Unusual baits for adventurous anglers

How many times have you heard rumours of a ‘secret bait’? One of your mates tells you …. “There’s a bloke who wins all the matches and he won’t let you see what’s on his bait tray.”

House envy, car envy, job envy and tackle envy, all lead inevitably to bait envy. We all tell ourselves that if only we had that secret something we would empty the place.

Sometimes it’s an additive, a powder, or an elixir that is a mixture of ‘unobtanium’ and myrrh and sometimes it is a bait that is quite ‘normal’ to some…(whatever normal is?) … but you have simply never tried yourself. Very often we will avoid a bait because there is an unknown about how it is procured, prepared or used. Yet armed with a simple bit of information we suddenly gain the confidence to ‘have a go’.

I spent ages trying to find a big black slug that I could photograph for this article but as I am writing in the middle of summer I couldn’t find one. I have known days in autumn when every step down the garden could produce a ‘squelch’ as the slugs come out to play. Happily, I was on the Severn recently and by chance I found this slug in my peg. Clear evidence, from the way it looks mutilated, that it had been used by an angler and likely been crunched by a chub’s pharyngeal teeth. QED!

In this article I am going to run down some of the baits that are slightly off the beaten tracks, and by that I mean everything except maggots, casters, hemp, worms, bread, corn and meat. Anything else will be fair game, and if I omit something it will only be because I have probably never tried it myself, or have never come across anyone who has used it, and I therefore think I cannot comment. So, in no particular order, here goes nothing…

Chub baits

People have built careers on writing about catching chub, and by far the biggest chapter will always be the one about baits. Chub have a reputation for eating anything. They will certainly take spinners, dead bait, live bait and any insect that you care to put on the hook. I don’t think any of the following baits outlined below will catch you lots of chub, but they most certainly could potentially catch you a bigger chub.

Slugs

I had an acquaintance, many years ago now, who would relish wet autumn mornings because he would gather up slugs. Any slugs. The longest and blackest slugs in the world were the prime target, all thrown into a plastic bucket with a sealed lid. My mate would then head down to the River Severn and run a big black slug downstream, pierced by a size eight or ten superspade hook, suspended just off bottom under a chubber float. He would occasionally loose feed some of the smaller slugs, or even cut a big ‘un into pieces if he had no small ones, and he used a roving/stalking approach. Fifteen minutes in each swim and then on to the next.

From the tales he told it certainly brought him greater success than I ever had. I tried them once, got too grossed out with the slime, and found myself a cleaner bait to use. Basically anything but slugs. There are limits, and now you know one of mine!

Big enough to put a smile on anyone’s face. A ‘munter’ from Larford, caught on the pole using meat paste from right under the platform at my feet.

Cheese paste

Another bait that is often used by chub anglers is cheese or cheese paste. My own use of cheese paste has been limited to ledgering on a river, as, in my mind at least, this is another bait that I associate mainly with chub though I have had barbel too. As a change from a standard bait I prefer to mould a soft cheesy ball around a hair rigged pellet. I find that wrapping the cheese around a pellet gives me added confidence that the bait will stay where it is.

To make my paste I like to use a mixture of mild cheddar (as it is less crumbly than mature cheddar) mixed with a more smelly cheese like Feta. This is my own mix, and if you try it, and catch on it, I am sure you will be happy to stick with it forever, or you can experiment at your will with different types.

It takes some brute force to begin the mixing process by hand but after a bit of kneading it just gets softer the warmer it gets. The cheese paste needs to be firm enough to easily roll into a ball around my pellet. The hair rigged pellet gives me confidence that the cheese, even if a little too hard or soft, will stay in place and the exposed hook will connect whatever the cheese is doing.

Steak

Another unusual chub bait, fishing with a shive of beef steak on the hook was something I first heard of in the nineties, when it became all the rage on the Trent. Apparently the bloodier the better as the chub, shark-like in their sense of smell, would home in for miles upstream to fight over a morsel of meat that was slowly releasing blood into the flow. Although it is a bait I have never tried myself, I have good secondhand knowledge having quizzed an acquaintance who did fish with it, …. and I very nearly thought it worth while giving it a go myself. You might too. Great bragging rights in the pub!

