During the last river season I have used and caught on; fake maggot, caster, hemp and corn. I tried the bread once and discarded it after about an hour.
The best session though was with the fake hemp, but feeding natural hemp constantly, for a good net of river roach on the Avon. However, when switching back to natural hemp on the hook I didn't notice any drop in the number of bites. That sadi, there was a time advantage in not having to re-bait virtually every cast.
I am not totally convinced that these fake baits are all that fish-friendly, and I do have concerns about how a fish might get rid of an (accidentally) swallowed fake piece of bait.
My main concern about these fake baits though is; why we want or need them in the first place?
Are we loosing the necessary skills to properly keep and use maggots and caster?
Are we getting that idle that opening a can of corn at home and putting the contents into a plastic bag is beyond our span of attention?
Do we need 'instant' fishing where the pre-fishing trip to the tackle shop to buy fresh bait is now considered a waste of time?
Most of the contributors above say that they have used the fake baits over a bed of the real/natural bait, so is the only advantage that we don't have to keep changing out hook baits?
I do suppose that cost would come into the equation, although I wonder about the effectiveness of fake baits over real baits when they have been kept in a tackle box for a year or so.
I can see a slight advantage in using the rubber corn popped-up for tench or carp fishing, but you can achieve the same result with yellow rig foam combined with the real stuff.
From my point of view, the jury is still out on the topic of fake baits, and I am open to be convinced, however, I don't think I'll be using them much next season - for me it just doesn't "feel right"