Bait suggestions...

[Stewie74]

I fished a new venue on Sunday, a commercial as opposed to my usual natural club lakes.

I caught loads of fish, a few carp and dozens of small roach and perch, fishing red maggot and sweet corn with a bit of ground bait balled in and topped up with a toss pot.

I’ve decided to go back again this weekend, as I need to put some hours in with my new pole ( very limited pole/float experience thus far. It’s full of fish so should me a good opportunity to practice.

ideally I’d like to try to target the bigger fish in the lake, by this I mean anything other than the really small roach/perch etc

for bait I’m thinking bigger than maggot, so more sweet corn, 6/8mm hard pellet, expanders maybe, and worm.

I should hopefully have received the missing section for my new pole by the weekend, as well as the cups for the cupping kit (long story....), so should be able to feed and fish up to 13m, although I’ll probably limit myself to 11m or so to start with.

so my question is are there any other bait suggestions that you would have to try to filter out the really small fish? Also any suggestions for a ground bait mix would be gratefully received ( ground bait is banned at my club lakes so I have had very little exposure to it thus far.

thanks in advance ?

Stewie

 

[Neil ofthe nene]

Sometimes dead red maggot can select the better fish when a small bait is needed in cold weather. For some reason the small fish seem to ignore the static bait.

 

[Silverfisher]

Must be absolutely stuffed with fish if you caught that easily at this time of year!

That's said I'd maybe try caster. Same reason as Neil suggest deads.

 

[chefster]

I would feed micro pellets, and fish 4mm expander, corn , or dead maggots over the top...If there are any nice features, I would definitely dob some bread

 

[rudd]

I fished a new venue on Sunday, a commercial as opposed to my usual natural club lakes.

I caught loads of fish, a few carp and dozens of small roach and perch, fishing red maggot and sweet corn with a bit of ground bait balled in and topped up with a toss pot.

I’ve decided to go back again this weekend, as I need to put some hours in with my new pole ( very limited pole/float experience thus far. It’s full of fish so should me a good opportunity to practice.

ideally I’d like to try to target the bigger fish in the lake, by this I mean anything other than the really small roach/perch etc

for bait I’m thinking bigger than maggot, so more sweet corn, 6/8mm hard pellet, expanders maybe, and worm.

I should hopefully have received the missing section for my new pole by the weekend, as well as the cups for the cupping kit (long story....), so should be able to feed and fish up to 13m, although I’ll probably limit myself to 11m or so to start with.

so my question is are there any other bait suggestions that you would have to try to filter out the really small fish? Also any suggestions for a ground bait mix would be gratefully received ( ground bait is banned at my club lakes so I have had very little exposure to it thus far.

thanks in advance ?

Stewie

In all honesty would suggest doing what you are doing and catching.
This week nights are getting colder, frosts forecast and more rain on the way.
Catching or even tempting a bite will become harder.
You can sit all day waiting for a bite off a bigger fish or go for the anything that (may) bites approach.
Would suggest fishing late morning through to afternoon fishing for bites with maggot.
Last hour and a half fish a big worm section, prawn or double/triple dead maggot to pick up larger fish as light fades.

 

[Maesknoll]

Might be worth fishing dead maggots and catching a few during the day, the last hour or so of light should see the carp become more active if they are going to, maggots will still catch them, but a pellet, meat or corn line will be more selective.

 

[Northantslad]

Another for a 4mm expander here as an option.
Feed nuggets of groundbait, and ensure that and also your rig gets down to the bottom.
In terms of bigger fish, there are some good size silvers that can be caught in the cooler months, so don't rule out maggot as one fo the best cooler months bait for any fish, but again, ensure its gets down (put some freebies in the nuggets).

Aim to start on the bottom, wire stem float with bulk and droppers.

If you find your bait is or starts to be taken on the drop during the session, then carbon stem float, string out the shotting and you may find the better stamp of fish are off bottom.

On the bait front, caster can pick out the better fish if you wean them onto it in the session.

Its not always the bait choice that picks out the bigger fish, more how you present it and where you fish it, as someone said above though, you are catching at present, where sometimes anything can be a bonus this time of year, so enjoy it either way, but i do get it that, its nice to get the bigger stamp if they are around.

 

[WickerDave]

On a heavily stocked commercial I still use luncheon meat in the winter, especially in the margins in the last hour or two of light. You will still get some small fish that peck it down, but it is easy to vary the bait size.

 

[Stewie74]

I’m going to start off by following @chefster s advice for the first half of the day, if that doesn’t work I’ll go back to the red maggot approach, both live and dead.

Thanks as always for taking the time to reply, much appreciated ?

stewie

 

[chefster]

Wise choice mate ??, that’s how we fish carp venues this time of year ??