Bait Guide | Experimenting with bait
One of the greatest things about fishing is that there are no hard and fast rules.
Lots of guidelines have been drawn up by top anglers to help everyone else put more fish in the net, but from time to time it pays to break away from expert advice and try your own thing.
Experimenting with bait is a great way of livening things up and you’ll be amazed at how much difference it can make to give the fish something they have never tasted before.
Take a look at the five different bait experiments we’ve tried and give them a go to help you bag up this summer.
1. Liquid cocktail
There are dozens of liquid flavours on tackle shop shelves but have you ever considered combining a couple to make a deadly cocktail?
IYCF has tried various combinations and have had success mixing Dynamite Baits Sweet Tiger Liquid Carp Food with Robin Red. The concoction creates a strange aroma but when used as a bait glug it certainly seems to appeal to the fish.
2. Paste wrap
In coloured water it is essential you do all you can to make your hookbait stand out to the fish. Using a bright offering can score but if that still doesn’t do the trick then it is time to add extra flavour.
A great way of doing this is wrapping pellets around your hookbait after being dampened in a liquid coating. The scent will leak off at a slow rate as the pellets break down, creating an unmissable hookbait that will prove irresistible to big fish.
3. Coloured corn
Sweetcorn is a deadly bait for a wide variety of species but when you have fed a big bed of it how do you get them to hoover up your hookbait first?
Using colourful flavours and dyes could be the answer. Place a handful of corn into different coloured liquids and allow them to stand for a few hours. During this time the colour will change slightly and it will also add flavour that will ooze off once in the water.
4. Crushed boilies
How do we pick out the biggest fish in our favourite venues? Smaller offerings such as micros pellets and maggots are easily snatched by silvers and little carp but add boilies to your armoury and you’ll have a better chance of ruling out these fish. Mix your favourite groundbait in the standard fashion and take several handfuls of 10mm or 12mm boilies. Use your hands to crush them before introducing them to the groundbait. This added content will be too big for the smaller fish to swallow and that will leave a decent meal. Cup it in the margins and you’ll soon see swirls erupt.
5. Dusted pellets
Commercials face much angling pressure and you need to give the fish a reason to feed in your swim as opposed to those next door. When fishing margins or close to the far bank of a snake lake, a cloudy attraction will help you to catch. Dampen a couple of pints of micro pellets in the usual fashion and then tip on around a quarter of a bag of dry groundbait before blending it all together. Feed small nuggets of bait and the groundbait will break off and create a cloud that will linger for long periods.