HOW TO MAKE BATTERED GRUBS!
Taking the flavoured maggot approach one step further, after dousing them in flavour, next dip them into a powdered additive to give them a coat of ‘batter’. It might sound bizarre, but Angel Delight works brilliantly for this!
A favourite spring tactic of Steve Ringer is to mix some casters in with his corn feed. He does this to attract the silvers, and it’s this ‘commotion’ that in turn draws in the carp, which love the crunchy texture of casters too, giving you another hookbait option.
If you’re spodding out a bed of bait for carp, tench or bream, add a can of tuna to the mix as well. It can also be used in stick and bag mixes, although use tuna that comes in sunflower oil so it won’t melt the PVA.
Sometimes when using worms as hookbait you can miss bites when the body of the wriggling worm masks the hookpoint. To get around this, try hair-rigging the worm using the method shown (right). It leaves the hook completely free to snare the fish.
Tip around 30ml-40ml of liquid flavouring into an empty bait tub.
Using a knotless knot, hair-rig a latex bait band directly under your hook, leaving a small gap between it and the bend.
Few fish can resist a juicy lobworm, but sometimes these baits can wriggle out of view, especially if weed is present. To make them more ‘visible’ try injecting the tail with a tiny amount of air using a small syringe to make them waft enticingly just off bottom. The syringes can be bought online or in most tackle shops, but make sure you use a firm surface to carry out the injecting.
Riddle the maggots to clean them and then add to the liquid.
If you boil your own hemp or particles, give them extra punch by adding a spoonful of chilli flakes to the soaking and cooking water. Rock salt and molasses are other great additives that’ll give your seeds extra pulling power, and in spring this approach works well for roach, tench, bream and big carp. Don’t overdo it though!
Not strictly ‘natural’ offerings, but fake maggots and casters should be in the tackle box of every tench angler, they’re that effective. Hair-rig two like this (right) to balance the hook, and fish them over the real thing. They’re nuisance fish proof too.
Put half a medium to large worm on to a gated baiting needle like this. The cut worm leaks out lots of juices!
Coat the flavoured grubs in your chosen powder and leave to wriggle!
The coating will slowly dissolve once submerged.
Grab the bait band and pull the bait band gently into the worm to secure it. The resulting hookbait is deadly!
Prawn hookbaits have accounted for some incredible perch, to British record sizes in fact! Pole fishing for them next to holding features such as overhanging bushes or neighbouring fishing platforms is a brilliant method, but use quite a big hook as perch have really bony mouths.