Natural wildlife baits, what works?

[rayner]

I remember once fishing in Ireland on Lough Kilikeen in kilishandra. the Lough was cut in half and a short stream between the two halves. The stream ran quite sharply, we caught roach after roach on baked beans feeding balls of groundbait.

 

[barbelboi]

Elderberries are a useful change bait and the one time I used them last season when I fished the Thames they seemed to be slightly better than tares but conditions weren't that good with the river up a few inches and with a bit of colour. I've had success before on the Thames and Stour with them and ought to try them more often on the Stour.

I made a post some years ago about an overhanging elderberry tree on the Kennet. When ripe the roach became so preoccupied with the berries as they fell into the water that you would struggle to catch them on anything else for well over a hundred yards downstream during the fruiting time. It was quite something for a few weeks that the tree constantly baited the trot for you and all you needed was to stick one on the hook for some very vicious bites......

 

[Philip]

Worms aside I see naturals as opportunist baits, ideal for roving/stalking type situations. Surprised no ones mentioned Crayfish yet…plenty of those about and fish certainly take them although I suppose nowadays there will be some rule that we can’t even put the signals back dead on a hook.

Ive still got a spray can in my bait fridge with sweet Wasp cake flavouring in it

Funnily enough i still have this kicking around in a bait bucket..

 

[David Rogers 3]

Surprised no ones mentioned Crayfish yet…plenty of those about and fish certainly take them although I suppose nowadays there will be some rule that we can’t even put the signals back dead on a hook.

There is. And the native white clawed crayfish is now a protected species.

 

[Keith M]

Worms aside I see naturals as opportunist baits, ideal for roving/stalking type situations. Surprised no ones mentioned Crayfish yet…plenty of those about and fish certainly take them although I suppose nowadays there will be some rule that we can’t even put the signals back dead on a hook.

I’m sure that it is not allowed to use foreign Crays (Signals or the Turkish ones etc.) as bait, or put them back in the water dead or alive after being caught because of the eggs that they carry underneath them which can still hatch, and your definately not allowed to use our native Crays which have almost died out and are protected as David just said.

Funnily enough i still have this kicking around in a bait bucket..

View attachment 8888

Wasp Grub; that’s the one that I’ve got; not Wasp ‘cake’ flavour as I previously said.

Keith

 

[no-one in particular]

Funnily enough i still have this kicking around in a bait bucket..

View attachment 8888

Was it any good and what species is it good for?, looks promising if you can still get it

 

[Keith M]

Was it any good and what species is it good for?, looks promising if you can still get it

To be honest I can’t swear that it was the Wasp Grub flavouring that did it but I did win or come in the top 5 of nearly all the team matches that we fished then. It certainly didn’t put the fish off.
However I can say that it gave me a lot of confidence which is not a bad thing to have in a Match.

It did smell fairly strong and sweet on the bank and you could smell it from the next swim.

I don’t know if you can still buy it.

Keith

 

[no-one in particular]

To be honest I can’t swear that it was the Wasp Grub flavouring that did it but I did win or come in the top 5 of nearly all the team matches that we fished then. It certainly didn’t put the fish off.
However I can say that it gave me a lot of confidence which is not a bad thing to have in a Match.

It did smell fairly strong and sweet on the bank and you could smell it from the next swim.

I don’t know if you can still buy it.

Keith

I tried a bit of googling and there is a wasp grub paste, it is foreign so I cannot understand the jargon and I couldn't work out if it is a synthetic mimic or something of the real thing but interesting.

 

[Philip]

Was it any good and what species is it good for?, looks promising if you can still get it

I dont think I ever got round to using it Mark ..the smell is like sweet honey. I imagine it would work for Roach/Tench/Bream sprayed on bread/maggots/groundbait, that sort of thing.

I have doubts you will be able to still find it but you never know. Maybe you could knock up something similar with some sweet molasses and a few drops of a honey extract.

 

[no-one in particular]

I dont think I ever got round to using it Mark ..the smell is like sweet honey. I imagine it would work for Roach/Tench/Bream sprayed on bread/maggots/groundbait, that sort of thing.

I have doubts you will be able to still find it but you never know. Maybe you could knock up something similar with some sweet molasses and a few drops of a honey extract.

Maybe worth a go although I have tried bread flake dipped in honey and cannot say I noticed it did much. On the sweet theme I got to like sweetcorn soaked in jam, especially for bream but I had roach, chub etc as well.. Oddly enough it was the cheap Morrison fruit jam that did the best, I mention it because I just remembered it is mainly apple and earlier I mentioned apple on the hook. Maybe something in apple that we miss not thinking fish would like it.