Snails

[jh92]

There's a lot of snails on the canal at the moment and the fish seem to be hoovering them up and avoiding bait lol. Any suggestions on how I can catch a couple of them for bait, like some sort of snail trap?

[Golden Paws]

https://www.baitworks.co.uk/

I've been on the Creamino for the last few years and I don't know if it's co-incidence but I've had my best 2 seasons since.

[B B]

 

 

Edited Saturday at 20:05 by B B

[jh92]

12 hours ago, Golden Paws said:

https://www.baitworks.co.uk/

I've been on the Creamino for the last few years and I don't know if it's co-incidence but I've had my best 2 seasons since.

Cheers bud, trying to get away from boili3s at the moment, I'm after real snails 👍🤣

10 hours ago, B B said:

 

 

Yes mate I've already got myself a tin 👍 I want a couple from my canal that I can drill and rig 👍 I'm gonna get the waders on for next session and pick a couple from the banks and see what happens 👍🤣

[elmoputney]

Fake ones? 

 

Real ones for a spod mix 🤔

https://www.carpparticles.co.uk/product/micro-snails/

Also don't dynamite cook their hemp in the tins? Does that mean they are unaliving snails in the tin too? 😱

 

[elmoputney]

https://snailfishingbaits.co.uk/

There you go with a little Google I found the mother load.

[commonly]

CC Moore do some small ones, which are friend had some success with, but nothing like the bad boys @elmoputney found.

I've tried hair rigging slugs before but they didn't stay on long.

I'd be interested to know how you get on @jh92,so do keep us posted mate?

https://ccmoore.com/32-frozen-water-snails

 

[elmoputney]

Anyone else thinking how much of an edge those snails could be? 

[jh92]

Well I've been out and got around 100 snails, got a special mix on the go in the bucket 😏 tedious picking in the waders 💪🤣

 

I'm off to the canal tomorrow morning for a night or two. Both rods are gonna go on snails. I will update how I get on 👍

[elmoputney]

2 hours ago, jh92 said:

Well I've been out and got around 100 snails, got a special mix on the go in the bucket 😏 tedious picking in the waders 💪🤣

 

I'm off to the canal tomorrow morning for a night or two. Both rods are gonna go on snails. I will update how I get on 👍

That's some serious next level determination, hope your effort pays off. 

[yonny]

20 hours ago, elmoputney said:

Anyone else thinking how much of an edge those snails could be? 

Yeah I did years ago. I used live ones, dead ones, dehydrated/dried ones.... and they were all rubbish. Imo the carp get on the (natural) snails simply because it's the easiest food source to harvest at the time. They're tuned into the food sources available in their watercourse and I don't think you can compete with that with any snails apart from those that are plucked out of the venue - so @jh92 has the right idea. Even then, there are other natural baits (maggots and worms) that will do a much better job of competing.

The snail discussion comes up every few years. Lots of guys try it. Hardly anyone has any real success. Imho, snails are just not a great bait.

 

[crusian]

1 hour ago, yonny said:

Yeah I did years ago. I used live ones, dead ones, dehydrated/dried ones.... and they were all rubbish. Imo the carp get on the (natural) snails simply because it's the easiest food source to harvest at the time. They're tuned into the food sources available in their watercourse and I don't think you can compete with that with any snails apart from those that are plucked out of the venue - so @jh92 has the right idea. Even then, there are other natural baits (maggots and worms) that will do a much better job of competing.

The snail discussion comes up every few years. Lots of guys try it. Hardly anyone has any real success. Imho, snails are just not a great bait.

 

Well if you are right , Yonny , which you almost certainly are because you are Yonny , you've just saved me a few bob .

😃

 

[elmoputney]

2 hours ago, yonny said:

Yeah I did years ago. I used live ones, dead ones, dehydrated/dried ones.... and they were all rubbish. Imo the carp get on the (natural) snails simply because it's the easiest food source to harvest at the time. They're tuned into the food sources available in their watercourse and I don't think you can compete with that with any snails apart from those that are plucked out of the venue - so @jh92 has the right idea. Even then, there are other natural baits (maggots and worms) that will do a much better job of competing.

The snail discussion comes up every few years. Lots of guys try it. Hardly anyone has any real success. Imho, snails are just not a great bait.

 

Thanks for that timely input I was thinking it could be a right edge but I can't be bothered to harvest them, that takes a lot of effort and I hope it pays off for him, looks like it's back to plan 3283638 for me then 😂

[jh92]

On 06/10/2025 at 07:20, yonny said:

Yeah I did years ago. I used live ones, dead ones, dehydrated/dried ones.... and they were all rubbish. Imo the carp get on the (natural) snails simply because it's the easiest food source to harvest at the time. They're tuned into the food sources available in their watercourse and I don't think you can compete with that with any snails apart from those that are plucked out of the venue - so @jh92 has the right idea. Even then, there are other natural baits (maggots and worms) that will do a much better job of competing.

The snail discussion comes up every few years. Lots of guys try it. Hardly anyone has any real success. Imho, snails are just not a great bait.

 

Thanks, well added them crushed to a mix made it smell decent, looked good on the deck too, but rigging the snails was an absolute nightmare and won't be doing it again lol.

I dunno, I don't think they are the one lol. Spent most of the day walking the canal and finally found them, fished amongst them for a couple hours until they disappeared. Not a bleep. 🤣

 

It's cool though, I'm pretty happy I gave it a go lol.

