Weirdest baits?

[Nigel Rainton]

I tried wine gums for trout in a stream.

[Catfish.017]

I tried wine gums for trout in a stream.

There was a chap in our club back in the late Sixties who when asked what bait he was using would reply Green Fruitgums! He was a formidable Sea Angler but his 'Coarse' credentials were less than memorable. Occasionally he would be drafted into a club team for a competition and almost always caught little of any note. He always blamed a hole in his keep net on these outings! Though as they say 'every Dog has his Day and Pongo's(his nickname) arrived one day on a much swollen Wye when he won an Angling Times Winter League match with two big Chub taken on Cheesepaste.

[Liphook]

I have a friend who used 'liquorice all sorts' (a brand of candy as you would call it lasgair) to catch whiting from a local pier - he tried them in jest to deliberately try and avoid the attentions of the ravaging small 'pin' whiting, but it was one of those flat calm nights when even a bare hook would have caught the wee blighters! I know that vodka is a useful additive in fishmeal paste baits in colder water temperatures. The strangest baits I've personally come across are probably the American trout paste baits that glow in the dark and have glitter in them! Oh and the pork rind salamander shaped lures!

[Old Man River]

Here You Go Breadflake .....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TRV96u146PI

OMR

[Kev D]

I succumbed to a day at a commercial fishery with my Son in Law and the Grand-children. I thought that as is was one of those places stocked with weird artificial and ornamental species I might as well enter the spirit of the place so I set my sights on catching one of the catfish it was famed for. Meat ,apparently,was a foolproof bait.
I took this literally and being a keen ferreter provisioned myself with chunks of one of the many rabbits I had in the freezer.
I didn't catch a catfish but I did catch a one-eyed pike of about six pounds and several carp. .In fact it worked so well for carp that I would confidently use it again.

[Kev D]

It was actually a good day. Apart from my Grandson catching a carp while tiddler snatching with his Poundland rod we saw Keith Arthur and someone else famous (possibly Peter Cockerill,I can't remember) catching carp on fly rods and another angler have his rod pulled in . He managed to retrieve it complete with a mini catfish. It was a fun day but also reminded me of why commercials are not really for me.
But you could be onto something Breadflake. Maybe I should've tried a paste made from fois de gras and truffles.

[Aitch]

I've used a lot of odd baits.. chewed opal fruits, jelly babies, jelly tots, marmite coated boilies, cheese and marmite paste....

[Duckett]

In a book I have somewhere there is a tale of late 18th century London anglers using human fat as bait. The source was claimed as the corpses of executed felons once they had been dissected by surgeons. Sadly, the tale isn’t referenced and the cynic in me says it’s made up. However, given some of the referenced things I’ve read about 18th Century London, I have an uncomfortable feeling ............

[Olly]

I believe minced meat in a paste was in the "The Compleat Angler" book?

I have caught on a cigarette butt - looked like a piece of crust! Once tried in a stupid pool of tame carp & goldfish who would eat or try to ----- anything!

I sometimes see minced/cubed steak being sold cheaply (just before sell by date) and often put in the freezer for chub fishing.

[Aitch]

Groundbait lace with minced beef was a good bait for chub on the thames with slivers of stewing steak on the hook... t'was a wee while ago now though