Top recipes for preparing winter bait for bream for ice fishing

Winter bait for bream is the basis for the success of ice fishing for this underwater inhabitant. It allows you to attract fish to the hole, encourage it to bite and keep it in a given zone for a long time. When catching bream from ice, various bait mixtures are used, from factory brands to homemade variations made at home from available components. What will work best is impossible to answer unequivocally. In certain situations, a certain composition works. The more experienced the fisherman, the more competently he focuses on fishing conditions and seasonal factors, and more accurately selects the feed mixture.

What you need to know about winter feed

Complementary feeding for bream in winter has certain differences from summer mixtures. This is the main factor when choosing it in a store or making it yourself at home:

• Fine grind. Such fractions ensure the formation of a thick food spot on the bottom, making it more difficult for bream to get enough.
• Low calorie content. Bream cannot be overfed, otherwise you can forget about a stable result.
• Low stickiness. Ideally, when pressed, the formed ball should easily crumble into particles, leaving no lumps.
• No odor or minimal aroma.

For ice fishing, the color of the mixture is matched to the color of the soil. The bait should contrast at the bottom, attracting the attention of the fish.

Make or buy - pros and cons

Should I buy bait mixture or make it myself at home from available ingredients? Both options have positive and negative sides. The factory mixture makes the task easier. There is no need to think about the composition, mix the components, or monitor their proportions. However, it has disadvantages:

• Cheap food is ineffective. You will have to buy an expensive premium brand that is respected by advanced breamers.
• Many commercial feeds are designed with universal properties, so they may not work at all on certain bodies of water.
• Purchased bait does not contain the main winter component – ​​the animal. And since you still have to add it to the mixture, it is much wiser to prepare it yourself from the beginning.

We recommend reading: Do-it-yourself catchy bait for carp Homemade
bait is cheaper than store-bought bait.
The fisherman gets the opportunity to independently select the components, their proportions, experiment with fraction sizes, colors, and flavors. In any case, making the mixture with your own hands is much more interesting than simply purchasing it at a fishing point.

What does bream like?

Despite the fact that bream is a fairly omnivorous fish, in winter the basis of its diet, according to scientific data, are living organisms that live on the bottom, in bottom silt, on vegetation and in bottom layers of water.

These are various crustaceans, crustacean plankton, larvae, aquatic insects and, of course, bloodworms. They should form the basis of winter baits. Despite this, many plant components, cereals, cake, bran, crackers, etc. are used to attach bream. This is due to several reasons.

Firstly, there are a number of reservoirs where local fishermen have simply accustomed bream to such food. Secondly, vegetable baits are used with various flavors, both natural and industrially produced. In addition, the components used in the mixtures are ground very finely, and when they get into the water, they form a kind of cloudy cloud that spreads odors that are attractive to fish.

Groundbaits of animal origin

So, what animal baits can be used in winter:

• bloodworms, the main food and basis of the winter diet of bream;
• mormysh is a small amphipod crustacean;
• earthworm, there are many ways to preserve it for winter fishing;
• maggot – stores well in the refrigerator;
• aquatic mollusks, they are collected with special nets, their shells are broken, crushed and used in bait;
• larvae of dragonflies and some other insects.

Bait bloodworm
In general, there are not many varieties of live bait that can be obtained in winter, so most people use bloodworms because of its availability and versatility.

Groundbaits of plant origin

Unlike animals, there are much more components of plant origin used in bait.

The most common components are:

• breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs or regular;
• millet;
• peas, shelled (polished), crushed;
• cake (makuha) of sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, etc.;
• cereals;
• bran;
• pearl barley;
• semolina and other cereals;
• plain and corn flour, etc.

In addition to store-bought flavorings, the following are used:

• sunflower seeds, roasted;
• roasted hemp seeds;
• sunflower oil;
• coriander;
• anise;
• cocoa;
• garlic;
• vanilla;
• cinnamon, etc.

