Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Let’s hear it for the mighty white
Savvy anglers should call on the versatile sliced white loaf when targeting early spring carp, suggests Middy’s Chris Cameron
IN THESE days of designer baits, pellets and potions, bread still seems to have a magical hold over fish. They see it…they want it! But it’s more often than not relegated to the back of the bait tray and branded as old hat or just plain boring by many anglers, rarely getting the credit for its power to attract every species – even carp. “Bread is something that will catch nearly every fish that swims in any venue, whether they have been heavily fished for or not. A chunk of loaf will nail them every time. And it is something I wouldn’t be without through the winter months and into early spring,” said Middy and Old Ghost’s Chris Cameron. So, to put bread firmly back in the angling spotlight, we met Chris on the extremely cold banks of Manor Farm’s Island Pool (www. manorfarmleisure.co.uk), at Harvington, near Evesham, Worcestershire.
Why use bread for carp?
Bread is one of the all-time classic baits that will catch every species that swims, although carp and F1s have a real love of the stuff. But why is it so good? There are a number of reasons. First, being bright white, it is extremely visible and something that the carp will home in on very quickly. Second, it is very cheap and readily available. Another advantage of the common loaf is its versatility. There are many things you can do when fishing with bread. You can use a punched pellet or large chunk of flake on the hook. It can be liquidised or mashed into a lovely groundbait. Bread can even be coloured, flavoured or fished in conjunction with other baits such as maggots, casters, worm or corn. These latter bait mixes are known as cocktail baits and are much loved by carp, tench and bream. Yet another benefit is that it becomes waterlogged and fluffs up, helping to mask the hook as soon as it enters the water. “Bread gets a bad press at times,” said Chris. “The canal guys tend to refer to it as the White Death, because it is very instant, but it will also die just as quickly too. This never seems to happen on commercial waters, though.” One possible reason for this is the high stocking levels of these pools, reckons Chris. The carp are competing with each other for food, so if they don’t eat it, their mate will. Even if they aren’t feeding particularly hard, Chris says he has had bites almost instantly, while his pellet lines lay dormant.
Fishing with bread
As the water was very cold and clear, the 46-year-old Gloucester rod opted for the ‘tip’ rather than the pole. Set-up with a 14g (½oz) Middy bomb on a small carper’s safety clip to ensure a good bolt effect, he aimed to fish with a little finesse to avoid spooking the shy shoals.
“By using a small bomb rather than crashing in a feeder, I find I get quicker bites as the set-up is much more delicate,” he explained. “I use a lighter bomb, which makes less disturbance as it enters the water, but I also keep a tight line to it so that the fish bolt against the quivertip rather than a larger bomb.” The hooklink is around 18in of 0.16mm (5lb 2oz) Middy Lo-Viz to a size 16 KM3 hook. Chris prefers this pattern because it has an out-turned eye. This gives a better presentation when fishing with popped-up baits as the line comes off the hook in a straight line. The hair is completed with a speed stop. For the hookbait, Chris uses two variants. The fifirst is three 10mm punches of bread, taken from a fresh white sliced loaf. Prior to pressing the discs from the punch, he fifirst presses the payload against his fifingertip to heavily compress the discs. “This compression ensures the hookbait sinks well and makes it more robust,” he said. “Once in the water, it will quickly flfluffff up as the bread takes on water.” The second hookbait is to punch out the bread discs but this time he is careful not to squash them at all. This retains the tiny air pockets in the hookbait so it will pop-up. These two variants can be fished singularly or, if Chris feels there is not enough to hold the fish on that given day, he will attach a tiny PVA stick of liquidised bread. Rather than turning to pellets, Chris likes to ‘match the hatch’, making large grape-sized balls of liquidised bread. To make this, use a loaf that is three days old and slightly stale. Remove the crusts and blitz in a liquidiser before freezing the resultant crumb. Once frozen solid, he will liquidise it again. “The result is a much finer and less lumpy loosefeed,” he said. “It will still be a little tacky but not so sticky that it won’t break down quickly in the swim.” These bags can be fished in conjunction with the bread hookbaits but you can go further. A drop of flavour Hailing from a specimen carp background, Chris is a big believer in flavours. “Today, I’m using Kodex’s Ectoplasm as well as a couple of other liquids, to see which works best. The addition of both flflavour and colour will very often get you quicker bites.” Chris either adds it straight on to his hookbait or coats the PVA bag. But, be careful not to use too much because in cold water it will retard the melt-time of the PVA bag. He can then fifish to the same spot all day, building the swim, or cast around to showing fifish or difffferent features because each cast is only feeding a tiny amount. At the end of a particularly diffifficult day, the West Country angler had landed 30lb of carp and F1s. Not bad when you consider his bait bill was barely £1.