Groundbaits, how good is your memory?

[dezza]

The range of commercial groundbaits now available from companies such as Sensas, Van den Eynde, Sonu, and Dynamite is enormous. It seems that a new one is available every week.

However here's a question for Monday morning that I don't think you'll get the answer on Google.

Before commercial groundbaits became available, we had to be satisfied with white or brown crumb in plain bags, or mashed bread. I remember all too well collecting any old bread in the houshold, and I still do that today.

But in the 60s a groundbait suddenly appeared in a plastic bag. It was advertised commercially and could also be used made up into a paste. It wasn't continental either, it was British.

Do you remember what it was called and who was responsible for its formulation?

 

[Bob Hornegold]

Was there one called Silver Cloud ?

Bob

 

[barbelboi]

There was one late 50's or very early 60's in a white cloth bag. Sausage rusk from the local butcher with crumb otherwise.
Jerry

PS Wasn't it Spratts Silver Cloud?, don't know if it's the one in the white bag I'm thinking of.

 

[dezza]

I remember Silver Cloud, sold by Spillers. But I don't think it was a specifically formulated angling groundbait, unlike the one I am thinking of. Silver Cloud was more or less the sweepings of the dog biscuits factory floor.

 

[jack sprat]

There was Pomenteg, developed in the mid 1960s by Walker and Fred J., and sold by Efgeeco.

The first groundbaits I used were a bit later, very early 1970s; the Kestrel range, initially Superfine, but later Angler's Crumb . they also did a MeatieMix.

 

[Alan Tyler]

Yep, Pomenteg, followed (in the seventies?) by "Coax", iirc, compressed cylinders of groundbait with a conical hole up the centre, which could be put on a specially designed swimfeeder. The Kestrel range must havepassed me by; much did.

 

[Poshpaul (Angling Trust and PaSC)]

I remember Pomenteg...and coax (well I remember the product not the name)...used it a few times at Mote Park......I suppose it was "almost" a precursor of a method feeder

 

[steph mckenzie]

I'm to young to remember these ...... i'll let you old gits play amongst yourselves <smiles>

 

[dezza]

Yes, it was Pomenteg.

Made I believe from a mixture of powdered egg and potato. I think the ingredients were WW2 surplus as vast quantities were sent over fron the USA to help feed the British during those hard times.

Marketed by Efgeeco, Pomenteg was formulated by **** Walker and Fred J Taylor. I remember taking several bags of it over the Ireland. Used as a paste it certainly caught a few bream and rudd, but if I remember right, the tench didn't seem to fancy it.

If I also remember right, Pomenteg was expensive compared to using sausage rusk or brown and white crumb.

 

[Kudubull]

I remember Silver Cloud, sold by Spillers. But I don't think it was a specifically formulated angling groundbait, unlike the one I am thinking of. Silver Cloud was more or less the sweepings of the dog biscuits factory floor.

I well remember Spratts silver cloud and their paste bait. The par boiled hemp was used as ground bait, too, with elder berries on the hook, that's hooks to gut, bye the way

 

[108831]

Yes,pomenteg,not a bad paste if I remember right....

 

[David Gane]

I remember going to our local seed merchants to buy middling bran. We used to mix it with water and chuck it into the local pit to attract bream until the excess of nutrients in the water caused a massive algal bloom and it got banned by the club. The worst part of it was that it created a kind of concrete that stuck to cork handles. It dried as hard as stone and as a kid all of my gear got totally caked in it. I can still remember the smell. It was a bit like porridge.

 

[markcw]

Anyone use picardie,?

 

[108831]

Yes Mark,in my Blackhorse days on the canal,a brilliant gudgeon groundbait,smelt of aniseed,if I remember right it had a small bottle of flavour with it,though that may have been another sort....

 

[markcw]

Yep, lovely smell, was a brilliant groundbait, I cant recall bottle of flavour though.
I remember VDE bringing one out called Pigeon Sh1t. It had pigeon droppings mixed in with it.

 

[108831]

Ahhhh,no,it was a groundbait called Z72,or something similar,a good skimmer bait on the canal when fed as slop....

 

[chevin4]

I used to use Kestral a lot in the late seventies I found the pink coloured version the best

 

[108831]

Yellow kestrel for me Hugh,lol...