Bait of last resort

[mikench]

Markcw rightly jokes and takes me to task about the amount and variety of bait I take with me. I am like the fish I try to catch, gullible and swallow the bait!

I now have a take away container full of assorted pellets, boilies, wafters, pop ups etc etc which I replenish from a hoard from time to time. The last couple of trips produced lots of different fish but not those I sought. Maggots are finè and will catch almost anything that swims but I wanted tench. I tried the full range from the container and eventually procured a bite on an 8mm sonubaits pineapple boilie put on a hair. In two trips these boilies have produced over a dozen carp when all else failed. I have no idea why!

This must be a common occurrence and brings me back to Whitty's post in HDYGO about all the conditions being right save fôr the fîsh. Do fish simply want a change because I have never consistently caught using one bait save for maggot.

Is that why it's called fishing and not catching.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I have a rather large bait cold bag and have always taken a decent selecion of baits; maggots, casters, redworms, corn (plain and flavoured) meat and bread as a minimum, an often pinkie as a feed bait too

I rarely use pellets other than in a match, and those are few and far between these days to be honest.

My last resort bait is nealy always . . . bread, but more usually one I begin a session with . . . .

 

[rayner]

Lately it's meat or pellets. This season so far I've bought no casters, I did use caster early on but as soon as the longer days arrived I turned to meat or pellet.
If I fancy a paste day I just take a bag of special G, that's cheap bait against the side of casters.
A full bag of G lasts all day.
Four tins of meat, or a couple of bags of pellet. Also a pint of maggots.
If I take too many bait changes I sort of confuse myself which baits I've fed where, stick to one bait equals no confusion for me or the fish.
Most of my fishing is up in the water or shallow water for paste.
PS if the fish are in a awkward mood it's an early bath.

 

[nottskev]

I've found that changing hookbait is more likely to work on the occasions, and there aren't that many, so |I'm no expert, when I fish feeder or bomb on carpy commercial-type waters. When I do, my bait tray looks a bit like the sweetshop penny tray, with several types of coloured, flavoured hard or hard-ish baits.

On more natural waters, I tend to think it's more about choosing your spot(s) - depth, distance out etc - and methods of presentation, and attracting and stimulating the fish by feeding, rather than about putting out different baits to see what they will accept. (Of course, changing your hookbait is still part of the mix).

For instance, on those small tench lakes we've fished, you can catch them, and the roach and crucians that are in with them, on whatever bait you feed them into taking on the day - cubed meat, hemp and caster, corn, micro's and soft pellet, maggots, even..... So I'm usually happy to have one main bait to feed (I'm counting hemp and caster as one) and maybe one or two others to try on the hook.

But then again, this might just reflect the fact that I'm usually fishing for a net of modest-size fish, and someone after fewer bigger fish might well find the big variety of hookbait options works better for them.
But now it occurs to me that even if I'm after a few better fish, like chub or barbel, I'm inclined to take a decent quantity of a likely bait rather than a selection box, which I find I can usually confuse myself with.

 

[mikench]

It all comes down to the perennial question of how long do you give a bait to work. There are barely enough hours in a session to give them say an hour each.

In the case of my old pineapple boilies the first take was within 10 minutes and the rest were at regular intervals . Yesterday as soon as I used one i got a bite from a crucian and several more followed regularly.ive had these since I first became gullible Er started fishing. I often wish I could just choose a sure fire bait and leave it at that.

 

[theartist]

Being a rover I compromise on bait all the time as I'm limited to how much I can carry, that's why it's best to learn a venue well that way you can take the right bait for the right species on the right day. Doesn't always go to plan but on the whole if you know the venue and your quarry it tends to work out ok

 

[john step]

Got to be worm for me. I always take a box of my compost redworms.

 

[108831]

I tend normally to be a two bait man in most scenarios,apart from breaming,then I take a couple more.

 

[barbelboi]

Being a rover I compromise on bait all the time as I'm limited to how much I can carry, that's why it's best to learn a venue well that way you can take the right bait for the right species on the right day. Doesn't always go to plan but on the whole if you know the venue and your quarry it tends to work out ok

My preferred method too. With the local flowing waters so close (although I often cover a lot of bank) I'll mainly just take a couple of slices of bread or half a pint of reds and often add bank side 'bait' such as slugs, woodlice, water snails, silk weed, elder berries and other sorts of water life available at the time if required.....

 

[rayner]

On more natural waters, I tend to think it's more about choosing your spot(s) - depth, distance out etc - and methods of presentation, and attracting and stimulating the fish by feeding, rather than about putting out different baits to see what they will accept. (Of course, changing your hookbait is still part of the mix).

All my earlier fishing until the commercial explosion was like everyone else's, natural venues.
I was quite good at avoiding commercials until 1999. Then rivers became almost impossible.
Even now my fishing still follows a similar ethos . I use far lighter tackle than need to, my choice. I prefer to play fish rather than just winch them in.
I still take limited choices regarding bait. I've said I only confuse myself. I'd rather take one main bait with one alternative. Being a commercial angler pellets are obligatory so I always have at least one bag of pellets, with mostly meat.
If I bomb fish it's pellet with a change to wafter.
My idea is one bait and make it work, that is apart from a change bait to try to avoid a blank.

 

[theartist]

My preferred method too. With the local flowing waters so close (although I often cover a lot of bank) I'll mainly just take a couple of slices of bread or half a pint of reds and often add bank side 'bait' such as slugs, woodlice, water snails, silk weed, elder berries and other sorts of water life available at the time if required.....

When I go roving for mullet now I take two loaves of bread, I did't realise how heavy bread is. Or after roach two pints of pellets or hemp weigh quite a bit too, throw in a litre or two of water, your lunch and a bit of tackle and go figure the weight. When that lottery win comes and my tackle butler is employed then every bait is getting taken in more than adequate quantities

 

[d.owens]

I've never used a boilie or a pellet, despite being away from angling for a long time until now, I find that bread is the one bait that could always come up trumps. Maggots, worms and sweetcorn always deserve a chuck, but a pinch of bread flake can usually save the day.

 

[Keith M]

Bread is such a versatile bait; it can be fished at any depth from the surface right down to the bottom. It can be torn from a loaf or punched using a bread punch or made into a paste. It is taken by every species (other than predators) and can be used as a cloud groundbait as well as for small slowly sinking particles and flakes to attract fish. It can be flavoured and coloured plus it comes with a crust and a softer part both of which have their different uses. Plus it comes in so many different guises (plain white, whole meal, cheese or garlic flavoured etc. etc.).

Which is why I would choose bread as my last resort.

Keith