Traditional baits - how many of you have used these?

Lord Paul of Sheffield

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Well Ron
Next time I'm preparing for a fishing trip I'll think to myself

"Shall I nip off to the abattoir and get a bull's head, split it open, scoop out the brains and boil them up for an hour, or shall I buy some sweet corn and a tin of meat from the supermarket and some pellets from the tackle shop?"

Tough call but I might just stick to what I've been using for now
 

noknot

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Great thread,

I see that after this come back of Bull brains, half of the UK bait manufacturers are now doing brain flavoured boilies, plus pop up's in a matching dip, give them a try, you know it makes sence, for the "thinking" angler! Yes a huge intended Pun there:wh
 

dezza

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One of the insects you find in profusion, especially in most parts of Africa are bloody great big black crickets. You hear them chirping every evening and through the night.

I miss that sound, it is very soothing.

But big black crickets are superb bait and quite easy to catch.

Get a fair sized sack and spread it on your lawn in the evening. Put a few slices of bread under the sacking and then give the sacking a good soaking.

Next morning get up early, get hold of a fair sized container with holes in the lid and prepare to grab. Lift the sacking and grab as many crickets as you can. They are about 2 1/2 inches long and don't bite.

But for goodness sake watch out for those little black arachnids with a red stripe on their backs, or even worse, those nasty things with a sting in their tail that look like small lobsters.

I was done by one of those once and it's not funny.

But hell, the carp and the yellowfish just love the black crickets.
 
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Shine

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How many should I put on a stringer?
 

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)

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One of the insects you find in profusion, especially in most parts of Africa are bloody great big black crickets. You hear them chirping every evening and through the night.

I miss that sound, it is very soothing.

But big black crickets are superb bait and quite easy to catch.

Get a fair sized sack and spread it on your lawn in the evening. Put a few slices of bread under the sacking and then give the sacking a good soaking.

Next morning get up early, get hold of a fair sized container with holes in the lid and prepare to grab. Lift the sacking and grab as many crickets as you can. They are about 2 1/2 inches long and don't bite.

But for goodness sake watch out for those little black arachnids with a red stripe on their backs, or even worse, those nasty things with a sting in their tail that look like small lobsters.

I was done by one of those once and it's not funny.

But hell, the carp and the yellowfish just love the black crickets.



They're not if you live in England ....

---------- Post added at 12:15 ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 ----------

But you CAN get them HERE
 

gentle

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With global warming, black crickets just might find their way to Kent. Problem is there are no fish in Kent!

None in Durham these days eaither Ron. I blame .......Santa! What else does he have to do for 364 days of the year. He got fat eating the fish stocks of the UK and apparently hes of Russian/Polish stock and thinks its OK to eat everything he catches. Fat Jolly Ba$t4rd.
 

thagamest1

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Pong

Ron is a little out on his dates for luncheon meat as a bait as I remember using it on the Swale in the early 60`s and when I moved to Leicester in 64 I let a few into the secret and caught chub on the Welland at Tallington. Note, the Yorkshire term for it was "pong" --- they are very sensitive souls up there and have been known to faint away at the thought of anything smelly !!

Surprised that Slugs didnt get a mention as this was my other bait at Tallington but very rarely successful elsewhere. Why is it that your ordinary Pong is so much more effective than a superior chopped ham and pork ?? Go ti it Ron ---always entertaining! Peter Barton
 

flightliner

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Hav,nt heard anyone praising the old Wasp grub yet. Had all manner of results with this old favourite-- Big Barbel-- Roach at the old Echo pond-- and the chub-- gerrem "goo-in" on it and they shake the feeder to empty it!!. Fabulous bait.
 

dezza

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Weren't those cornflakes that had been wetted?

Cornflakes are simply grains of maize that have been cooked and crushed through big heavy rollers. If you let them get damp they would go all rubbery.

Ah! wasp grubs, or "Wabby Grubs" as old Ray Webb used to call them.

Webby used to carry a bottle of cyanide solution under the dashboard of his van next to his sandwiches. If he saw a number of wabbies flying in the same direction, he would follow them back to their hole. Then it was in with the cyanide, leave them a few minutes and then in with the fork. If there were a few wabbies left alive he used to: "Gerrin an' swat 'em lad, gerrin and swat 'em!"

He was pretty successful and for a couple of years he held the Northern Specimen Group record for barbel, a fish of 8lbs 1oz from the Yorkshire Ouse, caught on float fished wasp grub.

---------- Post added at 09:13 ---------- Previous post was at 08:55 ----------

The only fish I have ever caught on slugs are chub. The chub on the Upper Ouse and Leam used to love them.

One of the funniest stories about slugs concerns a friend of mine who gave up fishing some years ago, so I'm repeating the story here. He decided to eat his sandwiches whilst watching his float whilst tench fishing. What he had not noticed was that a huge black slimey slug had slithered right across the cheese and onion sandwich. He put the sandwich up to his mouth and took a large bite out of it, biting the slug in half. After chewing both bread, cheese and slug for some seconds, he realised with horror what he had done. The language was classic.

In between tring to make himself vomit, he screamed and groaned and shouted out:

"Kinell! Kinell! Kinell!"

Me, I never laughed so much in my life.

:D:D:D
 

Mithrandir

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ok, now I am curious, how do you keep raw sausage meat on the hook in a flowing river??

Tips please as I fancy trying that.
 

preston96

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ok, now I am curious, how do you keep raw sausage meat on the hook in a flowing river??

Tips please as I fancy trying that.

Years ago we stiffened it with groundbait and used bread crust on the hook as a "holder"....we simply put a small square of tough rubbery crust on the bend of the hook and moulded the sausauge meat around it.

I had some great bags of Severn barbel on cooked sausage....simply cook it in the oven, let it cool and then cut it into bait and hair rig it.
 

dezza

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Some cornflour mixed in with the raw sausage meat stiffens it up quite well.

We also used quite large hooks for chub and barbel, nothing less than a 2, sometimes a 1/0 was used.

Whilst on the subject of barbel baits, let's see what "The Trent Otter" says about them:

"Barbel can be taken by a variety of baits, such as cad baits (caddis larva), worms, tallow cake (greaves), cheese, gentles, paste, boiled wheat, shrimps, bits of freshly killed lamprey eels, and in some places, but more particularly down the lower reaches of the Trent they are regularly fished for with strips of raw, lean beef and also bits of lean ham. The Gainsborough men are particularly skilful in the use of these last two items."

JW Martin - 1896

What is interesting to note is that a few years ago the match anglers of the Trent went all bleary eyed on the use of beefsteak and mince for chub. Little did they know that there was nothing new in this technique as it was used over 100 years prior to them (rather secretly) talking of it.

As regards lamprey, lampern etc and the men of Gainsborough. Perhaps I can put you in touch with another worthy man of Gainsborough who may gladly sell you a packet of frozen lampreys which I think could do wonders with the local barbel.

It is, of course, the redoubtable Neville Fickling!
 
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