Free, Cheap or Easy baits

[mithrandir]

There are a lot of baits easily available for fishing that are overlooked by most modern

anglers, we are conditioned by the advertising that brand X is THE bait to catch on, well here

are a few of the ones I know, I am sure some of our more seasoned anglers will know many more,

so please add your favourites to this thread.

Earthworms.

Easy to collect on a damp evening in short grass, set out with a wide beamed torch and gently

walk through the grass and you should see worms out on the surface, heavy footfalls and a very

bright beam on the torch will send them diving back into the ground. Store them a box with air

holes and damp shredded newspaper in the shed, this will keep worms for weeks and toughen them

up.

Sweetcorn.

Tinned sweetcorn is a bait that is so cheap and easy, 17p last time I went to a discount

supermarket, excellent to keep in the bottom of the tackle bag ( get the "ring pull" type and

MAKE SURE you take the rubbish home with you). Frozen is great if you want some jazzed up hook

baits, take a small hand full and put it in a plastic bag with some food colouring ( the

standard "Supercook" stuff from the supermarket is fine), leave it sealed in the fridge over

night and you have some brightly coloured hook baits for the next days fishing. You can also

add flavourings this way if you feel the need.

Bread.

A cheap loaf of white bread can be very useful as a bait. You can pinch some straight onto the

hookas a bait, put some through a liqidiser to make crumb and mix with other bits to make

ground bait, it absorbs flavours well, or use the crust as a floating bait on those balmy

summer days when they are surface feeding ( not recommended when you have ducks or swans in

your swim as it is VERY difficult to unhook a swan!)

Cheese.

Processed cheese, or a soft cheese mixed with bread crumb to form a tough paste are both good

hook baits.

Slugs.

Carp and Chub LOVE slugs. Not the nicest things to hook ( holding them with a dock leaf and

hair rigging them works), but fishing near the bank under a tree or bush then the old slug can

be a killer bait.

Luncheon meat.

Another old type bait that has worked for years, and still does. Chopped small in a summer

ground bait mix, or larger chunks straight on a hook or hair rigged, will work for many

species. The cheap tins of Chopped ham and pork or Bacon Grill are fine ( I go to Lidl for mine

as the price is very good), if you find it is a bit soft on the hook, lightly frying slices

does toughen it up, you can even add spices like curry powder, turmeric, garam masala or chilli

at he frying stage to give it that bit of zip for winter Carp. Fry the slices and then when you

break or punch bits off for bait the unfried edges still leak flavour out whilst the fried

edges give that firmer texture to stay hooked or on the hair.

Dog mixer biscuits.

A good floater bait, hair rigged or superglued to the back of the hook. You can even run some

through the liquidiser and use it in a ground bait.

Vitalin.

Vegetarian mix for dog feed, needs to be soaked in a bucket overnight ( use hot water ), a good

base for a ground bait.

Maize.

Sometimes called Chicken corn, these make really tough hook baits, useful when feeding

sweetcorn and you find that your hook bait gets trashed by small fish. needs to be soaked over

night then boiled for about 20-30 minutes to make it digestable and soft enough to hook.

Chick peas.

I use the small tins pre-cooked from the supermarket ( look in the Indian or whole food

section, a small tin is about 30p), saves all that soaking and boiling the dried ones need( see

the maize procedure above), lovely hook bait.

Other particle baits and preparation

Particles can be dangerous if not prepared correctly. Undercooked particles can kill carp, and

care should be taken in their preparation. Here we give a brief overview of how it's done

• tiger nuts ------------- Preparation - Soak for 24 hrs & boil for 30 mins.
• peanuts ---------------- Preparation - Soak for 12 hrs & boil for 30 mins.
• hazel nuts ----------- Preperation - Soak for 24 hours & boil for 30 minutes

NUTS HAVE BEEN BANNED ON MANY WATERS DUE TO OVER USE KILLING CARP, CHECK BEFORE USING

• sweetcorn -------------- Preparation - Straight from tin or bag, keep in own juice.
• maize ------------------ Preparation - Soak for 24 hours & boil for 30 min.
• chic peas -------------- Preparation - Soak for 12 hours & boil for 30 mins.
• black-eyed beans ------- Preparation - Soak for 12 hours & boil for 30 mins.
• tares ------------------ Preparation - Soak for 12 hours & boil for 30 mins.
• dari ------------------- Preparation - Soak for 12 hours & boil for 30 mins.
• broad beans ------------ Preperation - Soak for 12 hours & boil for 30 mins.

• hemp ------------------- Preparation - Soak for 12 hours & boil until split.( extra

easy way is to put hempseed into an old flask with boiling water a seal, leave overnight and

you do not get the stink in the kitchen, Thanks to Steve for that one)


Pepperami.

Not so cheap but a wonderful winter or night bait for Carp, it is tough and full of flavour.

Stays on the hair or hook for ages, comes conveiniently packaged to sit in the tackle box until

you need it. You can use all sorts of spicey sausage, I tend to prick the skin of the pepperami

with a baiting needle to leak out the flavour better.

Emergency baits.

When on the bankside and bait is running low, lift an old branch or a stone, here you will find

worms, beetle, grubs and ants eggs if you are lucky, all these are good natural free baits and

can get you that last cast when the bait has run out. Also try berries in the autumn, rose hips

and other bits on the bank, these are natural foods that fall in the water and they are often

taken by fish.


Dips.

Some boilies, dog biscuits etc., can benefit from a dip to zing them up, sweetcorn juice,

honey, marmite, olive oil mixed with curry powder, peanut butter etc. are all worth a try.

Home made paste.

