oneillbox

flour and water, in a very soft paste, fantastic hook bait for mullet, ive been doing that for 30 years...

worms and sweetcorn, either together in a cocktail of separately, the fish you list just cant resist them, cobblers to spending a fortune on bait !!!

you forget the price but it from poundland, i think i could hazard a guess !!!!

i use the hand held bit from a pestle and mortar (think that is what they are called but not sure which is which) its a heavy wooden small club, about 7 inches long, and ideal for terminating the life out of a half dead fish. i do not fish for the pot as i love to see the live creatures and let them go, but a deep hooked pike is fair game for the oven. never tried a perch.....i think i might..

personally i hook the fish once just under the dorsal fin, this seems to be the strongest area to withstand casting etc... i will try some lip hooking and tail hooking and see how i get on. just another opinion, but......people who are anti livebaiting...is there any evidence that fish have more 'feeling, emotions and sentiment' than maggots or worms?? which are also a kind of livebait after all !! so come on all of you 'tree huggers, get real, livebaiting is here to stay, there is simply no substitute for it, nothing comes close..... !!! and hey, the predators fight well this time of year, the pike are even jumping clear of the water !!!

the perch have even been hitting the livebait as it swims on the surface, lovely clear water lake, and the last 2 hours before dusk seem to work best.

been fishing for many many years but only this year found a really good way to catch perch on livebait in a local lake that also holds a good head of pike. use a half filled 1 and a half inch clear bubble float, the line passed through only one hole and held in place with a couple of BB shot, then after about 2 feet of line attach a steel trace with a single size 10 treble hook, i have been using either rudd or perch as livebait, and the perch enjoy eating themselves more than they do rudd !!!

what did it taste like?

i am 100% definate that it is a male fish, the fins are the give away, the pronounced muscles are only visible in about 90% of male fish, but the female NEVER has male fin shape, this is 100% definate a male !!

where is this lake then, im in sleaford, only about half hour by road from spalding !!

so dead baiting with a mackerel is ok then ??

the fizzing comes from disturbed vegetation which has small pockets of oxygen undet its leaves etc, it is also possible for pockets of gas to be lying in the silt on the bottom of ponds etc, the bubbles do not come directly from the fish themselves...

well done janet, lovely pictures and some great dialogue. shame your friends were not of the fishing variety.

i was disappointed too, went last year and this year too, but to have no stands representing the big manufacturers is complete criminality, the popularity of the sport in britain, it should at least fill 2 of the big halls in the NEC. so why is it so low key? the 16 quid adult entrance fee is a total rip off too...

i caught a 1lb 5oz terrapin while floating bread on the basingstoke canal near aldershot in 2002.