Two items from the freezer that might provide you with a day’s fishing. I don’t advocate using Aberdeen Angus Sirloin, cheaper cuts are available, and a couple of ounces of meat will last for a session. There are cheaper peas than Birdseye too but a kilo bag isn’t that expensive and might provide a novel way to catch a few roach, chub and carp.

Blackberries

Full confession, I have never had success using blackberries myself, though I have spoken to anglers who have tried them, when in season, as the chub ‘go wild’ for them. A little foraging on the day, a few free offerings, and (apparently) they get the taste for them and ‘climb up the rod’. Have a go! It might work for you one day.

Blackberries – an alternative bait that can work well for Chub.

Roach baits

Unlike chub, there aren’t many baits that are exclusively or even primarily thought to be roach baits. I reckon that if you stick a slug on your hook, you can only expect to catch catch a chub, and probably nothing else. (I ought to be careful here because I have caught perch on corn, meat, and a wafter so see no reason why they wouldn’t take a slug too.). But although there is nothing that really targets roach, and roach alone, there is one hookbait that roach in particular love, and that is tares.

Tares

If there is one bait that is associated with roach, and usually it is associated with sorting out bigger specimens of roach too, it is the tare. A member of the pulse family tares can be purchased loose from seed merchants (I think pigeon fanciers feed their birds with tares) they can also be purchased dry from many tackle shops pre-bagged into quantities enough to last for a couple of seasons, or finally, like everything else on the planet, they can be bought on-line.

On the left, lovely big cooked tares. On the right the dried originals. They swell up by a factor of three or four and care is needed to ensure that they are cooked enough to accept a hook, but not so soft that they are mush.

Predominately used as hookbait over free offerings of hemp, a pint of uncooked tares could last you many seasons, so they are certainly cost effective. They will generally need to be prepared at home, though some tackle shops will offer prepared tares. They need to be boiled long enough so as to be soft enough to yield to the hook, but hard enough to not fly off on the cast.

A tale about tares

I recently fished a Birmingham AA stretch of the River Severn for the first time. According to the handbook it is 4’ – 8’ deep but I struggled to find any more than 2½ foot anywhere. It was extremely low, and absolutely crystal clear.

I only had hemp and maggots with me and I was being slaughtered by the bleak that were smashing my maggot immediately it hit the water. I had ladled some hemp in at the start with the hope of attracting a few chub into my swim but there was no chance any of my hookbaits would get through.

Tares from a seed merchant and tares from a tackle shop. Absolutely no difference in the way they perform though the item on the right was probably three times the cost. Not everyone has a local seed merchant, though.

My rigs were too heavy at first as I had been expecting six foot of depth, and I never saw a bite. I finally decided to change. I put a very light pin stick on one rod and even though I did catch a few bleak and the odd dace with it I was still getting smashed every time. I needed an alternative bait.

It was at this point that I remembered that my hemp, which was too tiny to get onto a hook, had a few tares mixed in with it. I had prepared my hemp over the close-season and I had completely forgotten that I had added a few tares on a whim. Ferreting through my hemp I identified a few tares and separated them out for the hook.

With a tare on my hook I cast out, started to fill my pouch with hemp, and before I had chance to catapult any free offerings in my float was under. Swiftly lifting my rod I realised that I had something much better on the line. A roach. And at about ¾ lb a decent one at that.

This little beauty cost me ten quid secondhand from Cradley market a few years ago. I use it for preparing hemp and tares. No faffing about, I don’t do any of this pre-soaking palaver, I just add enough boiling water to cover my dried seeds, turn on to full power for two hours, and then switch off. I sometimes cook my tares in with my hemp and alway check the tares every half hour to make sure they are not overcooked. Hemp overcooked is fine because the small stuff I buy won’t go on the hook. The only other thing I do is add bicarbonate of soda.

From then on, with a tare on the hook, I had a steady stream of better roach, turning a frustrating day into a belter. Those roach were there all the time. They never got a look in because the bleak and dace were attacking the maggot way before the roach got anywhere near. Thank god for tares! Tares are the best roach bait in the world! There,… I said it.

