Using my Loaf!

[Mole-Patrol]

Since coming to France I have been really disappointed with the results when fishing or baiting with bread. One instance we were at a place called Villecomtal where there was a river running past the camping car aire. There were plenty of chub visible, but none would take the pieces of bread being drifted down to them. Another situation at St. Savin where a shoal of chub in the Gartempe river totally ignored small pieces of bread for over half an hour of constant baiting. Once I threw in a small ball of blue cheese they fought over it. On a large lake near to where I live I watched a carp feeding on the bottom for about ten minutes whilst totally ignoring the bread flake that was laying on the lake bed. The last time that I caught a fish on bread was in Spain! No problem with their local loaves.

Recently I have been giving this some thought and I reckon that there is something missing in the local bread - yeast. The boulangiers all seem to use chemicals to raise the dough so the bread doesn't taste the same as that made with yeast. I add yeast to my groundbait mix by allowing it to go off slightly until it smells of fermentation and that really works well. Going back to carp fishing prehistory they advocated using Pomateg in boilie recipes and that has a yeast base. I sometimes coat luncheon meat with Marmite and that works well. More yeast. Marmite also goes in one of my cheese paste recipes for winter fishing and the cheese has its own yeast like bacteria within it.

So, this year I am determined to make the best use of bread by baking my own and then freezing batches to use when margin fishing. Instead of wheat flour I intend to make the bread from a mixture of maize and wheat flours and use well fermented yeast rather than baking powder.

Hopefully I can avoid the bread blanks.

[Liphook]

Interesting Clive! I'll certainly be interested to hear how this develops. I've always had faith in a touch of marmite as a bait additive even though I can't stand the stuff myself. Another additive I've always gone back to for any cyprinid species is powdered liver.

[Olly]

I personally found that the American white sliced loaf from the Hyper U was the only bread of any sort I got any bites on. Like you I was amazed it was not that successful. Sweetcorn, worms or asticots being much better, although pellet was a great attractor for bream!

[Troydog]

Very interesting since bread is so highly regarded in the UK. Vive la France....

[Mole-Patrol]

The Kennedys white sliced loafs are good for forming flake onto the hook. French bread found in baguettes and pains tends to be too coarse and dry. But I suspect that the American bread is also made using chemical leveur as the texture is too even, and they are mass produced, both of which points to baking powder being the raising agent.

I'm looking out for a bread making machine at the charity shop and make a few loaves up to freeze. The other thing that I have thought about is adding powdered yeast to bread paste and groundbait to save having the two or three day fermentation process.

[Luga00]

This last year I've been making sourdough bread regularly. I keep a sourdough starter on the go at all times. Very strong, pungent and packed with yeast culture, I mixed some into a paste and caught two carp at the local backwater in Autumn last year. I have to say that it was the only bait I had taken with me on the day so can't really say definitively that I caught due to the yeasty nature of it or if I was just lucky. One thing is for sure though, the bites were savage and I'll be experimenting with it again when the season starts, maybe mix it into cheesepaste or make a kind of sauce as a dip for bread flake etc. All good fun!
Russ

[Coral Maestro]

I've used "Harry's" sliced white bread in France with some success but I agree that it's not as productive as you would expect. I tried baiting several swims with bread mash on the Vezere then fishing them in rotation but only a couple of skimmers were interested. I have caught barbel and carp on french supermarket bread but I'd prefer a loaf of Warburton's best if given the choice.
Regarding Marmite, I made up some boilies with Marmite as the main flavouring as I figured that the fish wouldn't have seen it before on the lakes I fish in France. I had a 39-14 mirror carp from a 700 acre barrage and a 48-10 mirror from an 8 acre public lake that was heavily fished by the locals so it can be a very successful additive.

[Olly]

"Harrys" that's the one - flake or punched.

[Coral Maestro]

The Kennedys white sliced loafs are good for forming flake onto the hook. French bread found in baguettes and pains tends to be too coarse and dry. But I suspect that the American bread is also made using chemical leveur as the texture is too even, and they are mass produced, both of which points to baking powder being the raising agent.

I'm looking out for a bread making machine at the charity shop and make a few loaves up to freeze. The other thing that I have thought about is adding powdered yeast to bread paste and groundbait to save having the two or three day fermentation process.

This is the one we've been using since coming to France:

It's been used every 2 to 3 days for the last 3 years and produces consistent results:

[Mole-Patrol]

Thank you for the recommendation

I am hoping to get one from the charity shop for a lot less dough than a new one would cost