fishing on a budget

I love my fishing and go once a week but only have a budget of about ?5 - ?6 a week to spend on bait and tackle I dont have to fork out money every week for a venue as i am a member of my local club who have a stretch of river and three different lakes making up the caerphilly castle moat plus I know for a few free places.
Here's a few things that got me through this years fishing.

Vitalin dog food brilliant for bream and tench

Cheap loaves of bread for making bread mash, liquidised bread etc

kingsmill half white half brown bread for bread puch

1.5kG packs safeway savers sweetcorn

Hemp seed in ?1 bags plenty for two or three trips.

never throw unused maggots away keep them untill they turn into casters for next weeks fishing

compost heap for worms

Always recycle as much tackle as possible re-use split shot etc

always keep an eye out for discarded line tackle on the bank side and give it a tug found loads of lures weights and other bits and pieces last year even collected about thirteen feeders when they drained the lake by walking round the edge of the lake

making my own pike floats, feeders etc.

The only thing I really like to keep really new is my reel line, hooks, and have a few different breaking strain reduced diameter hook length material.

I think i did ok last year on a budget does anyone else fish on a budget and how do think your fishing catches compare to other anglers who have all the fancy baits and equipment

I HAVE A SMALL BUDGET...

I TEND TO USE SMALL TINS OF SWEETCORN AND LUNCHEON MEAT.

I FISH THE GRAND UNION CANAL MOST OF THE TIME ALTHOUGH I JOINED THE MKAA AND WILL BE USING THE LAKES AND RIVERS MORE OFTEN.

I HAVE SHELLED OUT FOR GROUNDBAITS AND I LIKE PELLETS TO. ALSO I BUY FRENZIED HEMP WHEN FINANCES ALLOW...

I BOUGHT A JOB LOT OF HOOKS AND PVA BAGS DIRT CHEAP ON THE NET.SO THAT HELPS ALOT

I'M A PROPER NOVICE SO MY CATCH RATE ISN'T THAT IMPRESSIVE BUT I ENJOY MYSELF WHICH IS PARAMOUNT AND I'M LEARNING ALL THE TIME!!

Andym I've been going fishing for years but I'm also a bit of a novice at stillwater angling and have only been doing it seriously for a couple of years, my catch rates have improved dramatically since visiting fishing magic and reading about how to fish for certain fish and learning more about rigs but the biggest improvement has come through understanding more about how much groundbait to use and how often to feed, as for what i use for groundbait i have found less important.
I have tried shop bought groundbaits and apart from using supercup black for roach i haven't that it catches me anymore fish then my home made stuff.

The saving made buy buying bait in sacks is enormous. Look out for Brown Crumb, Hemp, Fishmeal, Pellets, Maize, Pidgeon Conditioner and much more. If you have a Jolleys pet store and you've not been you ought to.

Andyw. Typing in capitals is considered as shouting on the web. Is difficult to read too. Just trying to help!

Agree with Matt buy in bulk from farm feed stores. Lucky here in Blackburn there is one in the town centre. 25 kilo of hemp is only around ?12 or 70p a kilo loose and prepare yourself. Pellets work out aroun ?1.50 a kilo this over the year amounts to big savings.

Hi matt, i haven't found anywhere local yet that sells brown crumb in sacks but it would save having to liquidise all my bread which does get on my nerves a bit. i'll have to check the web and see if there is a jolleys local.
The vitalin i've been buying is basically maize flakes but with wheat and meat flavours as well works brilliant for bream i even managed to hook a piece and caught a bream on one of the maize flakes which gave me more confidence in it's effectivness and at ?5 for a 10kg sack at morrisons pretty cheap.
When I told some of the local match anglers and club members that I had been using vitalin for the bream they laughed and looked at me stupid there loss as i have had some excellent catches of bream this year
Bryan what type of pellets are you buying for ?1.50 are they for the hook or loosefeed.

yeah sorry Matt Brown... I'm aware of the world wide net etiquette on caps... its just at work we have too use caps on the comps and i'm not quick enough to be able to switch between calls!!!

thats what i like to see someone making the most of their spare time

i once won a club match on the nene at oundle and netted ?60 pools money a few years ago with over 15lbs of bream using liquidised bread combined with casters and hemp in a feeder.
its a cracking bait,dirt cheap and 10 mins putting a couple of loaves through the blender aint no hassle really is it.

nah not really but i think i could do with better blender i must be a bit crazy but when my blender broke at the end of the summer i ended up using my strimmer with a large bucket to whiz up my bread then riddled it to get out all the lumps much quiker than the blender but much more dangerous only really for trained professionals please dont try this at home

Nicholas. Halibuts for hook and feed. CC Moores ?31 + ?7 pp for 25 kilo equals ?1.52 a kilo.

cheers bryan and what species of fish will readily take these

This season i have caught on 14mm Halibuts

Barbel over 10Ib
Chub over 5Ib
Roach 2Ib
Carp 16Ib
Bream 5Ib