Simple baits?

[frodo_uk]

like me old great (angling)gran used to tell me.

Some fishing purchases catch fish, some catch the angler. let the buyer beware.

[Tyke]

You only have to look at the humble maggot and realise its the top fish catcher of all time.

It may not catch the specimens all the time but ive had some good fish on maggots.

I still stick to the traditional baits and catch well inough on them.

Ive seen a lot of Anglers fork out a lot of money for pellets and other commercial angling baits and ive often outfished then with Bread, sweetcorn, cheesepaste or worm.

I suspose its all down to the venue and fish and what baits are going in.

Ive tried pellets a few times and cant say ive had a cracking days fishing on them.

Im no match Angler and prefer a bigger bait espacially during the summer months.

But if i do fancy some faster sport on goes a double Maggot and 6 times out of 10 ill hook into a good fish after pulling a few roach in.

[Lid]

This year I have used worms, meat and maggots. I also carry a tin of sweetcorn, but haven't opened it yet. Once or twice I used a bit of bread or crust too.

[wunnus]

I find it hard to beat a nice slice of meaty worm. It attracts the fish on its own. With a little bit of a wiggle getting it on the hook it stays on so that you can cast well with it. On a light rig it helps to set the float and gives immediate signal that the bait is going.

 

Plus just about anything will have a go at it. You never know what will turn up.

 

Ahhh bliss...just a few over hanging trees , a slow flow and plenty of swirls from feeding fish. What more could I want? Oh yes just a set of chesties and.... well Santa never does get that bit right (always the socks!)

 

I will think of you all on the bank tomorrow..Good Luck All

[Sulis]

Aah, so I wasn't that far from the mark after all! No harm in trying a traditional bait one day and something comepletely different the next. I suppose it's the only way we find out what works and what doesn't. One of the joys of fishing is the unpredictability of it all, eh?!

 

Thanks for your wonderful replies. Best wishes.

[fenboy]

There's an element of truth in Granny's saying that baits catch more anglers than fish. The search for the magic bait that fish can't resist has been going on for as long as men have been baiting hooks.

It's fun to experiment. I was privileged to be in the know about sweetcorn very early on when it was THE super carp bait. I was catching big pike on smelt before 90 per cent of pike anglers even knew what a smelt was. Oh yes,and I was introduced to floating pet food baits and boilies very early on from friends on the grapevine. The same applies to the hair rig, incidentally.

All the above have stood the test of time. But like the traditional maggots, worms and bread before them - and the many super-baits since - there's nothing magical about any of them. Anything that fish enjoy eating and find nourishing will be good baits on the day.

And that's where magic really does come in. It isn't so much the bait itself, but the knack of putting it in the right place at the right time. That's water craft... and it's something that has to be earned and can't be bought over the counter.

Having said there, there is always room for doing something different. This is called tactics, and for this you need to have a competitive brain. If, say, you arrive at a lake where everybody else is slavishly following fashion and firing boilies at the horizon, then to me your obvious step would be to fish a simple bait (eg sweetcorn, bread, maggots) in a good marginal swim (ie some degree of cover), sit back and keep quiet. Whatever you do, don't erect a bivvy or drive in rodrests, etc. You stand a good chance of catching, because you are not in competition for the fish to be caught at range and have no competition at all for the fish patrolling the margins.

In short, just because everybody else is doing something in a certain way, doesn't mean it's the best way. Be your own person, make your own decisions... and the rewards when they come will be much more satisfying in the knowledge that you did it all yourself.

[Steve Burke]

fenboy:

Having said there, there is always room for doing something different. This is called tactics, and for this you need to have a competitive brain. If, say, you arrive at a lake where everybody else is slavishly following fashion and firing boilies at the horizon, then to me your obvious step would be to fish a simple bait (eg sweetcorn, bread, maggots) in a good marginal swim (ie some degree of cover), sit back and keep quiet. Whatever you do, don't erect a bivvy or drive in rodrests, etc. You stand a good chance of catching, because you are not in competition for the fish to be caught at range and have no competition at all for the fish patrolling the margins.

I'll second that. Long standing members may remember my success with big carp at Wingham fishing maggots in the margins. As the fish were unpressured I fished 15lb line straight through to a size 6 hook (no hair rig as every member always used one).

 

The only concession to "modern" methods was a bolt rig plus a swan shot several feet up the line to act as a back lead so that the line was out of sight. I then simply lowered the bait in the margins with just the extreme tip of the rod over the water.

 

A couple of the members (incidentally, ex-members as they never caught much) laughed at me for using such "noddy" tactics. They didn't laugh for long!

 

The only time I didn't catch in short evening sessions was on one occasion when a member plonked himself in the next swim (although there was no one else on 15 acres!) and hammered in bivvy pegs and spodded out half a ton of bait. :mad:

 

I hadn't really done anything clever as, by observation, I'd simply found a patrol route that the carp used as they came off the shallows and moved back to deeper water overnight.

 

What was important though was to keep well back out of sight and avoid vibrations. It really was that simple!

 

P.S. I've just re-read the above and it occurred that it could be taken as boastful, which it wasn't supposed to be. I hope readers will appreciate that it was to illustrate a point, and to give more background than I reported at the time.

 

[ 10. January 2004, 02:12 PM: Message edited by: Steve Burke ]

[Nugg]

There is one more point to look at here, seasonal baits, for instance ,whilst maggots will catch in winter, just give a thought to the fact that flies don't breed naturally in winter, so therefore maggots will not get introduced into the water in a natural way, like say falling into the water from a rotting corpse somewhere near the water, on the other hand worms will be washed by winter rains, into water courses. The same goes for berries and grain type baits, they would be a more natural bait for fish to find during the the Summer/Autumn.

I'm not saying that there is a hard and fast rule in the examples given above but it's just another thing to consider when making a choice of baits.

[jeepster]

Steve Burke:

 

P.S. I've just re-read the above and it occurred that it could be taken as boastful, which it wasn't supposed to be. I hope readers will appreciate that it was to illustrate a point, and to give more background than I reported at the time.

informative, and very interesting yes, boastful, not at all