The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Hi guys pretty much as the title reads. How do you collect natural baits and how do you store them? Thanks.

Pick slugs up on the way to the head of the stretch, drown them on the way back down and release the lucky ones.

I pick up lobworms in spring during rainy nights and keep them in a large flower pot in a shadowy corner of the garden.
In summer I catch grasshoppers and put them into a bottle a few hours before fishing. I put that bottle in the fridge so that the grasshoppers get a little numb. They're much easier to handle that way. You just have to keep them cool. As Marc does it with the slugs, I release the lucky ones after fishing.

Plant this in your garden ...

https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/43739/i-F ... um/Details

Scour your worms or maggots in the chopped leaves and stalks from summer into autumn.

Collect and store the seeds from the many flowers for use in winter and early spring ... but leave a few flower heads for two reasons ... a) it self seeds so it ensures a good crop for next season ... b) for the chaffinches in winter. They love the seeds (and I love the chaffinches).

Getting lobs:- Rainy nights with a head torch - await the tap on your shoulder!

Slugs and snails from the garden or on the bank and store in a bucket with greenery
Lobs off the close mown damp lawn after dark with a dim torch and store in damp moss in a bait box in my bait fridge.
Red worms fro manure heaps and brandlings from the compost bin. Keep them in a bait box of compost.

Thanks guys. All this info is much appreciated.

Hemp and tares from a Seed Merchant. Much cheaper!! Cheap cheap!!

I once spoke to an old chap that used to collect wasp grubs.

He used a spade, a tea spoon tied to the end of a bamboo cane.... and a jar of cyanide powder!

He said he would place a tea spoon of cyanide powder at the entrance to the nest so that the returning wasps would walk it into the hive.
A couple of days later he would return and dig up the grubs once the cyanide had taken effect.

Probably a method best confined to the history books...

As a lad in cash strapped times we would frequently use caddis larvae. Our nearest pond held large numbers of these useful baits and it was interesting to find the variety of colours the grubs came in ranging through pale pinks to yellows and greens.