| If you want to make your own unique carp bait that | | | | often that not, the size of fish would get bigger and |
| is different and will hook big fish this summer, why | | | | bigger. This culminated in the knowledge (based on |
| not now use these decades-proven cheap | | | | many experiences) that I needed to be prepared for |
| homemade protein based bait recipes and ideas (but | | | | the very biggest fish during the last hour or so of |
| with a modern twist?) | | | | the trip as dusk approached and as the sun dipped |
| Making homemade sausage meat boilies (and now | | | | towards the horizon and darkness approached. |
| pellets) are nothing new but few carp anglers think | | | | Summer was obviously my favourite time as the |
| of exploiting them these days in their rush to buy | | | | carp would be so easy to locate and the sheer |
| expensive fashionable readymade baits. But just this | | | | enjoyment of fishing in summer for carp is |
| week I reminded myself of the success I have had | | | | unmatched especially as the tranquil lakes I fished |
| over the years on many versions of a simple bait | | | | were not the crowded circuses you find all over the |
| recipe I have used in so many situations for big fish | | | | UK today with bivvies crammed into every swim. |
| with great success. Having spotted some cheap | | | | Our ground baits were traditionally based on bread |
| sausage meat in the local supermarket at well under | | | | crumbs and local supplies of stale bread were highly |
| 2 pounds a kilogram last week stimulated memories | | | | valued and you could make 3 buckets of ground bait |
| of many past successes using this bait and led to this | | | | for literally pennies when you timed it right for stock |
| article; so read on! | | | | turnovers in the shops. But of course bread was not |
| I have carp fished for over 30 years and the early | | | | the only thing we used as ground bait and many |
| baits for carp when I began were named specials. | | | | other things were added mostly by simply dropping |
| This was probably because it was unusual to make a | | | | straight into the bread crumbs and kneading. |
| bait just for one species and such bait contained an | | | | All kinds of things you find in the kitchen cupboard |
| unusual range of ingredients centred on a protein bulk | | | | were added, from cheap caster sugar, sunflower oil, |
| ingredient. Sausage meat baits are probably taken for | | | | dog foods and cat foods, tomato source, curry |
| granted today by most carp anglers of my | | | | powder, herbs and spices, condiments like black |
| generation and older but new generations of anglers | | | | pepper and salt, Oxo cubes and gravy granules and |
| will them find extremely useful, productive unique and | | | | of course cake baking flavours. I used to make loads |
| cheap! | | | | of baits based on the very cheapest white wheat |
| This bait came to my attention while fishing a small | | | | flour and Marmite. Luncheon meat, spam and |
| club lake called Kennel Lane in Billericay Essex around | | | | sweetcorn were very cheap and popular too of |
| 1976. I was only 10 years old but I was a very keen | | | | course. Pearl barley and other lesser used particles |
| carp angler even then. To put things into perspective, | | | | were used and I caught loads of tench on this so it |
| the average fish in this lake was a mere 4 pounds | | | | was a favourite of mine. Aniseed oil was easy to |
| and the biggest was around 14 pounds. Such weights | | | | obtain and we all seemed to know about this back in |
| were very typical of the vast majority of carp | | | | the mid-Seventies and we soaked trout pellets and |
| waters in the UK at the time even though such | | | | cooked wild bird food mixtures in it. |
| waters are stuffed with thirties and even forties and | | | | The meat protein baits made from sausage meat |
| bigger today! | | | | were a simple extension of all this. A pound of |
| The era of night fishing for carp for most young carp | | | | sausage meat was placed in a big bowl along with 2 |
| anglers like me was yet to come and much of the | | | | eggs and then the rest of the bait was basically a |
| thrill of fishing was making new creative baits the | | | | chuck it in and see procedure which meant putting a |
| night before fishing and the anticipation of the | | | | bit of anything I could borrow from the kitchen |
| catches to come! These days with readymade baits, | | | | cupboard as well as with my very limited pocket |
| this thrill and anticipation and the incredible satisfaction | | | | money which was probably 50 pence or a pound a |
| of catching new personal best fish on your own | | | | week! (You could buy a loaf for 10 or 20 pence back |
| homemade bait is a huge chunk of the experience | | | | then and a kilogram of wheat flour was one of my |
| that is lost! | | | | most used staple bait binders alongside stale bread |
| If all you use is readymade boilies and pellets etc, it is | | | | crumb.) |
| impossible to imagine my feelings on the first | | | | So with the sausage meat and eggs you might add |
| occasion I banked a common carp over forty four | | | | wheat flour and black pepper, maybe some aniseed |
