ground bait and pellets

[sheila]

i went fishing on sat 31st march, whilst i was there i was advised by another angler to use pellets as ground bait to entice the fish into my swim, although i appreciated his advice, i have to say i have caught 28 fish carp and others without ground bait, seems to me that if the fish arent feeding no matter how much bait you chuck in they wont bite, and all this pellets and stuff cost money makes the hobbie more expensive, i mainly use maggots and/or luncheon meat, i am also happy to catch small fry lets here your views ......sheila

[Newt]

Hi Sheila and welcome to Anglers' Net. Until you reach 15 posts and full membership your posts will need approving before they become visible. They are there - you just can't see them - so no need to post the same thing again.

[AddictedToScopex]

i went fishing on sat 31st march, whilst i was there i was advised by another angler to use pellets as ground bait to entice the fish into my swim, although i appreciated his advice, i have to say i have caught 28 fish carp and others without ground bait, seems to me that if the fish arent feeding no matter how much bait you chuck in they wont bite, and all this pellets and stuff cost money makes the hobbie more expensive, i mainly use maggots and/or luncheon meat, i am also happy to catch small fry lets here your views ......sheila

The use of things like groundbait, particle mixes or even just heavy feeding of maggots etc is primarily to keep fish in your swim. In other words, once a fish has happened across some of your bait it will get its head down and begin to feed. This increases your chance of getting a take for a few reasons. Number 1 is that you are likely to have more fish in the swim which of course means more chances to catch one. Number 2 is that the increased number of fish can lead to them competing and therefore being more careless about what bait they pick up. Number 3 is that the longer they feed over your bait the more confident they will get increasing your chances further. If you didnt have the bait down there then chances are they may miss your hookbait and move on. If you have a nice bed of feed down not only would the smell attract the fish but they would also hang around for longer. In the case of commercials it is fairly important to keep fish in your swim as other people will be trying to do the same.

 

I am certainly not saying groundbait or pellets are essential but they are often a cheaper way to bait a slightly larger area and certainly have their place in my armory. A kilo of groundbait cost about £1 more than a pint of maggots in my area and when mixed with brown crumb will bait a larger area much more effectively than maggots. Add to that the fact that the groundbait can be used as a medium to carry other freebies then you have a very useful bait IMO.

 

I am not saying you wont catch using a single hookbait and a few free offerings however as this works too. It is just sometimes wise to have a nice baited area to keep dropping your hook bait into.

Edited April 2, 2012 by AddictedToScopex

[kirisute]

Well I've caught hundreds of carp and my primary method,no matter what time of year, is to feed a swim with freebies and fish over it.

I never use ground bait but I do use hallibut pellet as the primary feed.

Start the swim with a good of couple handfuls and see how it goes...if fish are there and biting then feed a little often and after each fish caught.

If they are not feeding then reduce the amount of feed to every 30 mins, hour etc or just give up and try another spot!

change feeder bait if you wish to other particles: sweet corn, hemp,diced luncheon meat, even squashed bread...of course it's always a good idea to fish your hook bait same as feed but you don't have too.

I feed hallibut pellet and hemp but usually fish luncheon meat or maggot or bread!

[Nicepix]

Groundbait serves several purposes. To attract fish into your swim, to condition fish into accepting a new (to them) bait, to stimulate feeding. If you are fishing a water with hardly any angling pressure you can locate fish using fieldcraft and catch them on natural baits like worms or baits that they will readily accept; sweetcorn (maize) is one, bread is another and meat can be another good bet. If you are fishing a commercial water with a lot of angling pressure then realistically unless you groundbait you are less likely to have any fish at all in your swim especially if someone nearby is groundbaiting. Also on heavily fished waters fish may be conditioned to feeding on pellets and be unwilling to take anything else.

 

What I would suggest is to take a small bag of micro pellets with you and when things are tough introduce a handfull into the swim. See if it makes any difference.