These components are added to baits in smaller proportions to lure bream precisely by smell.

How to make winter bait for bream with your own hands

There is no ideal composition that works all winter in different bodies of water. At home, you can prepare a mixture for any situation, be it current or standing water, a channel hole or a coastal edge, a uniform section of the bottom or with sudden changes.

Main components:

• bloodworm;
• cake;
• breadcrumbs;
• cereals;
• boiled peas.

Below are several simple but productive recipes for preparing bait for winter bream fishing.

Made from herbal ingredients

It is not surprising that for winter baits are sometimes used that consist entirely of ingredients of plant origin. Popular in our latitudes is breaded peas. For her they take:

• 0.4–0.5 kg of pea porridge;
• 0.5 kg breadcrumbs;
• 0.3 kg of crushed sunflower seeds;
• 0.2 kg of rolled oats flakes.

Combine the crackers and seeds and mix them thoroughly. Add finely granulated flakes. Boiled peas come last to adjust the consistency of the composition. Complementary foods are made dry and do not stick to your hands.

Advice! Coriander is added to bait when targeting large bream.

You can add sunflower cake and ground pumpkin seeds to the resulting mixture. Flavorings include garlic, fennel, anise, coriander.

Animal origin

The simplest bait made from live ingredients is bloodworms mixed with soil. It is enough to combine a mosquito larva with soil or clay from the bottom of a reservoir, moisten it, form balls and send them into the hole. This mixture is characterized by short range, accuracy and efficiency.

In regions where mormysh is common, it is used in bream bait. Take fresh amphipods or frozen briquettes and mix them with soil. Flour is added to give better stickiness. All that remains is to moisten the mixture with water, form balls with a diameter of 3–8 cm, and place them in the water.

We recommend reading: What smells do crucian carp love?

What does bream eat in winter?

Bream quite easily gets used to new conditions associated with the arrival of winter. Like all fish, it depends on many natural factors that influence its behavior in winter. If you choose the right place and fishing tactics, then success will not take long to arrive. However, you should not discount weather conditions.

Winter bait for bream is prepared taking into account 2 main factors, such as:

1. In winter, fish prefer to eat only high-calorie foods of animal origin. At the same time, she eats much less often than in summer.
2. Since there is not as much oxygen in the water as in summer, the fish prefers to avoid muddy areas. In areas where the bottom is muddy, the oxygen concentration is much lower than in areas where the bottom is hard.

Based on these factors, you should start preparing bait. Therefore, preparing winter bait is an art that requires a lot of knowledge in terms of fish behavior in winter. In winter, the main thing is to interest the fish, but not to try to feed it.

Additives of animal origin

As a rule, fishermen use either bloodworms or maggots as an additive. These are the most common baits of animal origin that are used when fishing in winter. Some of them have adapted to using unsalted fresh lard. Proteins and fats for fish in winter are simply necessary to maintain energy balance. This is especially important for females, since eggs mature in them over the winter.

Lard, for example, is cut into small pieces, the size of maggots, although other cutting options are possible. If bloodworms are used, some of them should be crushed with your fingers. In this case, the aroma of bloodworms spreads much faster in the water column.

Cake

Cake is an excellent ingredient for baiting bream not only in winter. Cake is a powder that all fishermen know about and which all fishermen also use when catching various types of fish. All carp fish adore this scent, so you can buy it in any fishing store. Unfortunately, when purchasing, you should pay attention to the quality of the product. Very often you can buy briquettes that are already moldy, because they sometimes sit in the store for a long time and no one buys them. Therefore, many experienced fishermen buy seeds and grind them in a meat grinder.

Hemp seeds are more attractive to roaches and small bream. As for large bream, its reaction to hemp is the most common. But rapeseed cake can attract fairly large specimens of bream.

Breadcrumbs

This product is included in most recipes because they are capable of forming a feeding cloud in the water column. At the same time, it is noted that large fish prefer rye crackers. If the bottom is light, then dark crackers can alert the bream. Therefore, the philosophy of choice should be this: light bottom - light crackers, dark bottom - dark crackers. In other words, using bait is constant experimentation.

