As practice has shown, homemade bait is in no way inferior to expensive store-bought bait. The main thing is to correctly calculate the proportions, not to overdo it with flavorings, not to overdo it with hydration and not to overdo it with supplementary feeding. Indeed, unlike store-bought bait, homemade bait for fishing is often made from ingredients that can saturate the fish, and not just arouse its appetite.
- Bait for riding fish
How is homemade bait different from store-bought bait?
Do-it-yourself bait
Firstly, the angler has truly limitless opportunities to experiment with ingredients, trying to achieve the ideal combination of taste and smell for the fish living in a particular body of water. Indeed, in one place peaceful fish can be attracted by the aroma of canned corn, in another - strawberries, in a third, in general, kerosene, etc.
Secondly, coming home with a catch and being sure that your branded bait played a decisive role in this is not the last thing for any fisherman endowed with even the slightest ambition.
Thirdly, such bait is several times cheaper than store-bought bait. It is especially important to take into account the fact that sometimes successful fishing requires several kilograms of dry mixture.
Is homemade bait much worse than store-bought bait?
Bait from a fishing store
Let's be honest - homemade bait is much inferior to high-quality branded bait. Only a few fishermen manage to make good bait at home, but even this can only be compared with mid-level bait produced on an industrial scale.
It is very difficult to compete with a serious manufacturer who is engaged in research into the food preferences of different types of fish - they have technology and access to any raw materials that are difficult to find in regular stores. This is especially true for various flavors.
However, this rule applies exclusively to sport fishing. In amateur fishing, homemade bait can be even more effective than factory bait. It is also capable of luring fish and providing a good bite. Except that it will take a little more time, which plays an important role in various competitions, where the fishing result directly depends on seconds and precisely measured grams.
And Vishnevsky’s ointment will do
With attractants that have a classic smell, everything is more or less clear. Certain sweet or fruity aromas appeal not only to humans, but also to fish. However, there are also scents in the collection that I wouldn’t dare call pleasant. They smell either like rotten meat or something else not very pleasant. These are attractants based on tar or nicotine extracts. The fish-attracting effect of these substances is not such a stunning discovery. Especially for those who are interested in tench fishing. Last season I had the opportunity to meet an elderly fisherman who very successfully caught tench using black bread with the addition of Vishnevsky ointment, which, as you know, contains tar.
Attractants are not a magic key to success. They cannot replace either knowledge of the reservoir or precise presentation of bait. And yet, when used skillfully, this is another technique in the arsenal of a thoughtful fisherman. You just need to maintain the correct dosage.
Main ingredients for homemade bait
Making your own bait from available ingredients
As trite as it may sound, you can make bait from almost any edible supplies lying around on your kitchen shelves. You just need to know what kind of fish you are going to go for, what result you want to achieve, how each component of the bait will affect the catch, and based on this, think about its composition.
Crackers for bait
The main ingredient for homemade bait is ground white or black bread crackers, as well as breadcrumbs, sold in any grocery store. And then the rest of the components are added to them. In this case, one should take into account the fact that additives can be binding, neutral and loosening.
Binding
Any sweet treat will do for them - gingerbread cookies, dried out rolls, half-eaten cookies, etc. You may also need: semolina, oatmeal, heavily boiled porridge (pea or millet). Binders help the bait stick together; their quantity determines how long the food will erode after immersion in water.
Loosening
If it is necessary to reduce the viscosity of the bait, then baking powder is used. They are not sticky and do not dissolve in water. For example, wheat bran, uncooked peas, corn, dried rolled oats, corn or any other cereal, live worms, maggots, bloodworms.
Neutral
They do not affect the viscosity of the bait, but only make it more nutritious - milk powder, corn flour, flour and other plant cakes or ground seeds. These components also play an attractive role.
Feeders full of life
Very often, especially when fishing in shallows, the problem becomes the lively bite of small things, which are attracted to the bait by the plant bait dusting in the water.
To cut off small things, I suggest using special closed feeders, inside of which only live food is placed. Most often, this technique helps to selectively catch larger specimens. In my collection there are several varieties of such feeders, each of them is used for a specific type of filler. The smaller the size of the larvae or worms stuffed into the feeder, the smaller the diameter of the holes should be. The number of holes greatly affects the rate at which the larvae emerge, so feeders are very convenient, the diameter and number of holes in which are adjustable. The main objects that can be seduced by such feeders are roach, bream, ide and chub.
First, so that the fish gather at the fishing point, I make a generous starting feeding with ordinary vegetable bait. After which I put up a maggot feeder and continue fishing. In such fishing, it is very important to maintain a constant feeding rate. Even if there is no bite, after a certain period of time you need to re-cast the gear. Roach, ide and chub often like to take bait floating freely in the water column. To do this, I place a long (1-1.5 m) leash, and in the last third of it, in front of the hook, I clamp a small floating bead between two fishing line stoppers.
Good results can be achieved with a combined leash. To do this, take about a meter of thick fluorocarbon fishing line with a diameter of 0.18-0.2 mm, to which 8-12 cm of fishing line with a thickness of 0.1-0.12 mm is tied. A thick line sinks slowly in the water, which provides the maggot with the necessary diving speed, and the fish is not afraid of a thin line and confidently attacks the bait on the hook.
