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Trotting with bread


tiddlertamer

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I’ve read in countless book and publications that trotting with bread as the bait is a devastating technique.

 

I lack confidence in bread though having found maggot, caster and worm more effective.

 

I’m determined to push ahead with bread as a bait however as it means I can fish pretty much anywhere without having to find a tackle shop.

 

Which species of fish love it and which turn their noses up at it?

What type of bread is best?

Flake or crust?

What size hook?

What’s the best way to loose feed bread – should it be soaked in a landing net and mashed?

 

Thanks and tight lines. :)

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days without taking a fish. (Hemingway - The old man and the sea)

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Having discovered 'Magic Bread' this summer I intend to do a lot of 'bread trotting' this winter. With this stuff you can have a lot of condfidence that your bait is still on, cast after cast! Chub - and if I'm V. lucky roach will be the quarry.

 

 

C.

"Study to be quiet." ><((º> My Blog

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It is a very good technique, especially for chub and roach.

 

There are two ways to feed it, either liquidised (fresh, white bread blitzed in a blender) or mashed (old, stale white bread soaked in water, the excess squeezed out, and mashed up). Liquidised bread gives a lovely fine cloud of particles but as it's quite light it's not very good for deep or (especially) fast water. Mash is nice and heavy, and will get to the bottom quite easily. However, it is a much higher food content, so will fill the fish up more.

 

The hook size is just matched to the size of bait you want to use, anything from a 20 to a 6. Choose the size of bait depending on what you're hoping to catch/avoid. For decent roach and chub I would usually start with a 12 and take it from there. For chub alone, an 8 or 6.

 

The bread for the hook needs to be fresh. For flake, you want that 'sticky' white bread that'll bung you up for a week :D Squeeze it around the shank of the hook leaving the fluffy bit near the point. Even with really fresh bread you'll only get one or, if you're lucky, two trots with it. It's a very active method, and rebaiting every cast does take some getting used to.

 

For crust, use a proper tin loaf. The crust on sliced bread isn't up to much. Crust is bouyant, so it's not much use for trotting. It's good for bouncing down likely spots on a light leger though, when chub are on the cards.

 

The one really make or break thing I've found when trotting with bread is how much and how often to feed. It can take a while to build a swim up, and I usually find that I have to feed almost every cast. It depends on how big the river is and how many fish you think are in front of you, but on the upper Thames a tangerine sized ball of mash every cast is usually needed.

 

The other nice thing with fishing bread in this way is that I find the fish usually get bigger as the session goes on, especially if you fish into dusk. When it's too dark to see a float, you can switch to static bread fished with a quivertip just in case there's a big old roach or chub still mooching about...

 

The depth you fish at can be very important too, so if bites dry up experiment with different depths.

 

It is worth repeating again that for mash, you do need stale/dry bread otherwise you end up with a bucket of porridge! And for liquidised bread and hook bait, you need it fresh and moist/sticky.

 

It's still a massively underused bait!

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music

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Having discovered 'Magic Bread' this summer I intend to do a lot of 'bread trotting' this winter. With this stuff you can have a lot of condfidence that your bait is still on, cast after cast! Chub - and if I'm V. lucky roach will be the quarry.

 

 

C.

 

Can confirm that Chub approve of "magic bread" as i was using that bait this very morning on the Kennet.As i unexpectedly found myself with a few hours to kill and not wanting to wait for the tackle shop to open so i could purchase maggots it proved its worth.Just mashed up a loaf in my landing net on reaching my swim to use for groundbait with a pinch of magic bread on the hook.

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Having discovered 'Magic Bread' this summer I intend to do a lot of 'bread trotting' this winter. With this stuff you can have a lot of condfidence that your bait is still on, cast after cast! Chub - and if I'm V. lucky roach will be the quarry.

 

 

C.

 

Dare I ask....do crays like it?

 

Reason for asking is that it looks ideal for ledgering flake, the way it expands when it hits the water is genius.

 

http://www.fishing4fun.co.uk/fishing-tackl...lla-magic-bread

It's never a 'six', let's put it back

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I too have had little success with bread but following the advice on this thread I gave it another try yesterday. Trotting flake and feeding liquidised bread produced a few chublets so I’ll be persevering with it.

 

An observation about using liquidised bread…you need a lot of it for a decent session. I blended a large white loaf and packed it into a three pint bait box but it only lasted me a couple of hours, and that was eeking it out as much as I could. I’d think three loaves minimum in a bucket for an all day session.

 

Great stuff though, I’d drop in a golf ball sized handful and within a second it was sinking and breaking up sending loads of particles downstream. The water I was fishing was fast, clear and shallow so instant break up was ideal. Had it been deeper water I think the mashed method would have been better.

 

I also tried the Magic Bread. It does stay on the hook really well but I could only get the strawberry flavour and nothing seemed to like it (not even the ducks). I need to try the normal bread flavour I think.

It's never a 'six', let's put it back

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Try free lining bread for chub, fold a nice piece onto the hock, (size 8 or there abouts) dunk in the water an flick it out play line of the reel, center pin is best and wait for the action, make sure you keep in touch with the bait, the bites are very positive, also feed the swim for 10 minuets before you cast in.

Jasper Carrot On birmingham city

" You lose some you draw some"

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