp alone in winter on milder days, it nearly always took him a while to get fish going, but once he did start catching, he would often catch me up and then surpass my catch rate.

As I said he was mustard on the seed, I could never get them going in winter as well as he did, I much preferred Caster and chopped worm, in milder weather and punch and puff when it was real cold.

These days in winter on the tidal Thames (or summer for that matter) I use "wet bread", Keith Clarke (Clackers as he is known) showed me how to use "wet bread" from the punts on the tideway, done properly that does take some beating.

You should try preserving the berry in alcohol and sugar that works well and you would enjoy getting it on your fingers. My next door neighbour has a enormous elderberry at the bottom of the garden so I always have a good supply.

 

[dorsetandchub]

Wet bread? New thread maybe. I'm interested too...

Peter,

The Thames punt anglers have been caning specimen sized bream on it, apparently. Fish easily into double figures.

Anyway, it sounds like it can be tweaked and adapted for anywhere else so I'd really like to find out more about it.

Very best.


Phil.

 

[tiinker]

Peter,

The Thames punt anglers have been caning specimen sized bream on it, apparently. Fish easily into double figures.

Anyway, it sounds like it can be tweaked and adapted for anywhere else so I'd really like to find out more about it.

Very best.


Phil.

Look up Bill Rushmoor Anglers Mail he uses it on the Thames were it is a traditional bait for trotting.

 

[lambert1]

Bill Rushmer does a video on Anglers Mail TV on wet bread Phil
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyugxT7oY68]Make amazing wet bread fishing bait - YouTube[/ame]

 

[dorsetandchub]

Lamb,



Brill, thanks for this mate - really appreciate it.


Bestest,



Phil.

 

[lambert1]

Welcome as always mate

 

[dorsetandchub]

You're a star. Cheers bud, going to give that a try.....cheapest bread and some sea salt. Gotta be worth a go.

Thanks a million, mate

 

[lambert1]

I tried it with the cheapest Sainsburys loaf and it did not work too well so I think you might be better with a medium to thick slice loaf of slightly better quality imho

 

[Keith Speer]

Hmmm! seen the video and (in my opinion) Bill did not give the whole story.

To get the most out of wet bread, you need to fish it in conjunction with the right feed, when we fish from the punts on the Thames tideway, we use bread and nothing else, bread groundbait and wet bread hookbait.

I have a piece that I wrote for another site about bread, there seems to be a bit of interest so i will dig it out and start another thread on this very subject.

 

[lambert1]

Thanks Keith that would be great

 

[shaunyboy]

Hi Ravey

No Mac was a disagreeable old bas....d that my dad used to work with, dad was often too busy to take me fishing and Mac was retired, so he would pop into my mums shop and say:-"Tell the boy to be ready at 6am" and walk out.
If I was not ready at the gate he would just drive by!!
Never said a word on the way to the river, when we got there (it was always the tidal Thames) he would stop and tell me where to fish, then he would tell me why and then go to his swim for an hour and not say a word.
Then he would come and sit behind me, tell me what I was doing wrong and bash me round the head until I got it right, satisfied he would go and fish and not say another word until it was too dark to see, when I saw him pack up I had to hurry up and get back to his car and he would not say another word until we got home, then it was "Bye!" and off he went.

He was the best angler on the float I have ever seen, he would only fish with me and my dad!
Loads of top match anglers would try and speak to him, and he would ignore them all.

I would not trade my memories of fishing with him for gold, well maybe pure, gold but it would have to be a lot!!

As for dye I use Dylon cloth dye, I am sure you can still get it.

Tares, I use all sizes just to mix it up a bit, similarly I use one two or three Casters or Maggots on the hook, again just to mix it up and find what they are taking.

As for line I go as fine as I can, but I am fishing for BIG Roach and they can pull a bit, the 3lb fish I had in January fought like a demon and very nearly broke me when it went for the reeds on the far bank, which I was fishing very close to.
If I am fishing a swim with loads of room to play a fish then I do go a bit lighter but as I often fish close to "features" I use something that will stop the fish.

