My home made ground bait really works!

Being able to catch fish one after the other and build a big bag of fish is something I thought only others could achieve. Not any more!

I spent all day Thursday at my favourite commercial lake comparing two of my home made groundbaits, Two Dog and Red dog, the recipes can be found on my blog with a few others I have made over the summer. They all seem to work on the feeder to some extent or another but one, Two Dog, seems to stand head and shoulders above the rest.



I have never caught so many fish before. It is only recently that I have had enough practise to be able to land the feeder in the same spot cast after cast. it is now that I can achieve that most of the time that the Two Dog really shows its worth. The full story can be found on my Blog, for anyone who is interested.

I made the stuff as a bit of a joke back in April this year as I was convinced that fish would come to anything that made a splash and eat the offerings - how wrong could I be. They really do seek out the
Two Dog and ignore the Red Dog...

I really enjoy messing about with bait, and when it works it is even better, In the past few weeks I have had other anglers around the lake come and ask me what I am using as I seem to out-perform most of the other on the lake at the time.

Lets hope it works half as well for the last match of the season next week at Beaver Fishery.

Ralph

Getting page not found for all your links. I do like your pic though - that fish seems to have quite a personality.

robtherake said:

Getting page not found for all your links. I do like your pic though - that fish seems to have quite a personality.

Click to expand...

Hmmm... Maybe the forum software limits the number of links. I have removed a couple and the other two now work.

Ralph

Yep links work fine.
Bread and rich tea bickies are the simplest of ingredients that work... to a point. Turmeric is also a very good ingredient and increases the attraction as you have found out, but mainly as a dye, not so much as a nutrient as its very poorly assimilated by the fish.
Suggest adding a pinch of black pepper and watch your catch rate go up even more! BUT first the pepper and turmeric both need to be soaked beforehand in boiling water (make into a paste and leave overnight before adding to the base) for them to work effectively!

NB. prepared turmeric/Piper nigrum (together) increases the nutritional aspect of turmeric by up to 2000 percent, which in turn makes it much more attractive to fish.

Good read by the way.

Cannot really call my mix for method feeder home made, but here it is and it works a treat. Van Den Eynde red method mix split 50/50 with vitalin, add hemp and drinking chocolate, soaked bidseed, molasses diluted with water to mix, leave the lot in a bucket overnight and place a wet cloth on top, when you fish with it and it starts getting dry, use a rose spray to dampen. If you relly want to experiment, a quantity of minced beef in the mix and use slivers of raw steak directly on a size 12, put the line clip on and bang six shots straight out to get a bait bed.

laguna said:

Yep links work fine.
Bread and rich tea bickies are the simplest of ingredients that work... to a point. Turmeric is also a very good ingredient and increases the attraction as you have found out, but mainly as a dye, not so much as a nutrient as its very poorly assimilated by the fish.
Suggest adding a pinch of black pepper and watch your catch rate go up even more! BUT first the pepper and turmeric both need to be soaked beforehand in boiling water (make into a paste and leave overnight before adding to the base) for them to work effectively!

NB. prepared turmeric/Piper nigrum (together) increases the nutritional aspect of turmeric by up to 2000 percent, which in turn makes it much more attractive to fish.

Good read by the way.

Click to expand...

I am pleased you like my blog!

That's very interesting, Thank you! I understand how cooking the turmeric will make a difference but I don't understand what the black pepper will do in such small quantities . I am not doubting its effectiveness, I just don't understand what it does.

If anyone want to give any of my recipes a try for yourself, they are all published on my blog. I am constantly trying new groundbait and other baits and share the results. At the moment I am experimenting with hook-baits like expander pellets and jelly pellets, but so far the best hook-bait I have discovered is punched bacon grill lightly cooked in oil. Now I am wondering if I should try a batch with turmeric added to the oil or even roll the punched the meat in it before cooking.

What I need is one of those meat cutters - any recommendations? I have looked at the MAP ones but they seem to be very expensive once you have bought a few extra cutters. I am sure they are good, but it is not the sort of thing you can try before you buy.

Ralph.

wanderer said:

.... Van Den Eynde red method mix ....

Click to expand...

Beware - if VdE use the same colourant in their Method Mix as they use in their Red Groundbait - it stains everything it comes in contact with! Having been caught 'red-handed' last year - I now use plastic gloves for balling-in VdE!

