The method

mikench · Aug 29, 2016

When fishing the above what hook bait do you find the most successful for a range of fish?
Do you use GB , micro pellets or a mix of the two.

Having tried all kinds of boilies, Dumbbells and soft hooker types in all kinds of flavours and colours, I have found plain 8mm pellets or 11 mm halibut pellets the most successful. This is all relative of course! I am looking for the ultimate!!!!

Chefster · Aug 29, 2016

mikench said:
When fishing the above what hook bait do you find the most successful for a range of fish?
Do you use GB , micro pellets or a mix of the two.

Having tried all kinds of boilies, Dumbbells and soft hooker types in all kinds of flavours and colours, I have found plain 8mm pellets or 11 mm halibut pellets the most successful. This is all relative of course! I am looking for the ultimate!!!!

dead red maggots with 50-50,micro and GB

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Aug 29, 2016

A cheese and pellet combo has produced carp this season for me

mikench · Aug 30, 2016

Interesting! What cheese do you use and do you use a hair rig/

robtherake · Aug 30, 2016

With the flatbed method feeders I like the 10mm Ringer's White Shellfish boilies, which have caught me lots of fish on a wide range of different waters. Mini pop-ups also work well on occasion, or punched pieces of Matteson's sausage. 3mm Skrettings pellets on the feeder

mikench · Aug 30, 2016

Do those boilies need to be drilled or do you use a pellet band?

robtherake · Aug 30, 2016

mikench said:
Do those boilies need to be drilled or do you use a pellet band?

Straight out of the bag, they're usually soft enough to be pierced with a fine baiting needle.

peter crabtree · Aug 30, 2016

If you cut the bend off a hook, tie it onto a hair on a hook, then simply push it into the boily. Makes a nice neat presentation.

qtaran111 · Aug 30, 2016

The combo that works for me is 1 or 3mm Dynamite carp pellet in/on the feeder and a 6 mm Marukyu banded on the hook. It seems to work for everything carp, bream, roach...

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Aug 30, 2016

mikench said:
Interesting! What cheese do you use and do you use a hair rig/

The cheese was cheap cheddar cut in to cubes and left to go sweaty

Fished with a pellet on the hair

binka · Aug 30, 2016

Lord Paul of Sheffield said:
The cheese was cheap cheddar cut in to cubes and left to go sweaty

Fished with a pellet on the hair

Interesting you say left to go sweaty, I separate my hooker pellets out and keep them in a clear plastic jar which I leave in the sun (weather permitting!) and you can see them sweat the oils.

Not sure if it makes a real difference but it makes me feel better

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Aug 30, 2016

I have tried keeping pellets and boiles in gluts to use for hook bait , again I'm nit sure if it makes a difference but I feel it adds some attraction

laguna · Aug 31, 2016

Alas there is no such thing as the 'best' bait - only better and each day and venue is different. The most important thing to remember is that variety is the spice of life. or put another way; man cannot live by bread alone (metaphorically speaking) and neither can fish or any other creature.

Always take a good selection of bait with you and try them. If you havent had a bite in say an hour (long enough to attract them), change to something else. Also feeding a variety mix of things can sometimes keep them occupied as they all have varying nutritional needs throughout the day.

You will also find that soluble/softer baits will get you more bites than say harder baits, and baits with their flavour locked inside (example boilies made with boiled eggs) are nowhere as good as damp pellets and paste baits for the reasons stated above. Avoid synthetic flavours and use a glycerite extract instead as they wont spook fish and work everywhere.

btw if your plagued by Ronnie and Reggie you can always use armamesh which is none-dissolving.

Good luck.

rayner · Aug 31, 2016

My first hook bait choice is always dead maggot, my only other choice is pellet.
A change of pellet size can make a vast difference, I carry hook pellets from 4mm to 8mm
If fish are straight on the feeder when it lands maggot is deadly.
Straight micros work well for me in shallow water, a bit of dry crumb to make it more sticky if in a deeper swim.
Water more than 6' deep I opt for a pellet feeder.

Jim Crosskey 2 · Aug 31, 2016

I've found on one club lake I fish that tipping a drilled 10mm pellet with a piece of plastic corn seems to make it more attractive to carp than to bream, which is a definite plus.

However, I think getting too worried about the actual hookbait is missing the point about the method altogether. We would be much better served by obsessing over the consistency and attractiveness of the mix around the feeder as this is what really brings you the bite.

As a pretty big generalisation, I'm more inclined to make mine with more groundbait and less particles (pellets and corn) if I think the fish are a little picky, then up the particle rate if I think they're really getting their heads down.

When they're REALLY going for the method, you could hair-rig toe nail clippings and the rod would still go ripping off....

greenie62 · Aug 31, 2016

Jim Crosskey 2 said:
....When they're REALLY going for the method, you could hair-rig toe nail clippings and the rod would still go ripping off....

Aaahh! - High-protein baits!
I can just see Laguna marketing them for next season already!

mg:

Lord Paul of Sheffield · Aug 31, 2016

I've started putting a tin of tuna in a blended (not the tin itself but the contents) and with a little water and salt blitz he mix - then add this pellets to soften them - not sure if it's adding any attraction but I'm catching well with it

laguna · Aug 31, 2016

greenie62 said:
Aaahh! - High-protein baits!
I can just see Laguna marketing them for next season already!mg:

I'd be more inclined to investigate the toe fungus from a tramp than keratin. Though I did once see a vid of a chap fishing with a bit of loose skin tag snipped by his mate from his neck, he caught quickly too!

binka · Aug 31, 2016

Out of interest, has anyone actually tried and caught fish on a bare hook buried in a method feeder?

It sounds odd but I can see the logic, after all a bare hook will offer virtually no weight resistance when feeding fish come pecking and slurping everything, that becomes detached, in...

robtherake · Aug 31, 2016

binka said:
Out of interest, has anyone actually tried and caught fish on a bare hook buried in a method feeder?

It sounds odd but I can see the logic, after all a bare hook will offer virtually no weight resistance when feeding fish come pecking and slurping everything, that becomes detached, in...

No, but a guy on another forum was convinced that the tench he was after would hoover up whatever was on the hair and caught several with little bits of twig. Big ones, too.

The method

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