Leaderboard

I am a big believer in doing things different i will prep chick peas but soak them in marmite water to boost them i have caught on pickled onions, sweets and various meats, im a big big fan of Pepperami proper forgotten old bait, but never used prawns, need to give them a try, another half lost bait is a huge chunk of bread flake fished under a float, can be a simple killer trick

1, you can hair rig or not, it works either way... its just a different approach 🤷‍♂️ 2, never said the hair rig has blown, just offering an alternative, doesn't have to be a prawn either... Cockle, Mussell, Meat, anything 3, just said do summat different... do what you want...🤷‍♂️ 4, all the "Frippery" is pretty much variations on a common theme... there's been very little meaningful innovation since the invention of the hair rig 5, never said its an all in one solution, you can try different things and find what works for yourself All I'm saying is that a lot of fish and venues see the same thing day in, day out, a different approach often pays dividends and the old methods are working because fish don't see them that often and trip up... The thing that I see a lot is folks sticking to doing the same thing day in day out and moaning that the fish are off the feed, the water's moody, or there's a Y in the day My message is.... if summat ain't working change summat... do summat outta the ordinary... who knows... if it doesn't work try summat else... 🤷‍♂️😎👍

I’ve had more carp fishing “laying on” or with fishing the “lift method” with a cube of meat than I have any other method or any other bait.

If you want to up the attraction you could chuck in a few 8mm pellets with the chopped prawns, sit well back with the rod tip away, or parallel to the bank

BL was the one who renamed the long linear to bernies, just because he caught it and astra to astra max. My mate had the long linear 5 times but not once did want to rename it haha. The other angler was a yateley angler that obviously wanted to be "known".

That's great thanks , Blue . So I can see me margin fishing a Prawn on my 9' 11/2 t/c fibreglass rod with 15lb line ? , and a Sz.6 hook ? . 😃

I've been thinking about this, while I don't disagree that doing something different is good and I have used alternative baits, I've got to play devil's advocate on some points. How can you say a hair rigged prawn wouldn't have caught in the same situation? Also people still catch a lot of fish using frippery I don't think you can say that the hair rig has blown, and there are many other rigs people use in certain situations, might be a variation on a theme but people use what they have confidence in.it might not be your thought process but it is still valid,and not everybody does exactly the same thing. And this isnt a dig as i can see that there is some merit in freelining, it's something I used to use many years ago and quite successfully,but it isn't a solution that covers the whole of carp fishing,it is limited mainly to a close in stalking scenario. Stalking 101 regardless of set up = finding the fish, set a trap,keep quiet and hopefully catch them.

15lb line...? You after sharks...???😛🤣 I use 8lb or sometimes 10lb if there are lumps about...👍🤣

I discovered sour dough bread 3 decades ago, have NEVER gone back to eating what i would call... 'cotton-wool bread' lol several years ago i thought I'd used the sour dough bread making process on my 'nut /yeast bait' (the nut is NOT used by bait companies as too expensive) ...results have been superb on just that little tweak, that incidentally cost ZERO! 👌

@emmcee was it BL? You're going back a loooooong way with some of those carp names. Astra Max.... was in Tels book with some of those others.

I use the ready peeled from sainsburys, not the little'uns, the bigguns cooked or uncooked, chop a couple up to scatter in, no more's a couple. I use them whole hooked through the thickest part. Make sure the point of the hook is showing as a meaty prawn is tough to strike through... this is not a self hooking rig

Thought provoking post , Blue . So do you buy ready peeled Prawns , or whole Prawns , and how would I hook them please ? .

D'ya know... when I started fishing with vintage gear, I was still using modern methods... hair rigs, lead clips boilies etc etc... but one thing I've found is that fish wise up to all this frippery... and one afternoon, I took a rod net mat and a pot of prawns... nowt else, and I caught... all I had on the line was a prawn, no lead, no putty, no swivels just a hook and a bait... Our club lake has been carp fished for decades and they've seen every rig under the sun and everyone does the same... two rods one long one short, 30 baits around each lead clipped 5" rig, hair rigged size six with a 16mm boilie... Nowadays there are different options of leads, hooklinks, self hooking rigs... but so many folks use those options they're not different any more... so just a baited hook has been scoring, as the fish haven't come across such a basic rig... occasionally I use a bit of plasticine around a float stop for a bit of casting weight which can slide off the line in the event of a break, but in the main, its just a hook... pressured fish see every sort of rig nowadays... maybe try summat totally different... Could it be that carping has come full circle...???

Same. Just baiting up is hassle, let alone making the stuff 😂

Bait companies have to roll baits that are economically viable, so few can go to the 'edge' of preparing ingredients by fermentation, and often have to use ingredients that are off the shelf. Also bait rolling companies need to make baits that will go through the machine, whereas at home I may have to roll by hand. Not many anglers are willing to pay for a bait that works out at £10 a kilo to produce. An example of being different from others was when I was rolling my own Trigga. The standard Trigga worked and was quite simply Trigga base mix, Liquid Trigga and eggs, but by adding extra Betaine, Liver Elite and Sweet Cajouser it outfished the basic mix, either as a shop bought frozen or angler rolled Trigga. I can roll a basic nut mix bait, tiger nut flour, peanut meal, semolina, (for example) and it will work, but by adding garlic oil and liver powder creating a meaty nut mix improve the base.

I recall one year when I switched baits in January, it also coincided with a change of lakes as well i might add. Ditched my fishmeal that I'd been catching on on the first lake to try a bait my mate had designed which was a milk/nut bait. It wasn't an ordinary milk/nut bait mind being really high in milk protein and the nuts used will 100% not be used in any nut bait on the open market , it was a nightmare to roll and the process of mixing/rolling it was long winded. I ended up preparing it one evening and rolling the next evening. So started baiting up in January onwards. Didn't catch for a month or so but when they switched on coming out of there winter slumber I caught plenty and wasnt far off top rod even though i only fished 3 months til the end of the season. So my advice is, if you think you can knock up a decent milk/nut bait then go for that.