Paste is an excellent hook bait or can be smeared onto a boilie bait to give that extra bit of

attraction in the water. All the pastes I use are basically something powdered up and mixed

with an egg until it forms the texture of putty or very firm plasticine, these should be used

fresh as the egg will go off if left in you tackle box, to improve the life add salt and use

powdered egg, this will keep for a few weeks in the fridge in a tub.

You can liquidise Koi carp pellets, and Halibut or trout fishing pellets, until they are a

powder, add dry flavourings like curry powder and add this to a beaten egg ( add any liquid

ingredients like colourings or liquid flavours to the egg before beating).

[mithrandir]

Home made boilies.

This is a bit more adventurious but can be very cost effective, and nothing is better than

catching that double figure Carp on you own special blend of homemade boilie.


Start by whisking the eggs until to get a uniform and bubbling mix.
(6 to 10 eggs per kilos of mix, but you will learn exactly how much by doing it).

Add the flavours and other additives such as sweetener, spices, etc.

Preparing the flours base mix

* 250g maize flour
* 250g fine semolina
* 250g Soya flour (or bread crumb)
* 200g powdered milk(optional, can make an excellent boilie for pressured waters)
* 50g icing sugar

Mixing flour

Put all the weighed ingredients in a plastic bag, add any other bits you want, like 200g of

bird food, or 250g fishmeal etc., twist the top of the bag to form a seal and shake well.

The paste

First add some of mix to the liquid to produce a semi liquid type of mess. Let everything rest

for 5 to 10 minutes. That should help the rolling and let the flours better absorb flavours.
Now add little by little the flourmix to the liquid and mix with a spoon, initially soft it

will get harder and harder until you can't mix it anymore with the spoon, that's where you have

to put your hands into it!

Sometimes the paste isn't hard enough, add some spoonfuls of base mix until it is ok, or when

the paste is just a bit soft wait a couple of minutes so it has absorbed some more.
By doing this you'll learn the correct ratio of flour/eggs depending on the type of mix ( bird

food or seed).


Rolling

If you do not have a boilie table then I wish you luck for the tough and long job of hand

rolling a kilo of paste! (that is why you start with smaller quantities)
Roll small balls in floured hands, bear in mind these will swell when you cook them so do not

make them too big.

Cooking

A chip frying basket or sieve and a large pan is the simplest solution, also the cheapest and

most used by plenty of boilie makers.

Put a single boilie layer in the basket, never put to much at a time just avoid overlay.
Lower the basket into the water, to many boilies will take the water off the boil, so start

with small amounts.

Boiling time 1 to 3 minutes depending on the required texture and mix..
The more cooked the harder the boilie will be, not enough and the boilies will not fish for

more than few hours.

The best is to build your own experience by doing time test on small amounts and for all the

types of mix you intend to use.

Tips

Never put to much water on the pan, just cover few cm above the boilies, otherwise you'll

learn the effect of a coloured flood in the kitchen, that is not so easy to clean-up!

Drying

After cooking, dry boilies on a cloth for a few minutes then transfer to a string bag to air

dry them ( a cheap solution is the string bags you get oranges in). Leave to dry overnight

before use.

Freeze after drying if you want to keep for longer, put the boilies on a tightly closed freezer

bag (you can add boilie glugs here if you want to, they absorb well during the thawing

process). DO not forget to get the boilies out few hours before to use.

If you do not want to use freezer baits then you can make a sort of "shelflife" boilie by

adding salt and using powdered egg. just mix the powdered egg up as per the instructions and

add salt to the mix, the eggs are pasteurised and the salt acts as a preservative, then leave to

air dry, these boilies will last for months if kept in a cool dry place hanging in the orange

string bags.

To make pop-ups.


I choose about 30 uncooked baits, and place about 10 at a time on a microwavable plate with a

piece of kitchen paper towel. Put them in the microwave for about 1 minute on high power. Once

you have done this, check the texture of the boilie and see if its starting harden. If it’s

still soft to touch and feel, then put them back into the microwave on full power for a further

10 seconds. Keep doing this at 10 second intervals until you have a nice hardened bait (not too

hard that you can’t put a boilie needle through it). Get a glass of water and test it. If it

floats then your done if not then they need another 10 seconds and so on. Make sure you do not

get black burn spots on them.

Once done, put your pop-up baits into a airtight container along with a good bait soak (your

flavour) and shake. About 5-10ml is normally enough.

So there you have it. The easy way to make a perfect pop-up. If done correctly, these baits

will not sink even when they have been in the water for 24hours. Test them at home in a bowl of

water for 24 hours as a trial (that’s what I did).

This is alot of work but can be very cheap if the budget is tight.
two dozen eggs is about £2
500g bag of semolina 50p
500g bag of rice flour 50p
500g milk powder £1
250g icing sugar £1

So the basic ingredients are about £5 for 2kg of boilies!

[pingu]

nice post mike
luncheon meat and bread def my faves

[Portland Pirate]

Great post Mike.
Just one question, what's a Boilie table?

[Fishing Forum Admin]

top post amte and alot of effort put in , will help loads of anglers

[mithrandir]

Originally Posted by Portland Pirate

Great post Mike.
Just one question, what's a Boilie table?

A boilie table is a plate that looks like a griddle, you squeeze a "sausage of bait out onto it and roll down so the sausage is cut into small balls.

here is a link to one

boilie table

[Portland Pirate]

Now that looks easier.

Cheers for that.

[Banana Steve]

[BaggieRich]

Superb post Mike. Good reading, even for us salty types.

[Greenheart]

Great info Mike. If I could only use one bait, it would have to be Bread. I've caught almost every freshwater species on it even the odd perch & Jack pike.