An interesting experiment

[Ken L]

Last night, i picked up a kilo of layers pellets (chicken feed) from the local pet store to see if they would be any good as a groundbait or method mix.

I damped some down and left them a while and sure enough they softened and bound well onto a frame feeder.

I dumped the feeder into a pan and after a few seconds, the lump broke down and they all floated to the top. Hmm, hadn't banked on them floating.

I was off to the river this morning so decided to try a little experiment and dumped in a pot of pre damped pellets about 50m or so upstream of a known fish holding spot.

Predictably, as they drifted down, they spread out quite a bit and formed a line of floating feed.

Encouragingly, as I walked down the rover following them, I saw a few chub taking them off the top and then coming back for more.

As they arrived at the slightly deeper spot where a lot of fish hold station, things got very interesting. The water literally started boiling with chub and roach and even two or three of the barbel started zooming around getting very exited.

 

Food for thought. All I need to now is to find a way of using them.

I doubt that they'll be any good as a hook bait but for drawing fish from distance or getting fish to feed confidently on the surface, they may have their uses.

Edited August 20, 2011 by Ken L

[Phone]

Kel L,

 

Strange indeed. Consider this. The content of a quality "layers mash" (i.e. cereal grains and shell enhancers) do not float. I wouldn't use the stuff until I found out the ingredients. Not "layers mash" so much but "hen scratch" is often medicated and/or can contain insecticides not harmful to warm blooded creatures. Hen scratch can do a number on fish fry.

Do you have a label of the contents?

Floating cereal grains are not cool.

 

Phone

[Ken L]

No list of ingredients on there.

They were sold loose but the tub just lists the nutritional content with crude protein, crude carbs etc.

The smell is slightly malty with a definite hint of fish meal.

[Phone]

Ken,

 

It is the "floating" part that makes me suspicious. Wonder why it floats? It could be the it is the bran from grain. That wouldn't be much count as bait though. It hard to speculate. Fishmeal bone does float and is considered "delicious" by most fish. Maybe?

 

Dog food, (biscut) is cereal grain that is expanded by processing with air. I've not seen and chicken feed products manufactured like they do dog food? Maybe?

 

Phone

[Andy_1984]

just wondering if a pellet pump may help them sink ?

[Ken L]

Obviously I can't be certain but I seriously doubt that they would contain insectcides or antibiotics without saying so.

 

The same shop sells branded and bagged pellets at about the same price. I don't know if they're the same brand that they sell loose but it seems likely.

Ingredients etc are listed below. No fishmeal. Maybe that's my imagination or maybe there's a bit of contamination going on with the pond fish feed sticks in the next tub.

 

Composition:

 

Wheat, Extracted Sunflower, Limestone Flour, Wheatfeed, Dehulled Soya Bean Meal, Distiller's Wheat Grains, Vegetable Oil, Vitamin/Trace Mineral Premix, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, L-Lysine, Sodium Bicarbonate, Pumpkin,Squash, Broccoli, Spinach, Tomato

 

Analytical Constituents:

 

Crude protein 16.0%, Crude oils & fats 3.5%, Crude fibre 4.0%, Crude ash 12.5%, Calcium 3.75%, Phosporus 0.7%, Sodium 0.15%, Lysine: 0.71%, Methionine: 0.36%.

 

Additives:

Vitamins: Vitamin A/E672 (as retinol palmitate) 7,500 iu/kg, Vitamin D/E671 (as cholecalciferol) 3,000 iu/kg, Vitamin E/E307 (as alpha tocopherol acetate) 20 mg/kg,

Trace Elements: Ferrous sulphate monohydrate/E1 130 mg/kg, Calcium iodate/E2 3 mg/kg, Cupric sulphate pentahydrate/E4 28 mg/kg, Manganous oxide/E5 115 mg/kg, Zinc oxide/E6 65 mg/kg, Sodium selenite/E8 6.5 mg/kg,

Amino Acids: L-lysine 0.7 g/kg, DL methionine 1.2 g/kg.

Digestibility Enhancer: Ronozyme NP (CT), minimum activity 1,800 FYT/kg of feed, (Phytase enzyme: EC/IUB 3.1.3.26, E1614 - for the improvement of utilisation of phyate phosphorus).

[Phone]

Ken,

 

Contents Look OK on the surface to me.

 

These pellets must be "re-manufactured" adding air in some fashion. That's what I now picture in my minds eye. But even dog food once it is dampend usually absorbs enough to be "sinking".

 

In the US at least where you've listed "Composition" - well that is the order, by volume, of the content. So it would be wheat, sunflower, and limestone rock. Those things all sink.

 

Certainly there is nothing listed that will be harmful so I wouldn't be afraid to use it. In fact, sounds like fun if the fish will take it from the top.

 

Phone

[Ken L]

After the little experiment at lunchtime, I'm just off for a very short session to see if I can generate the same degree of excitement with a rod in my hand.

[Kappa]

Dear Ken,

 

I've been using layers pellets for some time now as the are only 6 quid for 20 kilos. However the ones I've used sink very well.

 

Rich

[Ken L]

Just got back after my first trotting session in ages.

The pellets failed to produce the same response that they did in town but I still caught fish - and didn't miss a single bite!

I suspect that the town fish (which are virtually pets) are much more used to being fed floating food so they responded instantly to the new food source which simply didn't happen on the more natural stretch that I fished tonight.

I ended up with a nice cock dace and half a dozen chub to about a pound.

 

A proportion of the pellets do seem to sink which is presumably what was getting the barbel so excited at lunchtime and there were a few swirls right at the bottom of the run which might indicate that the fish can be turned onto what is certainly a very cheap bait.

Oh, and I discovered that they can be hooked if you don't over dampen them although my fish actually fell to breadflake and meat.

 

Rich. Are you usng a specific brand and price aside, what have your results been like ?

Edited August 20, 2011 by Ken L