Mixing and moistening
Moistening the bait on a pond
Any experienced angler knows how important mixing and moistening the bait is. In order for it to start, as they say, “working correctly,” it must be thoroughly ground through a sieve until a homogeneous fraction is obtained, and then mixed using a screwdriver with a special mixer attachment.
In principle, mixing with your hands will do, but if you use equipment, your bait will turn out to be of better quality. While mixing the bait, it is gradually moistened, trying to achieve the required viscosity.
The role of moisture when mixing bait:
- If the bait turns out to be too dry, the bait ball will simply break on the surface of the water when casting. Such moistening is justified when fishing for top-mounted fish, but is absolutely unsuitable when fishing from the bottom. However, under-watered bait with sufficient ballast is sometimes used to quickly attract fish.
- Average, normal moisture is suitable for bottom fishing. A ball made from such bait should disintegrate within 5-30 minutes (depending on the amount of binders) after immersion in water.
- Overly moistened bait will resemble plasticine in consistency. This is a real defect, unsuitable for fishing.
- Liquid bait. Plays the same role as dry. That is, it is only suitable for catching fish swimming in the upper layers of water. It’s just that when thrown into the water it will create a lot more noise.
Distinctive features
If you do not pay attention to the names, the composition of dry bait for a feeder is no different from bait for a float.
The same grains in the base, the same breadcrumbs, flavorings and cakes in the fillers. This means that almost any bait that is suitable for float fishing can be successfully used for feeder fishing and vice versa. And if the fish are fed with bait molded into balls, then in terms of mixing technology, the feed mixture for the feeder will be no different from the feed mixture for the float. The differences begin when the angler decides to hang a feeder on the line instead of a sinker. The presence of this equipment element greatly influences the choice of mechanical properties of the finished mixture.
In order to be washed out of the container well, the bait intended for stuffing into the feeder does not have to be crumbly. Here, as in a float, you need to clearly understand what the fishing conditions will be (current, depth, bottom condition) and how active the fish will be today.
Unlike bait, which will be molded into balls, the density of the mixture for a feeder can be adjusted not only by the amount of binding element, but also by the degree of moisture and compression when filling the feeder. The more the bait is moistened and compressed, the longer it will remain in the feeder. Therefore, I always under-moisten baits intended for use in feeders at the initial stage of fishing. Then, if necessary, the moisture content of the mixture can be adjusted with water. The most convenient way to do this is with a spray bottle.
The role of ballast in bait
You may ask: “Why is there no ballast in all bait recipes?” And you will be absolutely right, since ballast plays the most important role in baiting. Except, perhaps, when fishing in the upper layers of water.
The main ballast in bait is ordinary soil, which has no nutritional properties, but can create a cloud of turbidity. In addition, it is able to hide food additives, thereby keeping the fish in one place and forcing it to fish out tasty grains from the bait ball for a long time.
The best ballast is the so-called molehill, which can be collected in places where the mole comes to the surface of the earth. There is no need to grind it through a sieve. But you can take loose soil directly from the shore of the reservoir.
How to properly mix bait on a pond:
- prepare a low and wide bucket in advance;
- mix dry ingredients in it;
- add some water from the reservoir;
- pour out chopped worms, maggots, etc.;
- mix with the battery using a screwdriver;
- let it brew for 20 minutes, add water if necessary;
- Lastly, pour the ballast into the bucket and mix.
Every keen angler has his own recipe for fishing bait that works best in a particular body of water for a particular fish.
Two waters
From my own experience, I will say that a sense of proportion is perhaps the most important quality when working with flavoring and aromatic additives.
When using attractants, you should first of all be guided by the principle “do no harm.” Especially if the water is cold or the fish is passive for some reason. Another, in my opinion, very important point is the order in which the attractant is added to the bait. As you know, all dry mixtures must be soaked in water twice. So, I noticed that if a liquid attractant is added to the “first” water, the smell and taste of the finished bait will not be so bright, but the effect will be longer. And if in the “second”, the bite activators will be washed out faster by water, but will also attract fish faster. This property can be used to advantage and based on one base, two baits with excellent properties can be obtained. For example, for starter feeding, the attractant in the “second” water will work more efficiently. But in order for the bait to retain fish for a longer period of time, the attractant of the “first” water will be more profitable.
One more question: which attractant is best suited to this or that bait? In principle, there are a great many combinations here, and any bait can be combined with any attractant. For example, the results of experiments with an attractant based on hemp oil turned out to be very interesting. There is a common belief that hemp works best in warm water. However, I only partly agree with this. In March and April, when the water was still very cold, the addition of hemp extract in its pure form noticeably revived the bite of not only roach, but also bream and silver bream. But when it got a little warmer, I really liked mixing some of the caramel or vanilla attractant into the cannabis in approximately a 3:1 ratio.
The same can be said about fruit aromas. It turned out that they work not only in warm water. In October - November, I managed to catch roaches and bream quite well using black bread, richly flavored with vanilla aroma.
Photo by the author
