plastic at night

[Kappa]

Ok picture the scene, you are fishing a large low stock gravel pit. It's midnight and its a new moon so it is pitch black.

 

Suddenly the alarms go and you are into a fish. Nothing out of the ordinary? What if you are using an unflavoured plastic bait.

 

How / why on earth do the fish take a piece of plastic they can neither 'smell' or see?

 

Rich

[Dales]

How / why on earth do the fish take a piece of plastic they can neither 'smell' or see?

 

I know fish get caught in these situations but I don't believe they do pick it up on purpose. It just gets sucked up along with any free offerings, it's not deliberate. But then I hear of people catching with no free loose feed on plastic

 

I feel much better if the plastic glows and has been in soak for weeks, at least then in my mind they can see and smell it. Even if they can't it makes me feel better if I think they can

[Tigger]

I'll echo Dales and say it's more than likely picked up by accident.

[Anderoo]

To turn the question on its head - does it matter?

 

I've been in that situation several times with both tench and bream. With the type of bait I was fishing over (groundbait with a lot of different things added) I can't see how picking out something 'real' with a flavour is any easier than picking out a bit of unflavoured plastic - there are so many mixed food signals. It's impossible to do anything other than take a mouthful of everything, by which time it's too late. Plus of course the buoyancy helps the plastic get sucked in, and the plastic is usually sitting with the contents of a little PVA bag.

 

With bream I've come to think they probably can see stuff like that even on very dark nights and in coloured water.

 

Either way, it works! It just needs a leap of faith.

 

PS I reckon for the bream, fishing with just fake corn results in getting an early take, I'm pretty sure over a baited area as described it's one of the first things picked up. Incidentally, in Terry Lampard's chapter on the Broadwater bream he states that fake casters were by far the most successful bait he used. It's worth reading that book!

Edited January 14, 2012 by Anderoo

[Andrew Burgess]

Ok picture the scene, you are fishing a large low stock gravel pit. It's midnight and its a new moon so it is pitch black.

 

Suddenly the alarms go and you are into a fish. Nothing out of the ordinary? What if you are using an unflavoured plastic bait.

 

How / why on earth do the fish take a piece of plastic they can neither 'smell' or see?

 

Rich

 

 

Maybe the fish wanted to be hooked I will go and get my coat!

 

Rich - as you know that I do used 4rod when fishing but one of the rod is rig with the plastic bait, it be used so many times that I was beginning to lose faith in them and saying a complete waste of time and money. But that all change at the last WSG meeting last September when i decided to give it another go but also decided to put out more of the sweetcorn around the hookbait. Yep had one at last on the plastic sweetcorn!

 

I agreed on Dales on what he said in his post that fish do pick up the bait and get caught in situations, with loose offerings etc.

[Anderoo]

Maybe the fish wanted to be hooked I will go and get my coat!

 

Rich - as you know that I do used 4rod when fishing but one of the rod is rig with the plastic bait, it be used so many times that I was beginning to lose faith in them and saying a complete waste of time and money. But that all change at the last WSG meeting last September when i decided to give it another go but also decided to put out more of the sweetcorn around the hookbait. Yep had one at last on the plastic sweetcorn!

 

I agreed on Dales on what he said in his post that fish do pick up the bait and get caught in situations, with loose offerings etc.

 

As Andrew implies - I reckon it's the baiting that's the important thing.

[Kappa]

As Andrew implies - I reckon it's the baiting that's the important thing.

 

I've been thinking a lot about this recently. If it is unintentional then I think I would prefer to have something edible on the hair too, as (in theory) this ought to be more attractive, I worry about the PVA bag contents being all gone after a few hours.

 

I wonder if part of it is actually size of bait I wonder if a single fake caster on a small hook would be great!

 

P.s. I have no doubt carp and tench will take them on purpose out of curiousity in day light.

 

Rich

[Phone]

Kappa,

 

Let me add to your mystery or misery. I never quite solved it. We do as you suggest. - AND - We do not "bait" with groundbait (or anything else). We use wooden beads threaded above the hook eye. We catch carp. (I'm assuming you were carp fishing?).

 

Phone

I can speculate and have some personal theories. NO FACTS

[Dales]

I was talking to guy on holiday in Thailand a few years ago and he said he had never used real bait for Carp, Tench and Bream for years. He said he only ever used hair rigged cork balls or poly balls. He said he had made the assumption that there is no need for real bait if you fish over a bed of mixed bait items. All three will just hoover them up and so there is no point in even trying to attract the fish to your hook.

[pearbo]

Had all my carp (except a few off the top) on pink corn for around the last 4 years. I did try the glow in the dark stuff for a couple of nights and while getting runs on the pink the glow in the dark stuff didn't move. I do fish the method so obviously the fish get drawn in to that but it very often outfishes boilies on the lakes i fish.