---------- Post added at 12:41 ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 ----------

fishplate42 said:

... so far the best hook-bait I have discovered is punched bacon grill lightly cooked in oil....
...What I need is one of those meat cutters - any recommendations?...

Click to expand...

Hi Ralph,
Once again - a really good write-up!

As a matter of interest - have you tried experimenting with different bait-shapes for the Bacon Grill? I have heard reports before, that fish quickly 'go-off' cubes - but not cylinders!

Given that the cylinders are easier to roll in 'sprinkles' - it might be an idea to invest in a multi-punching-jig (a Meccano project?) - rather than splash-out your hard-earned to MAP?!
Tight Lines :thumbs:

greenie62 said:

Hi Ralph,
Once again - a really good write-up!

As a matter of interest - have you tried experimenting with different bait-shapes for the Bacon Grill? I have heard reports before, that fish quickly 'go-off' cubes - but not cylinders!

Given that the cylinders are easier to roll in 'sprinkles' - it might be an idea to invest in a multi-punching-jig (a Meccano project?) - rather than splash-out your hard-earned to MAP?!
Tight Lines :thumbs:

Click to expand...

I am pleased you like my tales from the lake...

So far I have only played with the size of the punched meat. I have not got a meat cutter and Cutting it up by hand using a knife only results in bait of all different sizes. This may or may not be a problem to the fish but it makes it hard to evaluate what is good and what is not.

A Meccano machine might be an idea but the holes, nuts and bolts might get in the way . It takes a while to punch the meat but I find it very therapeutic. We have a TV in our Kitchen and tend to spend most evenings watching that sitting at the dining table. While Sue is watching something I am not interested in (that is most of the stuff on the TV at the moment) I sit there punching meat or tying hooklengths. The other good thing about punching the meat is that the matrix that is left gets riddled into the groundbait giving the fish a taste of what they might expect if they take the hook bait - without the nasty surprise!

Ralph.

An old rod blank cut into sections (look in the bin at a commercial; there's usually a selection of broken ones!) provides punches of whatever size and length you might want. Sandpaper the ends to remove any loose splinters. Small tackle items often arrive in rigid, thin-walled plastic tubes that would make good punches. Mind, you're still restricted to punching a single bait at a time.
Maybe one of those bread multi-punches that used to be available might work, depending on how big your baits need to be? Haven't seen one for yonks, though.

iannate said:

Click to expand...

Yeeesss??

Ralph

Sorry text not added:-

Try one of these garden sieves to cut your meat, you'll find various mesh sizes available when they change supplier. The one pictured is from B & Q for £5.62.

iannate said:

Sorry text not added:-

Try one of these garden sieves to cut your meat, you'll find various mesh sizes available when they change supplier. The one pictured is from B & Q for £5.62.

Click to expand...

Hmmm... That's not a bad idea, come to think of it they also sell different sizes of sheet mesh too...

...I must go and have a look in our local store, Thanks!

Ralph.

fishplate42 said:

That's very interesting, Thank you! I understand how cooking the turmeric will make a difference but I don't understand what the black pepper will do in such small quantities . I am not doubting its effectiveness, I just don't understand what it does.

Click to expand...

Turmeric on its own works mainly as a visual attraction i.e. stain yellow/ochre. It doesn't work so well on its own as a stimulating ingredient on the olfactory senses. Adding black pepper to the turmeric (anywhere from 1-5%) will create a chemical iron/curcumin complex causing a chemical reaction that binds the iron. This means that fish can detect it better in the water. The binding of heavy metals is called chelation.

Because fish rely on scent and chemical stimuli more than they do on sight, it will encourage them to feed for longer on something that's detectable (excites) and easily digestible due to short transit times. Adding black pepper to turmeric makes it significantly more digestible and more attractive.

Thank you for taking the time to explain, Chris. That makes perfect sense to me now. It is good to know some of the chemistry behind these combinations.

Should the black pepper be ground to a fine powder, as opposed to just being split in a pepper mill?

Also, If I add it to my already moistened method mix, and riddle it a few times, will it still be effective?

Great website by the way - I will have a closer look during the day and who knows I might just have to spend some money!

