Silkweed

This is the place to discuss the fishing baits.
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N9nty
Roach
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Silkweed

Post by N9nty »

Has anyone ever caught a fish using this bait? All the old books recommend it, just drag a hook through the silkweed or wrap some on a hook and it is supposed to a first class bait for all sorts of fish. I have tried it many times (when the fish were taking other baits and in weir pools and other places where the weed is found before someone asks) and have never had a bite. I have observed fish close to silkweed and never seen a fish feeding on it,

John :Brickwall:
The older I get the better I was.

Stuart Whiting

Re: Silkweed

Post by Stuart Whiting »

Hi there,

This may be of some use pictured below, silk weed was mainly used when roach anglers used to fish the Thames weir pools many years ago but it wasn't so much as the weed being the food source it was more a case of what was in it :Wink:
Have a read through and it'll explain a little more,

Using the weed as a hook bait does still work at times but obviously in the right conditions and waters etc but is hardly practiced nowadays as there is such an array of baits used now that a lot of fish in fisheries seem to just tune into anglers baits a lot of the time :Hat:

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RBTraditional
Catfish
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Re: Silkweed

Post by RBTraditional »

Kev and I used it when we were lads during the hot sumer of 76 on a big weir pool on the Medway. The river was low and there was little flow, which enabled us to stand on the cill bare foot and hold our baited hooks in the oxygenated water and from memory we did quite well that summer with roach and dace using this method and bait, funnily enough the subject came up over a pint the other evening. We've not tried it since though...
" Angling is not an escape from life, but often a deeper immersion into it..."

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Stuart Whiting

Re: Silkweed

Post by Stuart Whiting »

RBTraditional wrote:Kev and I used it when we were lads during the hot sumer of 76 on a big weir pool on the Medway. The river was low and there was little flow, which enabled us to stand on the cill bare foot and hold our baited hooks in the oxygenated water and from memory we did quite well that summer with roach and dace using this method and bait, funnily enough the subject came up over a pint the other evening. We've not tried it since though...
Happy days and memories hey :Thumb:

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Dave Burr
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Re: Silkweed

Post by Dave Burr »

Autumn in the weir pools was silkweed time and a very good bait it is too.

Mind you, it works elsewhere. A mate of mine was fishing in Spain a few years ago when the barbel refused to bite. he trotted some silkweed and caught the only fish of the day.

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Olly
Wild Carp
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Re: Silkweed

Post by Olly »

Penton Hook on the Thames is the only place I ever used it - back in 196? - !

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GhyllManor
Grayling
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Re: Silkweed

Post by GhyllManor »

Olly wrote:Penton Hook on the Thames is the only place I ever used it - back in 196? - !

I tried it a few times on the Molesey weir, also back in the 60's, without much success!!

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Shropshire Lad
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Re: Silkweed

Post by Shropshire Lad »

Hi,
I tried it last week on Pangbourne weir on the Thames whilst on a river day with Steve Roberts and caught a roach on it, had some other bites that were very quick and difficult to connect with, but a summer method I shall be using again.

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Dave Burr
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Re: Silkweed

Post by Dave Burr »

Shropshire Lad wrote: Wed Jul 19, 2017 7:44 pm Hi,
I tried it last week on Pangbourne weir on the Thames whilst on a river day with Steve Roberts and caught a roach on it, had some other bites that were very quick and difficult to connect with, but a summer method I shall be using again.
If you try it again can I suggest you use a heavy float. I used to use a great Harcork float with all my split shot under it and it was still barely cocked yet those roach would drag it under like a pike does a bung so no 'quick' bites were missed..... or seen. I recall watching a John Wilson film from err? somewhere abroad, where he used a double hook rig for roach - one baited with lob the other bread or was it silkweed? :Confused: - anyway, the float was like an old pike Pilot float and the roach dragged that under with aplomb. Maybe not go quite so extreme but food for thought :Hat:

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Tengisgol
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Re: Silkweed

Post by Tengisgol »

I've had roach literally bang the rod top over at distance when trotting bread on the Avon. They can be very violent biters.

As for silkweed as a bait, it always struck me as something that old angling writers may have used to fill pages as opposed to being a killer bait...give me a gentle, worm or bread any day! (or even better in 2017, hemp and caster!)
Where the willows meet the water...

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