strangest bait ever used?

[CHEWY49]

when on holiday in Malta, i bought a cheap 6foot telescopic rod, and reel kit. i didn't know what bait to use. i had aMcChicken sandwich from the Golden Arches (McDonalds). the fish there seemed to like it. they were only 3-7 inches what i caught. a bit of chicken with the coating still on seemed to work the best. might try KFC next.

[Guest Josh Iddon]

A bait I have been using abit last summer is ciggarette filter tips soaked in halibut oil!, I just make sure its securly hooked so the fish cant swallow it,it works great, I had a few nice fish on it, cause there quite large they tend to get the larger rudd. It worked for me!

 

Peanut cake used for feeding birds can work very well! Ive had carp on the float to double figures using it. Its best to hair rig it though, its got lots of lumps in it, and only really on the float in the margins, because its soft and comes of easy. Josh

[Newt]

What is it with the Ivory Soap Newt? Rendered fat or something?

 

 

 

Yup. Fat, lye, a smidge of salt and in the case of Ivory, way more than the usual amount of air into the mix. I don't think they have changed it much since a soap maker with the White Soap Company in 1879 goofed and left the air running into a batch of their soap while he went to lunch. He was afraid he would be fired if he told so the batch was packaged and sold.

 

 

 

Customers wrote the company asking if they could get more of "the floating soap you sold" and things just sorta went from there.

 

 

 

Any 'pure' soap will work though. Just that the Ivory is easier to rig on the hook and the fact that it floats helps in presentation.

[Guest tigger]

I used a peice of Crunchie bar with the chocolate sucked off, floating for carp, didn't work though they just kept swimming past it and never gave it a second look.

[Dick Dastardly]

I tried tipping the trebles on my lures with swan necks..............

[ayjay]

I tried tipping the trebles on my lures with swan necks..............

 

 

[Chris Goddard]

I do remember a pond at Lee - on - Solent where there was a good head of Carp which were regularly fed on Crisps!!

 

Cheese and onion was favourite too as I recall!

 

Then some clever bugger had the idea to SUPERGLUE the crisps to a hook!!!

 

Had some BLOODY nice fish too he did!!

[maff]

I've caught loads of carp on hair rigged polystyrene. Over groats. I'm sure they thought it was the biggest groat they had ever seen. This was before 'imitation baits were all the rage'

[Andy Macfarlane]

Cheers Newt.

 

I've caught on.....

 

Cigarette ends, presented in various ways (useful bit of fluff).

Foil (use your imagination)

Walkers Crisp Packet (Coloured on one side, foil on the other...great for feathers)

Feathers (for flies or as is)

Tinsel (Where do I start?)

Zip tag and fluoro beads (primitive spinner caught me a cpmpetition winning brown trout)

All manner of rockpool fish (Blennies, gobys etc.)

Slugs of varying colours (often curl up in mucus and mask the hook but effective).

Freshwater Snails (smashed up and simply used as is. V Good).

Caddis Larvae, Damsel Larvae, etc. (Hmmm....seasonal perhaps).

Freshwater Shrimp. (Rarely fails in clean water).

Spiders, Daddy Long Legs, Cranefly etc. (Made for dapping).

Moths, Butterflies, Caterpillars (trout just suck them up)

Wasp Grubs (Killer baits)

Mealworms (fine but not remarkable)

Crickets (good but difficult to find and catch)

Bees and Wasps (trout will come up for them too)

Leeches (Not as good as expected)

Ladybirds (great for Whitewater)

Beetles (Spot on for float fishing and touch legering)

 

I've tried just about everything and it's been trout that have been the main targets.

Edited May 4, 2006 by Andy Macfarlane

[Jigotai]

I was talking to a South African guy in India who picked up a chunk of the local rough as hell blue washing soap, sniffed it and told be it was the same stuff they used for vundu and sharptooth cats in Africa.

 

Strangest things i've used are some of the naturals, Snails (with shell), blackberries, woodlice erc. They all worked.

The one I keep meaning to try is Swann Mussell.

 

When I was fishing in zimbabwe they used soap alot for the vundu catfish. Swan mussel is a great bait for catfish over here and well worth a try.