Bread punch fishing.

Not something I'm familiar with and having recently started enjoying catching roach and Rudd on a whip I'm keen to give this age old method a try.

Can someone point me towards a good tutorial or video on the basics of the art.

If I could create a link I would but click on the blogs panel at the top of the page and look for a very useful blog on this very subject by Rayner. It is the sixth one down on the full blogs list! Enjoy!

Funny you should mention that John. I have been messing about with bread not very seriously for the past couple of years. Last week on our trip to the local river up here in London I took bread punch, because we were only supposed to be catching small silvers. Everybody seems to have their own ways but I did the microwave/rolling pin thing. I 'microed' a slice of 'Toastie' with the crust cut off, and rolled it flat while still hot. let it cool for a minute or so and cut it in half. it was then wrapped in cling film with the cling between the slices and frozen. I took it out an hour before we were going to fish.

I did buy a small cheap cutting board from the pound-shop but it was very thin and a bit too big really. In the end I cut up an old cutting board into smaller pieces and it it ideal.

I have been using Drennan brass head bread punches - they are perfect for this, much better than the cheapo things I had before!

I was amazed at how a small, 4mm, piece of bread is so enticing to the fish. It does sell a bit once in the water but, even so, it is small!



Sue sat there feeding the swim with small balls of bread about the size of a peppercorn. We discovered that rolling them tight makes them sink or a bit looser and they sink slowly. Well, first cast and within seconds I had a chubling that was about 8 inches long! I then caught lots of silvers almost one after the other - great fun.

I am no expert, at this but this worked for me last week. I will be interested to see what others do.

Ralph.

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mikench said:

If I could create a link I would but click on the blogs panel at the top of the page and look for a very useful blog on this very subject by Rayner. It is the sixth one down on the full blogs list! Enjoy!

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Mike, HERE is the link to the blog you referred to...

John, See, everybody has a different take on how to do it, and I am sure they all work. It must depend on the water you are fishing too. Either way it is great fun and very portable.

Ralph.

Ralph , the guru bread box with punches is excellent and combines the board, punches and storage all in one! I recommend it!

I use punch all year round, it's cheap, highly effective and easy to use.
I don't faff about preparing it I just take a few slices of Tesco cheap white medium sliced bread and use it straight from the bag.
For punches I use the Drennan brass heads and for hooks size 18 or 20 Kamasan b511 or 611.
Whilst fishing I only get half a slice out at a time as it can dry out quickly in the air, keep the rest in an airtight bag or box.

https://youtu.be/lykklYPgFi8

mikench said:

Ralph , the guru bread box with punches is excellent and combines the board, punches and storage all in one! I recommend it!

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Me too, an excellent piece of kit.

I keep my slices in Ziplok bags and then use one at a time in the Guru Box.

Using bread lunch and lunch crumb is a good method to bring fish not the feed but typically in a match is really only good for the first 30 to 40 minutes, in my opinion.

Then a switch to pinkie or maggot usually kept them interested.

mikench said:

Ralph , the guru bread box with punches is excellent and combines the board, punches and storage all in one! I recommend it!

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I do have one of those but I think the punches are a bit big for the fishing I was doing last week. It is a great piece of kit and I have used it a lot in still water where I am going after bigger fish. I like the way the punches compress the bread. Have you seen my peanut butter sandwiches punched using the larger Guru punch?



Full story can be found HERE. As I freely admit, I am no expert and have only had limited experience but I do like experimenting and when it works it is great!

I really enjoy this type of thread, I can usually find something new to try.

Ralph.

Ralph I did see those and duly made a supply! I have never had much success with bread despite trying it on many occasions . Maybe the fish I was after had no taste for peanut butter but I did and delicious they were too

I have the Drennen punches and may try them tomorrow . I have just prepared some bread

I've made my own punches since I was 14 and long found out that using a bit of brass tubing on a balsa handle makes for a good punch that floats when you invariably drop them in the water. I get brass tubing from a model shop in various diameters. I love punch fishing on the river using hooks from a 16 to a 12, fishing over groundbait.

Thanks for all the advice so far, haven't looked at the blog or videos yet, they may have the answer to two questions but I'll ask anyway.

The Drennan punch sets come in small or large, what sort of hook sizes do they relate to?

As I said before I'd like to combine this method with my whip fishing, which unlike the pole requires casting, does punched bread withstand being cast without falling off?

The Drennen small set contains a range from 2.5 mm to 7 mm and the larger set starts from there! I just cannot imagine putting a 2.5 mm punch on a hook save for a size 22 or 24. I cannot cope with such small items . I would use 4 5 6 and 7 on hooks from 20 down to 14. The two sizes( hook and punch) are not linked in any way.