Cereals

Bream loves various cereals. Millet, semolina or oatmeal are added to winter bream bait. Moreover, it is not necessary to cook the cereals; it is enough to pour boiling water over them before going fishing, and upon arrival add them to the main composition. If rolled oats are used, it is better to chop it, but not to break it into flour.

Some anglers claim that bream loves rice. At the same time, it also does not need to be boiled. It is also enough to pour boiling water over it. It should be soft and crumbly.

An equally interesting option is pearl barley porridge, which is also prepared by steaming with boiling water. Almost all fish love pearl barley, including bream.

Vegetable protein

Fish simply need protein in winter, so peanuts or peas should be added to the bait. Moreover, preference should be given not to boiled, but to hard, but chopped peas. The inclusion of peas in the bait additionally and actively attracts bream. Peanuts are not crushed in a coffee grinder, but simply crushed. Moreover, it does not need to be further fried, since in winter there is simply no need for oil in the bait.

Availability of sweets

Bream has a sweet tooth and almost all fishermen know this, so crushed cookies, biscuit crumbs or gingerbread are added to the bait. In addition, the mixture becomes more viscous and cuts off the “fines”. You can prepare such culinary additives yourself or buy them. There are also ready-made commercial additives, such as “Klevo” or “Bremes”, that can interest bream.

Adding salt

Salt is added to winter bait so that it retains its properties longer. Some well-known fishing enthusiasts believe that salt can stimulate the appetite of fish, therefore, it is advisable to add it both in winter and in summer.

It is better if it is coarse salt. Its optimal weight in bait is half a teaspoon per 1 kg of bait.

This is interesting! Corn juice is considered one of the most attractive ingredients present in bream bait. To do this, take canned corn in a jar and dilute the bait with its liquid contents. The corn itself can be eaten, since in winter it does not attract bream, like any other bait of plant origin.

THE BEST WINTER BAIT for large BREAM and white fish. RECIPE for fishing

Top 5 winter factory baits for catching bream

Fishing stores sell a variety of brands, and choosing the right bait from them is not easy. Experienced bream fishermen have tried many mixtures and identified the most catchy and versatile ones:

• Mondial-F Wintermix Bream Red. It smells like worms and bloodworms, is frost-resistant, and crumbles only when it reaches the bottom.
• Dunaev Bream. The food is aimed at large fish. Light yellow with red particles.
• Trapper Winter. Fine grinding, low calorie content, frost resistance, specialized lightweight aromatization.
• Sensas Ice Fishing. Universal, designed for different sizes of fish, works from the first to the last ice.
• Greenfishing Ice Bream Red. Fractions of medium size, red-red color, attract fish well from a long distance.

When buying bait mixture for fishing in winter, you need to focus on the price of the product and reviews from experienced fishermen, which are now easy to find on the Internet on various thematic platforms and on social networks.

Required ingredients in bream bait

Preparation of bait is carried out in compliance with the following points:

• The bait must contain large components.
• Also, the choice of one or another bait depends on the time of year, for example, in winter - mainly of animal origin, and in summer - of plant origin.

What are the essential components of food for bream:

• As noted above, you need to add large fractions - for example, peas, corn, etc.
• The basis of the bait can be millet or pearl barley. Any other porridge, such as oatmeal, is also good. Semolina is used as a binding component for the preparation of food pellets.
• You should also add bread - ground crackers - to the fish delicacy.

As a separate type of bait for catching bream, you can safely use the makushatnik. The cake used in its preparation attracts fish with its smell. Sensing it, she begins to suck the cake.

Feeding tactics

Fishing success depends not only on well-chosen bait. Initially, you need to determine a promising point. To do this, it is necessary to study the topography of the place, to detect anomalous zones with differences in depth, where the probability of bream staying is maximum.

