Bait Confidence

[Lark]

I'm hoping to get back again this season after an enforced lay-off from angling since late 2015.
I posted this subject or a similar post many years ago, but I think it's worth trundling out again as I think the subject has affected most anglers in some way or form throughout time....
Are there any baits that were generally accepted to be effective/successful that you just couldn't get on with, struggled with or didn't use due to total lack of confidence in them?
Corn, tares, hemp, wheat, bloodworm, worms in general, breadflake, punch, elderberries, all maggot variants, casters, paste, cheese, meat or, dare I blaspheme, pellets or boilies? Or the wide range of, very good, artificial baits available now?

And... did anyone ever catch a roach or dace using silkweed, as recommended by Peter Wheat in the Observer's Book Of Coarse Fishing?..... No, me neither.

Weirdly, my bugbear bait for many years was sweetcorn. Couldn't get on with when it appeared around about the early seventies, probably right up until the early nineties. Then it just seemed to start working for me, which I've always put down to a confidence factor.

Part 2: Is there a bait that you would always take, pretty much without fail, regardless of venue?

 

[john step]

Tub of redworm from my wormery. Always good for a bite. Likewise bread and strawberry paste.
I agree with you regarding sweetcorn. Never much worked for me.

 

[stillwater blue]

Sweetcorn is an amazing bait, I can't believe you don't rate it

I always take hemp and corn, I've got a lot of faith in both.

I tend to fish off the beaten track and have much more confidence in natural baits rather than man made baits. When I was carp fishing I had little confidence in pop-up boilies and was very, very picky with what boilies I would use.

 

[flightliner]

A few maggots are always worth taking as is a tin of corn and or luncheon meat.
On one water I use my go to hookbaits are artificial casters, corn and maggots.

 

[mikench]

Meat, corn and maggots are my go to baits and generally give the better results! I have still to catch anything on artificial bait and that applies to sea fishing as well.

 

[xenon]

sweetcorn just does not work for me. This may be a self fulfilling prophesy-I dont use it because its rubbish, I never catch on it because i dont use it. go to baits for me are maggots tares cheesepaste and breadflake.

 

[The fishing coach]

And... did anyone ever catch a roach or dace using silkweed, as recommended by Peter Wheat in the Observer's Book Of Coarse Fishing?..... No, me neither.

Penton Hook weir on the Thames in the sixties, it was a roach a chuck as long as you didn't touch the weed. It was hooked by just dragging the hook through the weed grownig on the edge of the weir sill.

 

[Keith M]

I have no confidence in using Chick Peas, Potato or Silk Weed although I have tried Chick Peas several times so I have at least given it a try.

Ive had some brilliant summer mornings and evenings chasing Tench and Crucians using Sweetcorn but I have little confidence in using sweetcorn in the colder months. I also add a few grains of corn to my hemp and/or pellet when I’m using it while chasing Barbel in the warmer months.

Tub of redworm from my wormery. Always good for a bite. Likewise bread and strawberry paste.

Like John my go to bait is probably some nice lively redworm from my wormery. I have never liked or caught much on brandlings; their vile tasting yellow blood section I’ve been told is a repellant to some birds and they don’t even look very appetising (not that I would taste them myself of course, Yuck!)

Keith

 

[Lark]

Sweetcorn is an amazing bait, I can't believe you don't rate it

I always take hemp and corn, I've got a lot of faith in both.

I tend to fish off the beaten track and have much more confidence in natural baits rather than man made baits. When I was carp fishing I had little confidence in pop-up boilies and was very, very picky with what boilies I would use.

Aaah, now... I didn't say I don't rate corn, I really do and have had some great success over many years with it.
But when it started to become popular, I just couldn't buy a bite with it. I also think that turning up at a pond or lake where the previous angler had dumped his unused corn into margins leaving a yellow carpet didn't help my perception either.

 

[Lark]

Tub of redworm from my wormery. Always good for a bite. Likewise bread and strawberry paste.
I agree with you regarding sweetcorn. Never much worked for me.

