plastic fantastic

supgen · Sep 28, 2009

no, not jordan... im talking about plastic baits. I wondered what everybody else was using....

so far I have; rubber maggots (old and new), floating corn, sinking corn, hemp, dog mixer, bloodworm, hook skins (grubby looking hook covers) and rubber pellets... I have to say the hemp, bloodworm and hook skins were not worth the packaging they came in but the rest are fantastic- no more worrying about small fish damaging baits or the bait coming off on the cast! I also use foam on zig rigs/paste rigs.

what do you guys think? am I missing any other good fake baits?

quattro · Sep 29, 2009

Not exactly plastic, but I remember using pieces of cable insulation as artificial hemp. The old style mains wiring had black negative wire which had a white inner lining. When cut up into hemp sized pieces and just slid onto the hook bend, it would stay on all day. Loose feeding with hemp on the tidal Thames used to catch plenty of Roach and Dace.
This time of year elderberries were a brilliant alternative

dezza · Sep 29, 2009

Artificial baits are nothing new.

We have been using artificial flies for over 3,000 years.

And it's quite possible to create an artificial that is even more attractive to the fish that we pursue than the natural!

newbieneil · Sep 29, 2009

ive used `pop up`rubber worms (in real worm flavour apparently-although they stink and ive never smelt a real worm that stank like that-if at all)....i bought them to ledger for perch in my local river blythe to escape crayfish on the bottom-but have caught nothin on em yet... ive seen fake bread that looks good-im never confident ledgering real bread,i always think i could be sitting there and its come off the hook 20 mins ago or fry just attack it and whittle it down to nothing so might try that

Stick_Float · Sep 29, 2009

I've got absolutely no confidence in plastic imitation baits whatsoever, I know others swear by them but I just haven't caught on them. I was tenching recently and decided to use plastic corn that I'd soaked in scopex but after having nothing but after a few tentative enquiries I changed to real corn and within a few minutes a pb tench came to the net.

Nathan · Sep 30, 2009

Dont discount the old palstic fantastic - especially the floating varieties as they can be used with ordinary baits to make your hookbait appear more natural in the water.
An example of this was when I was fishing a local carp water with a feeder & maggots on the hook. I was only getting little knocks with no real bites so i put a fake maggot on with 2 real maggots to create a slow sinking almost neutral bouyancy bait. Within 2 minutes of casting out I was into my first fish of the day yet when i went back to just normal maggots the bites dried up.

supgen · Sep 30, 2009

crafty fish nathan! neil, I have used fake bread and can't say that im hugely impressed, it works well freelined on the surface but its not a very good imitation, nothing really comes close to real bread. A piece of crust is usually enough for me, and when freelining I give it a quick dunk to add casting weight.

fake maggots are brill, I use them popped on on a method rig with maggots in the method mix, canal carp go crazy for it.

fake baits are great when you want the hookbait to last, put up with casting abuse and heavier leads imo. how did you catch the tench stickfloat?

supgen · Oct 1, 2009

Ray Roberts · Oct 1, 2009

I've been using artificial maggots on a short hair with a couple of real ones on the hook, the artificial maggots counter balance the hook and the bites are very positive indeed.

I intend to flavour some artificials by keeping some garlic salt or granules in the same container as the artificials, I will then fish a heavy ground-bait feeder with ground-bait and dead maggots flavoured in the same way.

I have been fishing a two hook rig recently and this lets me fish two different baits in close proximity to the feeder. I intend fishing artificial on one hook and real on the other. I will report back once I have given it a go.

supgen · Oct 1, 2009

Ray Roberts said:
I've been using artificial maggots on a short hair with a couple of real ones on the hook, the artificial maggots counter balance the hook and the bites are very positive indeed.

I intend to flavour some artificials by keeping some garlic salt or granules in the same container as the artificials, I will then fish a heavy ground-bait feeder with ground-bait and dead maggots flavoured in the same way.