When the place for the upcoming fishing has been chosen, you can start feeding. There is no need to pour in a lot of mixture at once, just throw in 2-3 portions. A spot will form on the bottom that will attract bream and keep it at the feeding point.

Optimal distance between holes

Having chosen a fishing zone, drill 5-6 holes at intervals of 15-20 meters. They feed them and begin to catch them. Gradually, the fisherman identifies workers and auxiliaries. The former are used for active fishing; the latter are switched to when the bites decrease.

Lower with a feeder or sprinkle from above

In most cases, bream is caught at depth in winter. That’s why they use special dump truck feeders. This is an ordinary metal or plastic cone with an opening bottom. It is filled with food and lowered into the hole on a thick fishing line. Before reaching the bottom 20–30 cm, the lid opens with a sharp jerk, and the treat is poured out to the desired point.

It is irrational to use balls, since they will crumble in the water column. You can feed the hole using this method at medium depths and calm water.

When fishing in the current, the food is lowered into a hole drilled above the main one. The distance can vary from 0.5 to 3 meters, depending on the depth and strength of the flow. Sometimes it is advisable to use a special capacious bag. Then the stream will wash the complementary food out of it, creating an attractive trail behind it.

We recommend reading: 8 recipes for making catchy porridge for carp

Bait for bream for fishing in winter on currents

On reservoirs with a current, you can use the feeder fishing method and a special feeder. In the first case, the feeder is mounted directly on the gear. This allows food to be delivered directly to the fishing point. The length of the leash is selected taking into account the strength of the current.

Feeding troughs are used somewhat differently. To do this you need to make 2 holes. One should be fed with food, and the other should be used for fishing. The first hole should be located upstream.

During the current it is worth using feeders

Bait on reservoirs without current

In calm waters, feeding bream is much easier. In this case, it is permissible to throw the food directly into the hole. When fishing in such reservoirs, the composition of the feed is simple. To do this, you need to take 1 kg of crackers and a little sunflower oil.

It is also permissible to make porridge from millet and mix it with crackers. For flavor, you can add sunflower or hemp cake. Before use, you need to take 50 grams of maggots or bloodworms per 1 liter of mixture.

Winter bait for bream and roach:

Tips from experienced bream climbers

Seasoned “penguins” have their own secrets, acquired over the years and numerous forays into bodies of water with different fishing conditions. Some of them are axioms that novice winter fishermen who want to regularly catch hefty bream need to know about:

• In winter, in cold water, you cannot use sweet bait and flavorings. This will scare away the fish, and only small bream and roach will sit on the hook.
• If possible, you should prepare the bait directly on the spot, adding water from the reservoir where the fishing will be carried out.
• When hunting in the current, the hole for feeding the fishing zone is drilled higher. In this case, the depth in a given place, the strength of the jet and the nature of the bottom are taken into account.
• It is convenient to feed bream at the exits of the pit, or on characteristic tables where the current tightens or weakens. In such places, food is more easily retained, allowing fish to be concentrated there.

Don’t forget the principle of feeding in winter - little, but appetizing. The mixture is prepared only from fresh ingredients and served in small portions so that the fish does not get full quickly.

Cooking deliciously - recipes for feeding for bream fishing

When making bait for winter bream fishing, it is recommended to consider the following:

1. In winter formulations, you need to use animal ingredients in a volume of 25-50 grams for every 500 grams of plant ingredients.
2. All plant foods must be crushed as much as possible . This facilitates its spread throughout the reservoir from feeders or feeding balls. Thanks to this, it is possible to lure the fish, but not give it the opportunity to eat.
3. The odors that attract bream differ depending on the type of reservoir . It will be possible to select the optimal option only through experimentation.
4. The caloric content of food should be chosen taking into account the activity of the fish.
5. If there are bloodworms or other animal ingredients in the feeding, you need to add soil to it.
6. The main difference between winter bait is the absence of binding ingredients .