intresting baits

[Andy Macfarlane]

Years ago I turned up at a lake in France after a long train journey, eager to hve a go but with no proper bait I moulded a chunk of my friend's corned beef sandwich and quickly caught a 4 lb(ish) Jack Pike.

 

Funnily enough there's an old chap who dog-walks daily round my local ressie, who told me about the merits of fishing with corned beef/corned mutton. The ressie used to be open to servicemen on leave when it was a private water. Most fished for trout but one or two fished for pike. He reckons they would stick their hooks into a decent slice of corned beef and freeze it, which I found interesting coming from a non-angler. Unless you've actually tried casting soft baits, keeping bait on the hook isn't really something you'd think up, so I reckon there's truth in what he says and now we have Emma telling us she also caught pike on the stuff too. I keep telling myself I'll try it one day.

[thuramario]

Funnily enough there's an old chap who dog-walks daily round my local ressie, who told me about the merits of fishing with corned beef/corned mutton. The ressie used to be open to servicemen on leave when it was a private water. Most fished for trout but one or two fished for pike. He reckons they would stick their hooks into a decent slice of corned beef and freeze it, which I found interesting coming from a non-angler. Unless you've actually tried casting soft baits, keeping bait on the hook isn't really something you'd think up, so I reckon there's truth in what he says and now we have Emma telling us she also caught pike on the stuff too. I keep telling myself I'll try it one day.

i used to use it when i first started fishin as a ground bait. next time ya go fishin, throw a bit in somewere you dont fish and see the water explode. im not sure this is a good thing or not but i believe you can buy explosive breadfeed/groungbait so who knows.

[Chris Plumb]

Most unusual, bait I have seen used was a surface fished live gosling with a treble attached to each foot tethered the a brightly painted 1 gallon container....and it worked! I have seen fish and frog livebaits similarly employed, with mulitiple set ups like that about the lake. When one started to be towed away by a Pike it was rowed after and the 'offending' predator whacked on the head. The dead Pike would be hung up at the boat landing like vermin on a keepers gibbet. The idea was to rid the water of Pike in order to improve the overall fishing. Of course it made no noticable difference to the Pike population. Shows how the times have changed though, I saw it in the late 60s.

 

This practice was known as Huxing - a few references to it can be found in 19th C Angling Lit...

 

 

C.

[Newt]

AKA "Jug Fishing" in the States and often used when you need a number of channel catfish for a 'fish fry' (BBQ).

[Emma two]

Thanks, 'Huxing, an' 'jug fishin' I will remember those terms.

[ayjay]

Cheese has always been a good bait. I sometimes use a cheese and breadpaste mix when targeting largish Roach; especially if it has been in and out of a freezer several times so that it starts to sweat

 

 

I don't bother freezing mine, I just make a big ball at the start of winter and keep it in the (bait)fridge,adding more to it when necessary.

[loopy]

Its amazing we see and use all these modern baits and think they are the bees knees, but its the angler who catches not the bait, i remember watching Bill Penny fishing a lake in sunbury many moons ago , all he had was a backy tin with some bread in it made by his wife and a little bag of mashed bread as groundbait , he was pulling roach out every cast and i mean good roach all over 2lb He could strike ,hook play and land the fish with out even looking at the float or the water, he was an angling artist, funny thing was when asked how he prepared his hook bait ,he replied i dont know the wife does it and she wont tell me Whenever i see a picture of yester year of an angler on the bank with his cane rod sitting on a wicker basket ,and fag in his mouth topped by a flat cap it always reminds me of him. He was for a short time the british roach record holder, a master of roach fishing

[Neil G]

Cheese is real old school

 

I've caught some nice Chub on cubes of cheese

[bluerinse]

Older readers will remember the late John Sidley who used to write in the Angling Times in the 70s, an Eel fanantic (and pal of Mick Brown apparently too), he would advocate 'loose feeding' Eel swims with dead hedgehogs and other road kill.

 

 

I regularly fished with John as a Kid (more like followed him about, I was 10 -11 years old) at Earlswood lakes, he was also a dedicated Pike angler but was properly better know for his eel tactic’s, I can confirm that he advocated a sack of dead animals weighted down and thrown in as the best method to attract eels, he would say give it a week or more and you would be right on the eels. He was also convinced Earlswood lakes held the British eel record.

I recall him catching a huge eel on a frog spoon when fishing for pike at Earlswood.

As a kid the eel looked as big as an anaconda, I Know it was on the front cover of the angling times, I wonder if anyone knows how big it was.