I have been fishing a two hook rig recently and this lets me fish two different baits in close proximity to the feeder. I intend fishing artificial on one hook and real on the other. I will report back once I have given it a go.

nice one ray, I like the sound of that. I take it your after bream or tench, possibly big roach? If you dont mind as well how is the rig constructed? I've seen some like you describe as a helicopter rig.

Ray Roberts · Oct 1, 2009

I use an in-line type feeder, the lower hooklength is short 3 or 4 inches, this is attached to a swivel which lodges in the rubber on the end of the feeder, I also have an anti-tangle sleeve on this swivel. The other hooklink is a helicopter rig trapped between two beads and two float stops. I put a few blobs of heavy metal up the line to pin it down. I am in the process of refining this rig by using a stiff inline tube through the feeder, projecting approx 8 inches from the rear, this should give an even better bolt effect.

I will do a proper write up if it all works properly. You could use lead core or similar but I prefer not to as they usually end up as tether rigs.

supgen · Oct 2, 2009

thanks for that I hope it works well, I've never used a two hook rig before but I would be very interested to see the results. Agreed with leadcore, and other tie-on leaders for that matter.
would the stiff tubing not stand out quite a bit???

Ray Roberts · Oct 2, 2009

jonnie said:
would the stiff tubing not stand out quite a bit???

I don't think it would stand out any more than a feeder stands out, they don't know what it is, they are after all used to seing bits of stick, dead plant stems, etc.

Gary Newman · Oct 2, 2009

These days when fishing for tench or bream i can't remember the last time that i cast out a real bait! I love the artificial casters for tench and rubber corn for bream, it basically allows me to fish a critically balanced hook over a bed of bait, making it easy for the fish to suck in.
I've also used the rubber maggots when maggot fishing for barbel and they worked well everywhere except Adams Mill on the Ouse where i couldn't get a bite until i put real maggots on the hair!
I've not done that well on the mixers either, in fact i found the rubber tiger nuts worked far better than them for surface fishing, sure that was to do with them being less buoyant and therefore easier to suck in.
I can't ever see myself putting on a rubber worm though, except for when I'm lure fishing!

supgen · Oct 2, 2009

Ray Roberts said:
I don't think it would stand out any more than a feeder stands out, they don't know what it is, they are after all used to seing bits of stick, dead plant stems, etc.

very good point in a nice olive colour it would look a lot like say a lilly stem or similar. Keep us all posted on how the testing goes

the oracle · Oct 5, 2009

on long sessions (overnight) or when fishing with either maggot, caster or corn I rarely use anything other than artificial..

Strangely enough its because it gives me MORE confidence than a real bait becasue I KNOW its always attached to the hook and ALWAYS in perfect condition...

Gary Newman · Oct 6, 2009

Also makes it much easier to present balanced hookbaits, as you know how many grains of artificial corn etc it takes to balance a certain size hook and give a slow sinking hookbait.
I used to spend ages trimming down bits of yellow foam when fishing stacks of corn for bream!

Rickrod · Oct 6, 2009

Ive done alright on a single yellow pop up corn and 8mm pellet on a size 12 hook for bream of all sizes

Stick_Float · Oct 6, 2009

I think it's mainly psychological when it comes to fishing with plastic artificials, it just so happens that I haven't had much luck when it comes to fishing with them and should really persist with them because their buoyancy gives you that extra edge with a critically balanced hook. At the moment though, when I have a plastic bait in the water I never feel hugely confident, and as I wrote earlier a change from plastic corn to actual corn accounted for my pb tench 5 minutes after the change!

Worth persisting with though I guess.

plastic fantastic

supgen

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quattro

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dezza

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newbieneil

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Stick_Float

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Nathan

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supgen

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supgen

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Ray Roberts

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supgen

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Ray Roberts

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supgen

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Ray Roberts

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Gary Newman

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supgen

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the oracle

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Gary Newman

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