Ralph.

fishplate42 said:

Thank you for taking the time to explain, Chris. That makes perfect sense to me now. It is good to know some of the chemistry behind these combinations.

Should the black pepper be ground to a fine powder, as opposed to just being split in a pepper mill?

Also, If I add it to my already moistened method mix, and riddle it a few times, will it still be effective?

Great website by the way - I will have a closer look during the day and who knows I might just have to spend some money!

Ralph.

Click to expand...

Turmeric was a fantastic bait additive for Tench, Aniseed oil was even better, used to get a tiny bottle from the chemist, drops literally, stunk 30 yards away, super roach and tench, bream love it as well, if you go carp fishing avoid the source, it reaks of it

fishplate42 said:

Thank you for taking the time to explain, Chris. That makes perfect sense to me now. It is good to know some of the chemistry behind these combinations.

Should the black pepper be ground to a fine powder, as opposed to just being split in a pepper mill?

Also, If I add it to my already moistened method mix, and riddle it a few times, will it still be effective?

Great website by the way - I will have a closer look during the day and who knows I might just have to spend some money!

Ralph.

Click to expand...

Yes, then add it to your already moistened groundbait.

Aim to use ultra small particles and powders wherever possible in all your fishing mate. :w
Only finely ground Ralph - as you would buy from a supermarket. It should become almost like a powder paint once soaked with the turmeric. You could even use a pestle n mortar if needed to get it really fine.

Without the soak it will be far too macro to excite and reason why some groundbaits don't work to their full potential imo. That and the fact that they aren't soaked for long enough and that most manufacturers don't even bother to prepare particles at all.

Did you mention how long you soak your mix for?
A beef of mine; A quick soak at the bankside is nothing like the same kind of preparation that's required. But then if most suppliers supply crushed up legumes and seeds and stuff without first soaking and boiling (preparation) and drying to bag, I guess it doesn't matter at all what we as anglers do to it - the phytates will still be present.

Hi, Fishplate 42, I knocked up a batch based on your recipe + Laguna's tweak; I had to use cat-food, though ,so I guess it's "Cats and Dogs" (Strange - the rain eased up soon after I'd fed some!); anyhow, I had nine or so carp, a bream and a tench, while matey, using his magic rabbit-food and pellet mixture, had two carp... I'm sold! Thanks for the recipe!

Alan Tyler said:

Hi, Fishplate 42, I knocked up a batch based on your recipe + Laguna's tweak; I had to use cat-food, though ,so I guess it's "Cats and Dogs" (Strange - the rain eased up soon after I'd fed some!); anyhow, I had nine or so carp, a bream and a tench, while matey, using his magic rabbit-food and pellet mixture, had two carp... I'm sold! Thanks for the recipe!

Click to expand...

Hi Alan,

I am pleased it worked for you. Several times this summer I had the guys around me wondering what I was using. I have been convinced it worked, it is great to know it works for someone else too!

Now the weather is getting cooler I am thinking about making some low-food groundbaits. I need to experiment a bit but it has to be about attraction this time of year as the fish will not want to feed as heavily. (so I am told!) I also believe that I will have to wait a bit longer for a bite. I need to get out there and give it a go. I have not had a chance to try out the pepper 'tweak' yet but I can see how that will work.

I am thinking of removing the 'dogs' from the Two Dog Grounbait recipe and adding the pepper but I am thinking the bread and biscuit might be too much 'food' as it contains fat. I am thinking about ground up cereals and anything else that springs to mind. I will post the results when I can get back to the bank. In the mean time I will experiment and make up some groundbait in readiness.

But first, I need to get rid of this stinking cold I seem to have picked up in the past week .

Ralph.

---------- Post added at 01:15 ---------- Previous post was at 00:31 ----------

laguna said:

...Did you mention how long you soak your mix for?

Click to expand...

Sorry for not getting back sooner, but work and a stinking cold are not helping...

I add the liquidised hot dog and its 'juice' to the mix, that makes it moist, at the time of making. I then split it into 1kg bags and freeze it until the night before it is required. At the bank it is riddled and if required lake water is added with an atomiser, mixed and riddled, usually half an hour to an hour before it is needed.

If I have any amount left over at the end of a session, that is taken home, refrozen and used next time. This is obviously well soaked.

Ralph.