Adding a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda to your hemp and tares when cooking them darkens them. Don’t ask me why, and don’t ask me how, just do as I do and it will all be ok in the end.

Elderberries

As far as I am concerned, when the elderberries are on the trees, you could use them in much the same way as you would hemp. Feed them a little and often and, just like hemp & tares, the roach will find a liking for them.

Roach probably feed naturally on elderberries, but as they are seasonal and they have had to put up with anglers’ baits all year round, they are probably expecting hemp when they first eat one. Once the first mouthful is consumed they no doubt realise that they are not hemp seeds, but rather those berries that fall off the trees every autumn, and they quite like them.

Like hemp and tares, an elderberry on the hook will often sort out the better roach; and just like hemp and tares the chub and dace will like them too. Win – win!

Carp baits

It is very difficult for commercial fishery owners to maintain the health of their fish and the quality of their water. Any bait used to excess can deteriorate, uneaten on the lake bed, and each owner will have an individual view on what is, and what is not, permitted. Use of groundbait is often limited, hemp is often not allowed, and bread along with all other floating baits are likewise on the list of taboo baits too.

Macaroni cheese and chick peas. All three tins, sitting on a shelf amongst the rest of my bait, waiting for the day that I decide to try something a bit different.

For the angler who wants to try something different, like the following three ‘unusual’ baits outlined below, you must always check with the fishery to see if it is allowed before doing so. One of my local fisheries does not allow the feeding of meat, though it can be used on the hook, many venues don’t allow macaroni cheese, and often, because it isn’t actually on the list of permitted baits, you would have to extrapolate that pet food is not permitted either. Check before you incur the wrath of the fishery owner as it’s very embarrassing to be ejected from a water.

Meat paste

Yes, you heard correctly. No cubes, no chunks, here I am talking about mushed-up meat. Used in exactly the same way as a normal groundbait based paste, meat paste is a splendid way to catch wary fish who have seen it all before and also a great way to not waste any leftover luncheon meat.

Simply take your luncheon meat and force it through a fine sieve. Pass it through again to make sure it is as smooth and ‘pastey’ as possible and that’s done. Some judicial rolling in the palm of your hand will create a medium that can be hook mounted.

Take your pick, they all work equally well. Just mash your luncheon meat through a sieve and make a really effective alternative type of paste.

Like a really sloppy paste it is (and should be) difficult to keep on the hook, which means you will have to mould it carefully around a large-ish hook (most commercial fisheries limit you to a size 12) and lower it in near to the margin. Big fish love it and don’t be too worried if it drops off your hook occasionally, that will be the free offerings that the big carp will be coming in for. After that just hang on. It sometimes gives a real advantage over ‘normal’ paste and I have caught some real ‘munters’ out of Larford using meat paste. Go on, give it a try.

This is my fishing sieve. I drain cooked hemp through it, I wash the dirt off worms with it, and I push luncheon meat through the mesh to make a really effective paste.

Pet food

Previously available from Lidl my favourite cat food for the hook was Coshida. There was a variety that contained small chunks of meat that, although very soft, would cling sufficiently to a hook so as to make pole fishing with them manageable. Unfortunately I understand that the manufacture of Coshida is ceasing because the raw materials used to make it have rocketed in price following the global pandemic. I am sure that there are other pet foods that will contain acceptable chunks, in acceptable sizes, and if you know of one please pass that information on. There are odd days when fish go mad for a bit of pet food and I’d like to join in the fun again.

Macaroni cheese

Heinz macaroni cheese is a very soft pasta, dripping in a cheesy gloop, supplied in a tin-can, and on the right day carp love it. Like soft paste it is extremely difficult to keep on the hook but bait stops, or a blade of grass, can be used to resist the hook from cutting through the pasta and dropping off. Because of the difficulty in shipping out it is invariably fished in the margins. Like paste it is a real ‘turn on’ to the carp and can often produce a bite within seconds of dropping it in.