I much prefer eyed hooks because I like to tie them with a knot less knot, this "kicks" the hook over rather in the way of a bent hook rig that the carp boys use.
I have had spade end hooks suddenly break off, I think this is because the spade cuts into the line.

Shaunyboy

I tend not to feed lots when I first start because many of the waters that I fish are public and as such have seen a lot of bait, for this reason I like to put it in as a drip feed, I find I get better fish that way, I think that big Roach and particularly big Barbel can be a bit fussy about finding a load of bait sitting in one place, I also assume that there are already fish in my swim and putting a lot in at once can spook them.

One of the things the Barbel boys tend to do is put in several pints of hemp in several swims, leave it and go back later, I am certain this spooks the bigger fish, my constant feed of small amounts often brings them in.
I can think of many occasions on the Thames when my Roach swim is suddenly full of Barbel at the end of the day as the light starts to fail, I think they see a load of other fish feeding and move in because they don't want to miss out, Barbel can be greedy sods and if you draw them into a peg after loose feeding all day they can be absurdly easy to catch!

This might be different "Op T frozen north", I don't know as I don't get the chance to fish there often.

Anyway thanks for your comments chaps and I am always happy to answer questions or suggestions.

Tight lines.

You may have something there Keith , i have noticed that although i gain a bigger stamp of roach on hemp the even bigger boys are quite illusive .
One thing i would like to know keith is if you find it possible to turn a swim from bread/maggot say , to a hemp swim later in the session , something which i have struggled with .

 

[Keith Speer]

Hi Shaunyboy

Yes I have turned a swim from Bread to Hemp/Maggot in a session, however I very rarely rely on just one bait, I always feed several baits from the start, If I am using....say bread punch, I feed liquidised bread AND a few grains of hemp at the same time, in match circles we used to call it "Spotted ****", i.e liquidised bread with a mixture of hemp in with it, so there was a constant flow of hemp going in, not masses but the odd few grains, if I want to change over to maggot I will keep putting in a little liquidised bread AND a few maggots, slowly reducing the liquidised bread and increasing the amount of maggots.

In summer I find I can change from one bait to another fairly easily, if I need to, by gradually reducing one bait in favor of another, in winter this is much more difficult, however in winter I rarely use hemp at all for Roach, if I am Barbel fishing I almost always use a little hemp (sometimes a lot).

To be fair when Roach fishing I tend to stick with 2 baits, say hemp and caster or hemp and maggot most of the time, I stick with them because these days I am trying to catch the bigger fish as opposed to more smaller fish.
When I fished matches my target was quantity NOT quality, now I just spend my time after the bigger fish, often this means that putting in too many differing baits will put off the bigger fish.

The biggest and best lesson I ever learned was not to put in too much (you can put it in, but you cannot take it out), conversely when to put in a lot, this can only come from experience, that lesson cost me a lot in match fees and pools money.
I ALWAYS question how much and why, these days I have to have a damn good reason to put in extra feed and I won't put in one more maggot than I need to, I always remember that there are 4,000 casters to a pint and if the 3lb Roach I am targeting only takes ten casters all day, then if I put in a pint through the day, I am reducing my chances of tricking that fish to 400 to 1.
Obviously other fish might be in the swim, but if you keep that ratio in mind then you start to question just how much feed you use and that is not a bad thing.

When I fish wet bread, I use ONLY wet bread (usually this is only on bigger rivers like the Thames AND only in winter), again I am usually only interested in the quality fish and I am happy to wait for them alone, often I have found that I might only get a few bites, but I am happy to wait it out, if I don't get any bites, well this does happen and to be fair I do get quite a few blanks, I put it down to experience and get on with it.
Even when I blank I usually learn something (often it is what I did wrong or badly), happily I actually enjoy fishing for its own sake, for me it is like a game of chess and I don't always win!!

Tight lines