| pounds; the same weight as that legendary Richard | | | | oil, milk powders, sweetcorn juice, sugar, salt, |
| Walker Redmire carp that was the UK record for so | | | | Marmite and Oxo cubes and away you went. This |
| many years. Unhooking it and seeing my homemade | | | | mix would be for a days fishing trip and would be |
| baits there in its mouth was such a high that no | | | | fished direct on the hook as paste although some |
| readymade bait has ever or will ever match! | | | | might go out as extra ground bait. We float-fished on |
| It might seem odd but quite a number of mine and | | | | one rod and ledgered on another and this was often |
| my friends hook baits in the Seventies and early | | | | not the rod that hooked the better fish. The practice |
| Eighties were often made from ground bait mixes. | | | | of fishing for carp up in the water with buoyant baits |
| Many carp bait buffs today seem to belittle baits | | | | and using Zig Rigs is only duplicating the skills of float |
| with lower protein contents and based on bread | | | | fishing really as carp are not only bottom |
| crumb but this does not stop them catching fish; | | | | suction-feeders but filter-feed on plankton and on fry |
| how many method mixes have caught fifty pound | | | | and so on in the upper layers of the water to. |
| fish and above! My catfish fishing started much later | | | | Going into the early Eighties my generation were still |
| only after Kevin Maddocks turned his attentions to | | | | float fishing but hooking fish over 25 pounds instead |
| catfish at waters around the Bedfordshire area for | | | | of the single figure fish of previous years! One of my |
| example, but all this carp fishing bait experience was | | | | friends used to take just 5 milk protein boilies for a |
| to prove extremely useful for catching loads of very | | | | days float fishing for carp and invariable landed big |
| big catfish and I have now lost count of the number | | | | carp to mid-twenty pounds by float fishing while |
| of thirty-pluses I have caught. | | | | those ledgering around him often blanked or caught |
| Method mixes were basically what we were using in | | | | smaller fish fishing on the bottom. I went through |
| the Seventies and I for one would add more or less | | | | various phases in later years of fishing for carp using |
| wheat flour and bread crumbs or more or less | | | | a very long hook link coiled using water-soluble PVA |
| particles to make them stick together or fall apart as | | | | string to fish buoyant baits at long range and these |
| we wanted. The practice of free-lining a particle bait | | | | produced many bigger fish that fishing on the bottom |
| inside a big ball of ground bait was a standard tactic | | | | did not seem to be able to hook. |
| of mine as a kid and it seems some people think this | | | | My very early ground baits would be based mainly on |
| kind of method is new today? (The forty pound koi | | | | bread and wheat flour, a little meat and fish of |
| in Furnace Roman Lake fell to such a simple tactic | | | | various kinds and bulked up with particles like |
| quite recently.) | | | | sweetcorn, oats, cornflakes, hemp and pearl barley |
| When I started carp fishing me and my friends were | | | | and maybe finely chopped luncheon meat and |
| all kids we would make our baits as cheaply as | | | | sausage meat. I and my friends fished for the small |
| possible, and even take the powders to the lake side | | | | carp and rarely used lots of bait and what we did |
| and mix baits there as we needed them. To make | | | | use was as cheap as we could get it - yet we all |
| the ground baits we would put some lake water into | | | | caught fish consistently well! |
| a bucket and add ground bait powders gradually until | | | | Over the decades you can imagine I used this ground |
| a nice dough formed. This would be fed into the | | | | bait and hook bait experience and developed and |
| swim on a little and often basis and this would | | | | refined it much more in catching many carp and |
| produce very good catch results all day long. | | | | catfish from well over 100 UK carp waters to date |
| Sometimes when I had the money I would buy | | | | with UK carp to 47 pounds and UK catfish to 110 |
| bread crumb ground bait from Woolworths and this | | | | pounds and hooking carp to over 80 pounds in |
| had a distinctive yeasty aroma that the carp really | | | | France. This fishing has so often involved adapting |
| loved! The carp paste mixes from the fishing shops | | | | much of this basic bait and ground bait experience |
| were mostly out of my price range although I | | | | from the past, frequently super-boosting these baits |
| experimented with some I did not catch any more | | | | with even more nutritionally-stimulating substances! I |
| carp (nor bigger carp) than I was already catching; so | | | | hope this article has given you a few ideas for cheap |
| I decided not to waste my money! | | | | baits for modern catfish and carp fishing. For far |
| I would find that the most often the ground bait I | | | | more information see my site link or biography right |
| introduced the more fish I caught and strangely more | | | | now! |