[yonny]

@jh92 how are the nuisance species?

[jh92]

1 hour ago, yonny said:

@jh92 how are the nuisance species?

Didn't have any on the snail mix mate, but I normally fish just 20s with a 20/16mm snowman. With the bream I think it depends where they are on the canal at the time, if they move in you can be hammered for a while, but the tench seem to be quite rogue and get the odd capture lol. If I start picking up bream I wait for a couple hours before putting more bait out, hoping they've cleared it and moved off 🤣

 

As for silvers, theres a real healthy stock of them and can see them in groups of hundreds 🤣 weve thought about worms/maggots/casters but reckon they will clear it before the carp get a chance lol

My mate caught a pike on the drop with a tiger, hooked in the scissors 🤣

Edited yesterday at 12:55 by jh92

[yonny]

2 hours ago, jh92 said:

weve thought about worms/maggots/casters but reckon they will clear it before the carp get a chance lol

Yeah sounds like it.... shame.

[jh92]

1 hour ago, yonny said:

Yeah sounds like it.... shame.

So I've tried snails, my mate is still keen to try a kilo of chopped worms with 2 rods over it. I will let you know how we get on 👍 tbh though I have done alright on boilie at the beginning of summer, I think im just having some bad luck at the moment so I'm gonna continue with boilie for the rest of the year. Unless he has it off with worms 👍🤣

[salokcinnodrog]

On 04/10/2025 at 12:49, jh92 said:

There's a lot of snails on the canal at the moment and the fish seem to be hoovering them up and avoiding bait lol. Any suggestions on how I can catch a couple of them for bait, like some sort of snail trap?

I go through stages of trying things out, and some of my favourite stalking baits in rivers are slugs and snails, because they occasionally fall in from bankside vegetation. Chub and carp have taken slugs on the drop, although snails are harder to hook...

I did try putting land and water snails in my spod mix a few times, and a mate and I have been known to walk round the lake collecting them. We get water snails as big as your thumb! The best way to use them we found to stop them floating was freeze them. It never seemed to produce any more than standard spod mix. 

I've used Dynamite hemp and snails and it seems no better than plain hemp, although I do know that when fish get onto snails they are very good for growth and health.

[yonny]

17 hours ago, jh92 said:

my mate is still keen to try a kilo of chopped worms with 2 rods over it.

That's an expensive way to feed the nuisance species!

[elmoputney]

22 minutes ago, yonny said:

That's an expensive way to feed the nuisance species!

That's what I thought too, you could buy a sack of pellets for that. 

[jh92]

2 hours ago, yonny said:

That's an expensive way to feed the nuisance species!

I know mate I said the same 🤣 it's alright for him he works in a tackle shop so gets them cheaper but still kind of expensive in my eyes 🤣

Just gotta keep chipping away at it, keep searching for them. I've had 4 on the bank this year, had 3 with in a couple hours on one session lol. All to snowmen with like 10 baits over each rod. It works so I gotta stick with it and not chop/change when it gets hard lol. Maybe less bait as the year goes on. I dunno, feels like this canal has made my head fall off 🤣 

 

@elmoputney my other mate feeds a lot of pellet, catches carp but gets done by a lot of bream, like 3 - 4 a night some times 🤣

Back down there for a walk later, then fishing tomorrow for the day, then probably back Friday afternoon through to Monday 👍

 

[jh92]

18 hours ago, salokcinnodrog said:

I go through stages of trying things out, and some of my favourite stalking baits in rivers are slugs and snails, because they occasionally fall in from bankside vegetation. Chub and carp have taken slugs on the drop, although snails are harder to hook...

I did try putting land and water snails in my spod mix a few times, and a mate and I have been known to walk round the lake collecting them. We get water snails as big as your thumb! The best way to use them we found to stop them floating was freeze them. It never seemed to produce any more than standard spod mix. 

I've used Dynamite hemp and snails and it seems no better than plain hemp, although I do know that when fish get onto snails they are very good for growth and health.

That's some dedication mate, I didn't mind picking the water snails but there's no way I'm touching garden snails or slugs, can't you get ring worm or some other parasite from them? 🤣

[elmoputney]

5 hours ago, jh92 said:

I know mate I said the same 🤣 it's alright for him he works in a tackle shop so gets them cheaper but still kind of expensive in my eyes 🤣

Just gotta keep chipping away at it, keep searching for them. I've had 4 on the bank this year, had 3 with in a couple hours on one session lol. All to snowmen with like 10 baits over each rod. It works so I gotta stick with it and not chop/change when it gets hard lol. Maybe less bait as the year goes on. I dunno, feels like this canal has made my head fall off 🤣 

 

@elmoputney my other mate feeds a lot of pellet, catches carp but gets done by a lot of bream, like 3 - 4 a night some times 🤣

Back down there for a walk later, then fishing tomorrow for the day, then probably back Friday afternoon through to Monday 👍

 

Use big pellets,you can get some nice 17mm Aller aqua bream chokers 😂

[salokcinnodrog]

8 hours ago, jh92 said:

That's some dedication mate, I didn't mind picking the water snails but there's no way I'm touching garden snails or slugs, can't you get ring worm or some other parasite from them? 🤣

Not from land snails unless you eat them, more likely to get parasites from water snails, and I do keep sanitiser handy after picking them out.