[kirisute]

one other point is that if you shop carefully there is no need for either groudnbait or pellets to add significant costs to your fishing budgets!

my local tackle shop sells a small bag of hallibut pellets (un branded) for a couple of quid..its enough to fill up a 2 pint maggot tub and have a fair amount left over; and the way i fish it will last me a day of fishing at my local carp lake! sometimes more! i certainly dont buy a bag every time i go fishing!

on top of that i found out where he buys the pellets wholesale and a 40KG sack of them is only £45!! My buddy and i purchase a sack every year for our school fishing trip..it lasts 8 of us a week of fishing and then supplies me and him for the rest of season with no trouble at all! in fact, this year, we are still using it and thats last years bag purchased at the start of June!!

as for groundbait: buy a 47p loaf from tesco! open it out and dry it on a very very low heat in the oven til its gone solid! slam it in a food processor and blitz it fine as you like! VOILA!! groundbait!

mix it with cheap wholemeal if you like, or plash out on some "glug" to flavour it with a hallibut etc.

same with hemp..you can buy dried hemp in bulk and boil it yourself! cheap as chips to do!

sweetcorn is what? 30p a tin?? even cheaper if you buy a value bag of it frozen!

you dont need to buy the branded feeds! you simply dont!

[carp-catcha]

one other point is that if you shop carefully there is no need for either groudnbait or pellets to add significant costs to your fishing budgets!

my local tackle shop sells a small bag of hallibut pellets (un branded) for a couple of quid..its enough to fill up a 2 pint maggot tub and have a fair amount left over; and the way i fish it will last me a day of fishing at my local carp lake! sometimes more! i certainly dont buy a bag every time i go fishing!

on top of that i found out where he buys the pellets wholesale and a 40KG sack of them is only £45!! My buddy and i purchase a sack every year for our school fishing trip..it lasts 8 of us a week of fishing and then supplies me and him for the rest of season with no trouble at all! in fact, this year, we are still using it and thats last years bag purchased at the start of June!!

as for groundbait: buy a 47p loaf from tesco! open it out and dry it on a very very low heat in the oven til its gone solid! slam it in a food processor and blitz it fine as you like! VOILA!! groundbait!

mix it with cheap wholemeal if you like, or plash out on some "glug" to flavour it with a hallibut etc.

same with hemp..you can buy dried hemp in bulk and boil it yourself! cheap as chips to do!

sweetcorn is what? 30p a tin?? even cheaper if you buy a value bag of it frozen!

you dont need to buy the branded feeds! you simply dont!

 

The use of groundbait has been well covered here, but importantly the cost of groundbait (and general feed) can be as much or as little as you want it to! The Supermarket is a haven of cheap fishing baits and there are plenty of ingredients there that you can make homemade groundbait with, easily and quickly.

 

There are anglers who like to spend a tonne of money on branded and purposed fishing bait and fair play to them, but there are also anglers like me, who save the money and invest their faith in homemade recipes and concoctions!

[Anderoo]

Remember that pellets go off over time. Before they get to the stage when it's obvious, they will start to become less effective as the oils degrade. They should come with a trustworthy 'use by' date really (you don't know how long they've been sitting on the shelf), but I'd be wary of buying in bulk, especially if they seem extra cheap, unless you know you'll be using a lot of them.

[Dave H]

I would be wary of sweetcorn too. Sweetcorn can react with the tin if you keep it in it for too long. This came to light many years back when i fished from small bags straight out of the freezer but he just used the corn straight from the tin. The results were not just a fluke it really did show something was going on with his corn

[kirisute]

I would be wary of sweetcorn too. Sweetcorn can react with the tin if you keep it in it for too long. This came to light many years back when i fished from small bags straight out of the freezer but he just used the corn straight from the tin. The results were not just a fluke it really did show something was going on with his corn

A tin or frozen sweet corn is all you need, no need to store opened tins or un frozen corn at any point! I've never used more than one tin a session and with frozen. Just fill my bait box and keep the rest frozen! Tin leftovers I just put in at the end of the session...free thanks for the days fishing!