Baits
Blood Worm,
Blood Worm are the larvae of the midge, found naturally in most ponds and canals they are a good winter time bait, but check the rules of where you are fishing first as they are banned at a lot of places.
Boilies,
Boilies are high protein baits, many of which offer carp good sources of quality food, they come in many flavours and colours, they can be purchased from any good tackle shop, good for carp and tench, bream will also take boilies.
Bread,
Bread is a good bait for most course fish, roach, rudd, tench, gudgeon, carp, bream, chub, they will all take bread, there are many different ways to present bread as a bait, (see main tips page for ways to present bread), floating bread in the warmer months for carp is by far the most fun.
Casters
Casters are the larvae of the house fly and blue bottle, half way between a maggot and a fly, a good all round bait that can produce good nets of fish, they can be purchased at any good tackle shop.
Chick Peas
Chick Peas are a particle bait that need to be prepared before use, (see particle preparation times on main tips page), a good carp bait when hair rigged, and they add a nice nutty aroma to ground bait when mashed up, available at any good supermarket.
Chum Mixer
Chum Mixers are a great bait for carp, used as a floating bait in the warmer months when the carp are cruising the surface, they should be soaked when being used as hookbaits as this softens them which makes hooking them easier.
Groundbait
Groundbait is a mixture of various ingredients, ground to a fine powder and mixed together, usually with a high percentage of bread crumb or fishmeal content, a good addition to any days fishing in the summer, but use it less in the winter.
Joker
Joker, very similar to Blood Worm, used on canals in the winter.
Kidney Beans
Kidney Beans, as with Chick Peas are a particle bait and need to be prepared, good for carp, can be found in all good supermarkets.
Maggots,
Maggots are the larva of common house fly's and blue bottles,
they are a good all round bait that any fish will find irresistable,
reds seem to work best on most waters and are the most commonly used, they can be purchased from any good tackle shop.
Meat
There are lots of different types of meat that can be used for bait, Luncheon Meat is by far one of the most popular ones, pepparami is also a good one, they can both be hair rigged for carp fishing, or presented on the hook, available at most general stores.
Pellets
Pellets are usually made from fishmeal and range in shapes and sizes, they can be hair rigged or pellet bands can be used, you can also buy soft hooker pellets, good for carp, barble, bream and tench, but a lot of fish will feed on pellets, available from all good tackle shops.
Pop Ups
Pop Ups are bouyant boilies, they float instead of sitting on the bottom, they range in colour but are usually bright, pineapple is popular at the moment.
Sweetcorn
Sweetcorn is a good bait for most course fish, big roach and rudd like it, carp and tench love it, so do many other fish, it can be hair rigged or presented on the hook, it can also be easily flavoured, (see main tips page for details of how to flavour sweetcorn), it can be purchased from any supermarket for less than 30p.
Worms
Worms are the cheapest bait of all if you own a garden, simply dig them up, compost heaps are also a great source of worms, they can also be purchased from any good tackle shop and are good for most course fish, but are very good for big perch.