Small fish baits

Bloodworm & Joker

A lifetime ago EVERYBODY was trying bloodworm & joker. Known to be expensive and thought to have mystical properties, buying it was undertaken with the equivalent secrecy of a drug deal where you’d meet the vendor on a pub carpark. The deal usually took place inside the boot of his car, and he’d confide that he had scraped the bloodworm himself that morning from a secret pond, …. and if he told you the location he’d have to kill you. So you didn’t ask!

There must be many amongst you who have never heard of bloodworm & joker, and many more others who have heard of it but haven’t a clue what it is. Bloodworm is the aquatic larval stage of a mosquito, and joker is the aquatic larval stage of a midge. A bloodworm is a deep red worm-like creature, about an inch long (if you are lucky) and joker is visually very similar but about ¼ the size of bloodworm. Weird men visit village ponds in the middle of the night, with a thin metal blade on the end of a long a stick, and sweep the blade, scythe like through the mud and silt, and then wipe the bloodworms that they have scraped off the leading edge of the blade.

Joker is collected in a similar way except the place is usually a stagnant foetid place, much preferred by midges. Cess pits are much frequented by the weird men who collect joker.

Joker, wriggling on fingers. I told you they were small. To use them they are usually dusted with dry leam, which separates them from each other, and then they are added to your choice of groundbait. They will attract and hold fish into your swim all day with a little occasional topping up. Unfortunately these days the price might be a little prohibitive to the average angler.

Bloodworm are amongst the most natural baits that you can use as they probably comprise a fair percentage of what fish eat in the wild. Consequently they were endowed with that ‘mystical’ tag as they turned a rock hard venue into a fish-fest. Proper fish catchers!

Joker, on the other hand, are not naturally eaten by fish because they don’t occur in locations where fish survive. Jokers MUST be cleaned thoroughly before they are used. If they are used before they are fully cleaned through they can be extremely detrimental to the fish that eat them. Because fish do not encounter joker naturally in the wild (not many fish swim in stagnant water) the filth that jokers contain can be poisonous.

These bloodworm are about 20mm long and a couple of mm wide. Very fragile and extremely difficult to handle, getting one or two onto a tiny hook is a challenge well worth undertaking if you are serious about catching a lot of small fish from a stillwater. Like joker, the price and difficulty to find a vendor are the major setbacks these days.

The idea is to put bloodworm on the hook and put joker into your groundbait. Much used by canal anglers, B&J will catch anything that swims but unfortunately two bloodworm will only just fill a size 24 hook, and this means the angler is usually limited to targeting small fish. You don’t land many carp on a size 24 do you? Back in the day we used size 30 hooks, real tiny stuff, and even a decent gudgeon can straighten one of those.

Conclusion

It is easy to stick with the tried and tested baits. Buy it from a tackle shop, stick it on the hook, catch fish. No effort required, no preparation, no difficulty getting it on the hook and nailed-on results. However, if you occasionally like to experiment, if you enjoy boiling bait in preparation or if you simply like to try something different to catch fish, then I hope I have got your juices flowing and that you will give one of these ‘oddball’ baits a go. If I had to suggest just one for you to try, then try putting a tare on your hook. On the right day they can bring a great big smile to your face.

Post script

I have just asked my tackle dealer, Stuart, who owns Mal Storey Tackle, if he could supply me with some bloodworm and joker. He responded with a loud NO! Apparently there was a local supplier who used to scrape from a local secret pool, but as demand dropped off he has moved on to a more lucrative lifestyle. Consequently my advice to anyone who wants to use bloodworm is to do what we used to do in the nineties… find a pool and scrape your own. If you are a dyed in the wool canal angler it will be the best thing you could do.

Post post script

Three other baits to try are, cooked wheat, garden peas (which will do exactly the same as sweetcorn) and chick-peas. Marshmallows are great for surface fishing, as are Cheerios. If you have any wild alternative ideas yourself please respond in the comments and let me know.

Tight lines!

Written by Chris Smith
With over sixty years of angling experience under his belt, Chris got hooked on fishing by catching perch and roach from his local Fens Pools. Having fished his first match at the age of eight, Chris was a keen club angler for 30 years and captain of Severnside Match Group. Now retired, Chris enjoys his fishing more than ever and loves being able to pass on his knowledge to other anglers.