How would you like to know how to get your fishing bait on the cheap, from the local supermarket? You can occasionally find some gems tucked away on a shelf at your local supermarket. By the time it gets to late summer most fish would have had enough of the ordinary bait so what if you could go round your local Morrisons or Sainsburys armed with ?10, could you find an alternative. Fishing at ponds in particular and with tench and carp on my mind here are some alternatives that I think would work.
First I came to chickpeas. Dried chickpeas used to be very fashionable carp bait, but now they no longer feature and at 69p they looked a bargain. This time though I was going to go overboard and buy a bottle of oyster sauce. Soak the peas over night, then let them simmer for about an hour, then soak them in the oyster sauce for a day. This makes the peas go a darker colour when soaked.
Next came the baked beans in tomato sauce. Try to find a brand with a high salt content. Forget the healthy choice, fish like their food salty, so I would buy a bag of salt as well and sprinkle on the beans.
Salted peanuts were next on the isle, cashew nuts are also good for carp bait but as I was looking for cheap bait I went with the salted peanuts. Soak the peanuts in salty water for two days, then simmer for about 30 minutes. Attach a couple of whole nuts to your hook, with a mesh bag containing crushed nuts should do the trick.
Tuna flakes in oil.
Tuna flakes in oil as apposed to brine is best as this is good to make a ground from.
This works well for bream so I do not see any reason for not trying it for carp and tench.
Sweet corn.
Sweet corn is just as good for fish as it is for us. Sometimes the bright colours can put the fish off so its always a good idea to have a tin of black cake die. Put a teaspoon of die into the sweet corn and stir in well. Leave over night to soak, This should change the colour and will not scare off the fish.
Dog Chews and Dog Food.
Everyone knows how good dog chews and dog food can be. Frolic is very good for barbell, its very tough so it will stay on the hook when casting. A packet of bacon flavoured dog chews are also a good thing to have in tour bait tin, they can be cut up into small pieces to look like pellets.
Last thing on my list is a tin of dog food, a chicken flavoured large sausage. This could be flavoured up with some spicy curry powder for extra zing.
Well thats it for now, time to put this lot to the test, good luck.
