Snappy Bread Crust Presses

Just spotted the review for these things and it brought back memories of the Lesney Bread Bait Press that was sold in the early 60s. They turn up fairly regularly on eBay: Lesney-Bait-Press
but they were about as useless as the Snappy ones appear to be.

Lesney were better known as the maker of Matchbox Toys.

Mmmm.... Maybe not.

I have been experimenting with bread and bread baits a bit in recent weeks and have been looking back at some of the old masters who had perfected how best to use bread given the lack of availabilty of other baits now commonly used such as maggots and casters.

The common consensus on preparing crust was to trim the crust of the bottom of a tin loaf leaving on a little of the crumb say up to a centrimetre but often less.These would be then soaked, wrapped in cloth before being place between boards overnight with a heavy weight on top.In the morning the crust would be compressed with much of the moisture forced out.The consistenccy would be quite rubbery allowing the bread to be cut into small cubes or diamonds.If stored well to prevent drying out the baits could be used as and when needed all day long.The rubbery consistency meant they stayed on the hook very well.They almost reconstituted when on the hook.

Bread prepared like this was commonly used on the Thames where it was, and indeed still is, known as "Wet Bread".

Another method was advocated by that great Avon Roach legend Capt L.A Parker of the Bull at Downtown.He did not like conventional "Wet Bread" as he thought the crust element made it too buoyant which required the placing of a shot too near the hook to get it down in the water.Parker always argued that there should be no shot on the hooklength as it impaired the natural movement of the bait both to the fish and around weed and snags on the bottom when trotting.

His method was to cut the crust of the bread but leaving about an inch of the crumb on it.It would be soaked overnight and in the morning the excess water would be gently drained off by placing the crust on a cloth.He would then cut away the brown crust and the excess crumb to be left with a depth of bread of about a centimetre or slightly less depending on how bigg a bait he wanted on the day.The consistency of the bread just under the crust cut away was half way between crust and flake giving you both the ability of crust to stay on the hook with the fluffiness of flake but with almost a neutral buoyancy.Again if stored carefully in an air tight tin the bait preserved these characteristics all day.

I prepeared some in this fashion for a session last week and it stayed on the hook for several casts unlike simple flake.

For anyone interested, I'd recommend gettng a copy of Parker's "This Fishing".Well out of print but a brilliant exposition of bread fishing the Avon for Roach of which he was one of the undoubted masters.

Now for some of his experiments on ground baiting.Can anyone tell me what "Sharps" or "Middlings " were??

Nigel, where does compressed bread, especially when treated in the manner described by Parker, become stiff paste?

I like the idea of compressed bread, but only to the point where it can still swell very gradually into a reasonably soft hookbait. Taken too far I reckon it then becomes a different bait entirely.

Graham,

I think paste is a completely different animal and prepared by soaking the bread minus crusts, squeezing it out in a cloth and then working it all together again in the cloth.I suspect very few use it these days although have heard Baz mention it when after canal roach.

The thing about Parkers method was that there was no compression involved at all.It was the consistency and texture of the bread just under the brown exterior crust coupled with the fact that it was damp that kept it on the hook.

The "Wet Bread" method does compress the crust under the weights but it does swell up again when on the hook.It will stay on the hook for ages which is a boon when trotting.

I have used the Drennan punches a lot but found that I was missing bites where the fish took the soft fluffy bit leaving the compressed bit.

The practice of steaming sliced bread then compressing overnight that canal matchmen in particular use has much the same effect. They use it on small hooks and it is punched out but there is nothing to stop you using larger punches like the Drennan say. It certainly stays on the hook much better than ordinary punched bread but it is also a different consistency.

I know Nigel likes to experiment with bread in its various forms to catch that elusive big mullet but I don't think these snappy bread presses will give him much of an advantage - BUT - you never know!

One experiment I would like to repeat graham was when you chucked in that football sized ball of mash in the edge of the Harbour.The milky cloud that was giving off was just about perfect and would have kept going all day.

Middlings is a millers' term for the coarse part of ground wheat - probably anything too coarse to be sold as "flour"; Chambers gives "sharps" as the hard part of ground wheat, middlings - so theres probably only the one magic ingredient! I've seen modern animal diet recipes calling for middlings, but I don't know where you'd get them - corn chandlers are about as common on the high street as costermongers!

Would you like to know how to do it Nigel (without the falling in bit) but it is a bit of B.....r to carry. If you dropped that in on your trotting line directly in front of you oooooohhh!

Middlings were much mentioned by JW Martin the Trent otter for use as groundbait.

The most common use in those days was as feed for pigs.

I remember the Moko Lesney crust press very well, I fact I had one. Without going into too much detail, it was next to useless.

**** Walker also wrote this anachronism off with a few succinctly chosen adjectives.

I have used bread crust for years, especially for roach and chub and all I have ever done is aquire a farmhouse loaf and tear bits off.

I've got a set of Drennan Flake punches that give different oval shaped hookbaits that are great for trotting, winter chubbing or floatfishing for tench in the summer, under a fiver for the set if I remember rightly as well, had them for over 8 years and still cutting as well as when I first bought them. Very usefull.

but I don't know where you'd get them.

animal feed merchants, grain conditioning food for horses old chap.

As we all know presses are nothing new,and not really a practical addition to the anglers armoury. Anybody can get hold of decent bread for crust fishing,just have a look on the supermarket shelves.Myself I dont want the bait coming back when i reel in,i want it to come off, thus helping the swim to be topped up, instead of over feeding by hand.