Rayner swears by punch and will no doubt contribute if he sees this post. I hope he is well! Good luck !

John, In my experience the bread stays on well. O was using it on a whip, last week and I could cast it several times before I renewed it. I only used a 4mm punch on a 18/16 hook. because the Drennan punched have a slot in the side, the hook is passed into the bread while it is in the punch and it comes out as an undistorted little disc, perfectly mounted on the hook.

Mark, Although I like making things, I thing those Dreannan punches are so good I much prefer them to anything else I have tried. Although I could make my own, I would end up with something that looked just like the Drennan brass head punches.

Mike, the peanut sandwiches were aimed at F1's. They seem to like them. Besides, I had already eaten all the bits that were between the resultant rounds...

Ralph.

I only use the small ones and a size 20 hook is ideal. A 22 or 24 would be too small to extract the bread from the punch efficiently.
As for casting on a whip or rod I generally give the bread a gentle squeeze once hooked and it stays on fine but it must be fresh. Once a slice starts to dry out it will fall off easily.

fishplate42 said:

Mark, Although I like making things, I thing those Drennan punches are so good I much prefer them to anything else I have tried. Although I could make my own, I would end up with something that looked just like the Drennan brass head punches.

Ralph.

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I fish with punch on the Dorset Stour which can be up to 12ft deep under your feet so a bread punch that floats is essential otherwise they disappear into the depths all too often. Because I use fine brass tube I can sharpen the tube so it cuts the bread cleanly. I don't want a compressed pellet of bread either - you catch better when the bread is as soggy as can be which happens more quickly than with a compressed pellet. In a nutshell although my punches may look crude they're far superior in use to anything on the market including Drennan, and cheap to boot.

As far as casting is concerned then no problem up to 25 yards and I can cast a second time if the punch stays on (often the way to fool wary big roach).

Mark Wintle said:

I fish with punch on the Dorset Stour which can be up to 12ft deep under your feet so a bread punch that floats is essential otherwise they disappear into the depths all too often. Because I use fine brass tube I can sharpen the tube so it cuts the bread cleanly. I don't want a compressed pellet of bread either - you catch better when the bread is as soggy as can be which happens more quickly than with a compressed pellet. In a nutshell although my punches may look crude they're far superior in use to anything on the market including Drennan, and cheap to boot.

As far as casting is concerned then no problem up to 25 yards and I can cast a second time if the punch stays on (often the way to fool wary big roach).

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I see where you are coming from Mark, what you are using sound more like the Guru punches. How do you get the bread out of the tube once you have punched it?

Ralph.

I'd like to give it another whirl last time I made a punch out of 15mm copper tube sharpened on the grinder with a bit of plywood as a board. Had a good mornings fishing. Might try smaller size punch next time.

rich66 said:

I'd like to give it another whirl last time I made a punch out of 15mm copper tube sharpened on the grinder with a bit of plywood as a board. Had a good mornings fishing. Might try smaller size punch next time.

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Huge punches seem to work with carp. I heard of a bloke being really successful using one of those old 35mm plastic film containers as a punch.

Ralph.

fishplate42 said:

I see where you are coming from Mark, what you are using sound more like the Guru punches. How do you get the bread out of the tube once you have punched it?

Ralph.

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The hook fetches it out; I just push the hook point into the centre of the disc of bread, twist and it's hooked. No need for slots.

Brass tube is superior to copper as the tube is thinner walled and holds an edge better.

Mark, as a model engineer way back I used brass tubing in various diameters, you're a lucky fella to have model shop in you area that still sells the stuff.

I find your comments interesting., i.e. compression of the bread related to its sinking speed.

I started this thread stating I was interested in using bread punch for both roach and Rudd, maybe a different approach for the two species, which from recent experiences can be very different.

s63 said:

Mark, as a model engineer way back I used brass tubing in various diameters, you're a lucky fella to have model shop in you area that still sells the stuff.

I find your comments interesting., i.e. compression of the bread related to its sinking speed.

I started this thread stating I was interested in using bread punch for both roach and rudd, maybe a different approach for the two species, which from recent experiences can be very different.

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The model shops are now few and far between; whether I could still buy brass tube locally I don't know although I think I probably could. I've still got enough old stock to make new punches as and when I need, usually for a mate.

For roach it's not the sinking speed - I'm usually on a river using enough weight to get it down quickly - but how soft it is at the start of the trot, the softer the better.

Although I've caught rudd on punch I usually found that red pinkie or maggot was a far better bait when it came to whip fishing at speed for them.