The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

This is something that Bill Rushmer has mentioned in various articles over the years. I have done it properly i.e. soaked bread and pressed it overnight but have had as much success with very soggy bread on the hook which has come about by using bread punch ( a big one) and managing to keep the bait on more than one cast. When big roach are in slow/steady water and fussy about taking the bread it is my experience that they will only take this virtual soup, just drinking it in, when normal flake or punch is ignored. It needs the most delicate of casts and avoiding striking at the end of teh cast with a very gentle and smooth retrieve.

What size hook would you mount said piece of soggy punched bread?

It starts as normal punched bread first run through but second cast it's incredibly soggy. I don't try to punch already soggy bread. I've succeeded with it on size 16, 14 and 12 (all roach fishing). I very rarely use smaller than a 16 for bread when roach fishing, my match canal fishing days being long gone, though when I first fished punch it was usually on a 20 or 18. Bill's method was to cut cubes of compressed wet bread. The end result is similar.