Fake baits

[Ken L]

There are more and more plastic baits on the market and I know that some folks on here use them.

Being plastic, it's fairly obvious that they are indigestable but if they are eaten (If they come off a hair etc) what happens to them ?

Some would appear to big to pass through a fish so have their been any fish deaths attributed to these baits ?

[Kappa]

There are more and more plastic baits on the market and I know that some folks on here use them.

Being plastic, it's fairly obvious that they are indigestable but if they are eaten (If they come off a hair etc) what happens to them ?

Some would appear to big to pass through a fish so have their been any fish deaths attributed to these baits ?

 

Fish, particularly those that feed on the bottom will inevitably pickup non digestable things such as stones and twigs etc etc. I for one can't see why plastic would be worse than pebbles:

 

https://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~shlemonc/h...Fs/fishdiet.pdf

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111...3662.x/abstract

 

http://www.google.com/m/url?client=ms-andr...YSfoSLZrNXP_63Q

 

Lots more papers I can't access too!

 

Rich

[SpecimenSean]

The worst thing in that respect is an artificial on a snagged rig, fish comes a long, eats it, gets snagged and dies and the process repeats.

[larsagi2010]

There are more and more plastic baits on the market and I know that some folks on here use them.

Being plastic, it's fairly obvious that they are indigestable but if they are eaten (If they come off a hair etc) what happens to them ?

Some would appear to big to pass through a fish so have their been any fish deaths attributed to these baits ?

 

I placed some fake luncheon meat and fake bread into some scopex overnight to absorb the flavour, by morning they had turned into slime in the bottom of the tub. Is seems tome varieties are designed to degrade after so many hours in water.

[Dick Dastardly]

I seriously doubt that any fish big enough to take a grain of artificial corn wouldn't be able to pass it whole. That's why the whole "particles swelling up and bursting fish's guts" is just an old wives tale! Also I don't think that many artificial baits are lost with today's use of the knot less knot "through hair".

 

I do take Sean's point about lost rigs still "fishing" far longer than one baited with a natural bait but I think that in practice any lost rig (regardless of bait being real or not) is a potential fish killer.

[RUDD]

I would have thought that most fake baits float - therefore I would be more worried about wildfowl having a few problems trying to eat the stuff.

[Steve Walker]

I shouldn't think it takes long for a lost fake bait to be unrecognisably coated in crap. I wonder how long a lost shelf life boilie stays attractive?

[Anderoo]

Don't forget that a fake bait is effective only because it has a hook attached. You wouldn't loose feed it would you...because you know loosefed bits of plastic would never get eaten! They might be sucked into the mouth, but would immediately be recognised as a non-food item and spat out again.

 

Even if one was swallowed, it would pass through the fish easily.

 

I'm with Budgie on the lost rig thing, any lost rig with a bait attached is bad news, but I do take Sean's point that one baited with a fake bait is more of a problem. The answer, I think, is to not lose rigs in the first place.

 

Steve, I don't think shelf life boilies stay attractive for very long, I think a lot of them just sit and rot on the bottom... I bet we'd be horrified at the amount of rotten 'crap baits' in most carp lakes.

Edited July 11, 2011 by Anderoo

[Steve Walker]

I suspect we're talking about days in both cases, though obviously it will depend on how much suspended sediment there is in the water.

[Tigger]

Even if one was swallowed, it would pass through the fish easily.

 

 

Not if it's hair rigged to a hook it won't. I think there's been a few threads about fake baits in the past and imo one of the worst is the pop ups for piking. An awful lot of people just shuv the pop up into the deadbait without the safety set up which retreives it when the bait comes off leaving it there as a possible death trap, again for other ceatures not just old esox.

I suppose it's a case of doing your best to keep things as safe as poss.