Chris 1

Not wanting to sound unsociable, I think a good angler has to be something of a loner most of the time.

Just a suggestion for disguising the hook. How about tying, as in fly tying a buzzer onto the shank of the hook? It could be as simple as red thread for the body, with a white tail fillament at each end. I should imagine it would work with maggots and the odd fake grub when fishing over bloodworm?

Budgie, I think like a lot of people I never had any confidence in fake baits at one time. I got talking to another bream angler one day who said he nearly always catches on them, plus I had heard more and more reports of double figure bream being caught on them especially in the winter months. So I decided to give it a go. 5.a.m on a very foggy and cold morning I had just given up hope, when I got a series of single beeps. I prayed and prayed that it was a bream, and so it was at 10 lb 4 oz. However, "big" bream angling as you know must be one of the hardest and frustrating species to catch by design, I have seen hardened anglers drawn near to tears. I am struggling again now, and I am at the stage where I am thinking do big bream favour fake corn mostly in the colder months and if so why? and is it more of a sight thing? and is it time I tried something else? I have caught lots of Tench on it near to double figures throughout the season. I suppose the difficulty of big bream fishing is what starts to make us doubt ourselves. One day we think we have cracked it, and the next the gremlins appear. I am certain it is more down to location than anything else. The one thing in common that we all seem to expierience is that big bream do not show themselves that often, and that there does not seem to be any pattern in their movements.

Many thanks for the welcome lads. The only thing that I know about flavouring fake baits like corn is that I am told that lots of companys use Glycerin as the base carrier, you can get it from Boots chemists. Another base carrier that I use is Pure "Fructose" availiable from health food shops. It is a very concentrated sweetener used in jam making (sugars from natural fruits) . Then just add whatever flavour that you like. I keep mine in old film canisters. It also helps to hold the flavour if you give the fake bait a bit of a stabbing with a needle. I have had some success using this as a bait soak for double figure bream, so it does work. Excellent thread by the way. Incidentally, I do know that double figure bream do come out during the winter months on fake corn. I am only up to page 25 on this thread just yet, but already it has changed my way of thinking. Especially on the baiting up front. I now go for lots of scent rather than lots of food content. I can be fishing in 18 ft of water, so I am trying to work out how to get a blanket of groundbait to the bottom without it drifting away in the surface layers. I can only think of slightly dampening the groundbait so that it will hold together just long enough to get below the surface drift before it breaks up. Once again many thanks for a brilliant topic.

Hello lads. I am thinking of making my own bait soak for bream (plastic baits). could somebody tell me the correct amounts of Flavour and Glycerin to use please? I am thinking of 20 mil Glycerin and 3-5 mil of chosen flavour. Does this sound about right? Many thanks, Chris.

Hi just saying hello. Hope to contribute soon.