The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I notice that some of the local roach gurus do extraordinary things to their ground bait. The basic mix seems to be 50% molehill and 50% brown crumb. Thereafter there may be a sprinkling of casters and / or maggots, and chopped red worms in my case. But then the magic ingredient is added! It could be vanilla essence, chocolate flavours, liquidised sweet corn and many more things beside.

I've always kept things simple but there is no doubt that some of these guys do catch big roach more consistently than me. Mind you I had three for just under five pounds yesterday.....any advice please?

Mayonnaise made using hemp oil. Just smear a tad on the hook bait.

Turmeric is supposed to be good for roach...

As Harry said, Turmeric or curry powder.

Crushed hemp from dynamite,other brands are available.

Thanks a lot gentlemen - flavouring is new ground for me. I watch the match men mixing up all sorts of expensive proprietary brands such as Gross Gardons and I can imagine that you have try and compete with anglers around you to be successful. I just pleasure fish and rarely have other anglers nearby - turmeric - I could nick a jar of that from Shaz's kitchen - she's in Goa this week.....
How much do you put In , for say a kilo of dry crumb and soil please?

Thank you Kevin - why cant I just crush my own hemp, what's special about Dynamite please?

Interestingly, Winter League match man Jamie Robbins (see his videos) gave me 5 kilos of ground bait last week, that was how much he had left over AFTER the match. I've never taken 5 kilos of anything BEFORE fishing. I'm just a cheapskate I suppose.

Anyway, this 5 kilos last me four trips this week and yesterday I was using the last of it. 50% brown crumb, 50% Bait Tech(?) and the whole bag stunk of aniseed. In a favourite perch swim I used this ground bait as a carrier for maggots and red worms. After an hour or so I'd had one perch and annoyingly 'bumped' two others so as dusk approached I swapped the float feeder arrangement for a straight slider in order to trot through. That's when I had the three roach for just under 5lb, all on lobworm.

Conclusions? - there aren't any.....

Troydog
You could crush your own,probably have more oil in it.
One conclusion is Richard Walkers advice for lobworms for big roach still works.

Aniseed