Like you John, I'd be happy to fish any venue using just a tub of dendra's and always try to ensure that I have some with me, wherever the venue, followed by casters and hemp.

 

[Lark]

Penton Hook weir on the Thames in the sixties, it was a roach a chuck as long as you didn't touch the weed. It was hooked by just dragging the hook through the weed grownig on the edge of the weir sill.

Blimey, I tried so hard using that same technique at Odney Weir in the early seventies. Never got a touch.
Put an elderberry back on and it would be taken after barely breaking the surface tension of the water!
I reckon my presentation could have been at fault as I've been told by many people over the years that they had success with silkweed as well.

 

[Alan Tyler]

I wouldn't go without bread, except for a pike match. (If it wasn't a match, I'd take a whip and some bread just in case the pike were being boring).

 

[barbelboi]

Penton Hook weir on the Thames in the sixties, it was a roach a chuck as long as you didn't touch the weed. It was hooked by just dragging the hook through the weed grownig on the edge of the weir sill.

Same here at Marlow weir back in the 60's/70's Martin. Also the little black snails that 'lived' in the weed were brilliant for roach however, I never ever found them in the weed growing to the sill - always in the weed growing in open water for what ever reason.....

 

[108831]

Caught loads of roach on silkweed on both Bedford town centre weirs,you just couldn't go wrong...

 

[morston1]

Same here at Marlow weir back in the 60's/70's Martin. Also the little black snails that 'lived' in the weed were brilliant for roach however, I never ever found them in the weed growing to the sill - always in the weed growing in open water for what ever reason.....

Same at the small weir at Sandford on Thames. There used to be a line of anglers fishing from the weir some days....all catching Roach on silkweed....have not tried it for over 50years now.

 

[steve2]

Artificial baits I always carried them but never got round to using them till last year. I was having problems with my normal maggot baits setup so gave them a try. All my Tench were then caught using artificial red maggot.

Bit like people who say they can't catch fish on lures but never really give them a go.

 

[no-one in particular]

A loaf of bread and a tin of sweetcorn for me, cheap, bulk, buy it anywhere, any fish caught, eels leave it alone most of the time.
Sweetcorn is a hit or miss bait I find, I like to put a few grains in when bread fishing and try it now and again, it either sorts out one or two better fish, or works better than the bread full time so I start using it full time or it does not work at all so, I just carry on using bread most of the time.
I take a few try out baits sometimes and hope I hit a wow bait but bread and sweetcorn, cant go wrong usually on any water or any fish. And so many ways of trying them, find the right way/presentation etc on the day and something will come.

 

[mikench]

Curried chick peas were good last year


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[peterjg]

What bait to use is dependant on the venue and species. If it's a rarely fished venue then best baits are dead maggots (by the way dead maggots are better than live ones) or bread. If the venue is heavily fished then pellets are usually best with Robin Red pellets being the best. As previously said sweetcorn can be fantastic or rubbish and the same goes for wheat. Hemp is great on the Thames but useless on the Kennet (for me anyway). Choritzo sausage can be a great standby bait.

If I could only choose two baits it would be bread or worms.

Nobody has mentioned good old fashioned bread paste, it can be a fantastic bait and for some strange reason it is hardly ever used.

Lastly; using the correct flavour can make an enormous difference. Thirty plus years ago Archie Braddock was so right.

 

[Lark]

Nobody has mentioned good old fashioned bread paste, it can be a fantastic bait and for some strange reason it is hardly ever used.

Lastly; using the correct flavour can make an enormous difference. Thirty plus years ago Archie Braddock was so right.[/QUOTE]

This is a really good point.
I realise that there are many commercials that have a bread/cereal ban in place, but bread and cheese paste is so effective for chub and roach.
On the subject of flavourings, I'm a huge fan of flavouring bait, I've done as long as I can remember.
Never really figured out if it was for my benefit or the fish. But a few drops of Scopex and a teaspoon of turmeric gave me even more confidence in my bronze maggots or stewed wheat for roach and dace on the Thames.