Bait for Unfished Natural Venues?

[peterjg]

A lot of the places I fish are natural and are hardly ever fished so I tend to stick to dead maggots or bread (occasionally worms). For some unknown reason bread is readily acceptable to fish but other baits like pellets, mini boilies, etc need regular baiting. Sweetcorn and wheat work in the warmer months.

Both baits, dead maggots and bread though are mullered by minnows and small fish. My question being: is sweetcorn acceptable to roach in the winter. Your findings might save me hours and hours of blanking. Thanks.

 

[no-one in particular]

I always take bread and sweetcorn with me summer or winter. I catch roach on sweetcorn in winter often enough. I usually put some mashed bread in first and a handful of sweetcorn then alternate with them on the hook. Sweetcorn is often slower than the bread but does sort out the better fish, it is a funny bait though, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and sometimes the fish really switch on to it. But certainly try it in winter. in my opinion but have an alternative to hand just in case, for roach in winter but anytime of the year really I like to push about a 1/4 of crust onto a 14 hook with shot a couple of inches from the hook to anchor it off the bottom. I find the smaller fish don't muller this as much as it stays a bit hard for them for a while but the bigger roach will suck it in. Not a bait I have used much or had much success with is chickpeas but that might be a natural-ish alternative. Or half a big lobworm might be good, might avoid the smaller fish, however you could get anything on it and eels, that's my problem but if it is not a problem for your venue, could be worth thinking about in winter.

 

[Ray Roberts]

Small cubes of luncheon meat can work well.


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[Molehill]

Are you running water or stillwater? Presuming rivers?

 

[Philip]

for

My question being: is sweetcorn acceptable to roach in the winter. Your findings might save me hours and hours of blanking. Thanks.

In a word, Yes.

I used Corn allot for Roach in the past, winter including and had lots of fish on it including some very good ones.. I think its underated for Roach. The problem is being soft its easily stripped off the hook so I dont think its going to solve your small fishing mullering the bait issue....it didnt for me and I basically had to just wade through lots of fish waiting for a better one to turn up.

I used to fish the Kennet & K&ACanal allot in the past & in your position if you have confidence in corn but are being stripped all the time by small fish I would be tempted to try a much harder bait for example maize cooked till you can spilt it between finger and thumb but still remains hard. It may require a leap of faith as you need to get round the mental block that your probably going to get allot less bites so the confidence can take a knock but perhaps (..perhaps... ) it might also help single out the better fish.

 

[peterjg]

Many thanks everyone for your replies and help. In the past I have caught some decent roach on cubes of luncheon meat dyed black and used with hemp but nowadays with all the crayfish it cannot work, the crayfish just go potty for it on my waters.

It's very encouraging to know that sweetcorn works in the winter months. I use it quite a lot during the summer but have a mental block using it in the winter - I really must perservere with it. The sweetcorn is for use on rivers and canals. Signal crayfish will eat everything but they are not too keen on sweetcorn - I have seen them totally ignore it - but that can go for roach as well!

Wheat is another great bait, I have caught on it in the winter but it is very hit and miss. Even in the summer months on some waters it s useless while on others it is excellent?

Thanks again

 

[Aknib]

I'm never confident with sweetcorn and consequently don't use it much but I don't dispute anything positive that has been said about it but as an aside my biggest Roach have all come to worm and quite big worms at that, usually dendras and these bigger fish do tend to go for them especially, even more so, in Winter and often when baiting heavily with chop.

 

[no-one in particular]

I'm never confident with sweetcorn and consequently don't use it much but I don't dispute anything positive that has been said about it but as an aside my biggest Roach have all come to worm and quite big worms at that, usually dendras and these bigger fish do tend to go for them especially, even more so, in Winter and often when baiting heavily with chop.

The trouble is now Peter has mentioned crayfish the chopped worm would attract loads of them I imagine. Another thought is artificial sweetcorn with crayfish around, never used it myself but it may deter them if they are going for the real sweetcorn. I think some experiments are required.

 

[108831]

Sorry Mark,are you float fishing or legering,generally trotted baits are better for roach than ledgered ones on running water,also dead maggot are not as good for loose feed on running water imo as they are more bouyant,sweetcorn,again in my opinion isn't as good trotted in winter,so live maggot,caster,bread with liquidised,or mash feed is the best way,sadly if you are ledgering for roach on running water lots of missed bites will result,yes you can catch well at times,but in my experience float nearly always is the way forward,also if chub are present feeding minced beef and trotting bits of steak work well,unless your crays are olympic sprinters,lol...

 

[no-one in particular]

Sorry Mark,are you float fishing or legering,generally trotted baits are better for roach than ledgered ones on running water,also dead maggot are not as good for loose feed on running water imo as they are more bouyant,sweetcorn,again in my opinion isn't as good trotted in winter,so live maggot,caster,bread with liquidised,or mash feed is the best way,sadly if you are ledgering for roach on running water lots of missed bites will result,yes you can catch well at times,but in my experience float nearly always is the way forward,also if chub are present feeding minced beef and trotting bits of steak work well,unless your crays are olympic sprinters,lol...

This is more for Peter Whitty but last time I had crayfish was at Ash Station, Aldershot on the canal there some years ago and the only way I could avoid them was float fishing 6inches under the surface in about 6ft water.

 

[chevin4]

IMO lobworms are the go to bait to use in the aforementioned situation being natural and of course all fish will take them. I have had a lot of success on the lobworm tail for roach in coloured water. Unfortunately on those rivers which have a large crayfish problem you can get through a supply of lobworms very quickly particularly when legering my favoured method. If the crays are a problem I bait up an area with red maggots which tends to keep the crayfish quiet. If big fish particularly perch enter the swim the crays will normally scatter. If problems with the crays continue I will either try a different swim or if I am confident in the swim I am fishing I will float fish and set the depth according.