5 BARGAIN BAITS FOR £5
Deadly carp grub that won’t break the bank
AFTER many years of fishing I have concluded that ‘less is more’ in most situations, and that it is possible to have some outstanding results on the bank without spending a fortune.
In fact, setting yourself a budget can actually get the old grey matter working and push you to experiment with your baits.
Here are my five baits picks for under a fiver - all of which will get you bagging up - you just need to think about how you use them...
The most expensive of our five baits, but a little can go a long way.
Go for 6mm baits to cover most situations, or 8mm ones if you want to single out big carp.
Most expanders are prepared using a pump, but many can just be soaked in water for a few minutes – allow one minute for each millimetre of diameter, drain them, and leave in a sealed container overnight.
Because the liquid is taken right into the core of the bait they are also ideal for flavouring too.
Through the summer carp aren’t that particular about the softness of the bait, so I will often add a sachet of gelatine to the water I soak them in to make jelly pellets that are much tougher than normal expanders.
SWEETCORN
You can buy a kilo of frozen corn for as little as a pound, or a large
tin for around 40p, putting it very much near the top of my budget bait category.
I prefer the tinned variety, as it contains more sugar and salt than the frozen, and is easier to store.
Corn will catch just about everything and also takes colours and flavours well, allowing you to quickly and easily alter the appearance of the bait on venues where it is being used a lot.
Red corn works great on clear venues, and sweet flavours, such as Scopex, complement the natural taste of the corn.
3 CATFOOD
Catfoods come in many different forms, from dry biscuits, ideal for surface fishing, to soft meaty chunks in jelly that make a useful margin bait.
Most are quite cheap, especially if you go for own-brand varieties.
Catmeat in gravy makes a great bait for short-range pole and float work. The chunks of meat stay on the hook well, and are the right size for a hookbait.
BREAD
For our £5 budget you can buy several loaves of bread, which gives you a great many options.
With carp spending a lot of time on or near the surface now, bread is ideal for fishing on the top or ‘dobbing’ a slow-sinking hookbait in front of any fish that passes by.
The crust is ideal for surface fishing, being quite tough and very buoyant, while the soft flake can be lightly compressed around the hook so that it only just sinks. Punched bread discs are a go-to bait in the winter months, but what’s stopping you from using them during the summer too?
Uncompressed, they float well and can be fished on a long hooklength zig rig style.
Compress the discs slightly and they will sink slowly, ideal for singling out carp on the deck.
GARLIC SAUSAGE
A forgotten gem, you can find garlic sausage on the deli counter of most supermarkets.
A fiver will buy you a big chunk of sausage, certainly enough for a day’s fishing, and it’s cheaper than tins of luncheon meat.
Chop it into large cubes with a knife, or push it through a meat cutter to produce smaller baits, ideal for feed and the hook.
Garlic is a great carp attractor in its own right, so there is no need to add extra flavours to this bait, although it will take dyes well.
I tend to cut the sausage into 10mm-thick slices and then use a meat punch to produce barrelshaped hookbaits that are easy to hair-rig - carp love them!