bait for fishing

Fishing bait April 16, 2024

Fishing live bait, cleaning maggots from sawdust, my first choice for bait

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Maggots are the larvae of flies, typically found in decaying organic material such as food waste or animal carcasses. While maggots might not be everyone’s favorite topic, they play a vital role in the ecosystem by breaking down and recycling organic matter.

When it comes to fishing, many anglers have their go-to techniques and bait preferences. For me, maggots bait has always been my first choice (if, of course, the fishing rules allow their use).

Using maggots as fishing bait is a common and effective practice among anglers. Maggots are known to attract various fish species due to their scent and movement in the water. When using maggots for fishing, it’s essential to keep them fresh and alive until you’re ready to use them. You can store them in a cool, dark place and make sure to use them within a few days of purchase for optimal effectiveness.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – maggots, gross! But before you completely dismiss them, let me share with you why they are my first choice for bait.

First and foremost, maggots are highly effective at attracting fish. They emit a scent that is irresistible to many species, making them a reliable option for bait.

Another reason why I prefer using maggots is that they are easily available. You can find them at most bait and tackle shops

Maggots, on the other hand, are budget-friendly and can be reused for multiple fishing trips, as long as you keep them cool and fresh.

Of course, as with any live bait, there are some downsides to using maggots. They can be messy and require proper storage to keep them fresh and usable.

One of the things I appreciate the most about using maggots as bait is their versatility. They can be used in a variety of ways, such as on a hook, as a dropper, or as part of a bait rig. You can also pair them with other baits, such as worms or corn, to create a bait cocktail that will attract even more fish.

Conclusion

Fishing with live bait adds an extra level of excitement and increases your chances of getting a bite. While there are many live bait options available, maggots cleaned from sawdust are my go-to bait. They are highly effective, easily available, affordable, and versatile. So, the next time you’re out on the water, don’t be afraid to give maggots a try – you might be pleasantly surprised with the results. Happy fishing!

Till next time …

… tight lines and wet landing nets!

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Some of the links in this blog and in our videos may be affiliate links, and pay us a small commission if you use them. We really appreciate the support. Thank you for your support.

This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated. As an eBay Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase.

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Bait making December 30, 2022

How I make fishing paste, Fishy Stinky Hook Bait

Reading Time: < 1 minute

In this video, I’m going to show you how I make simple fishing stinky fishy hook bait paste. This recipe is perfect for making bait that attracts fish, and it’s easy to make!

The ingredients for the paste can be replaced with ingredients you already have at home (groundbait, bread, etc.). I don’t weigh the ingredients to make the paste, because I make it from the ingredients I currently have at home.

Watch this video to learn how to make it!

Till next time …

… tight lines and wet landing nets!

Author: Marina Kropec

Disclosure – Some of the links in this blog and in our videos may be affiliate links, and pay us a small commission if you use them. We really appreciate the support. Thank you for your support .

THANK YOU for all of your support, for visiting my blog, commenting, and sharing my posts with your friends and social media.

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Carp Fishing July 9, 2022

How To Prepare and Cook Hemp seeds (industrial) for Fishing

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Excellent natural bait for the vast majority of fish

Preparation:

Soak hemp seed covered with water for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, put the seeds covered with water in a pan and boil
Simmer for approximately 30 minutes.
Hemp seeds are cooked when most of the seeds have split and when little white shoots are seen.
The seeds are now ready for fishing.

Hemp is a great way to attract fish (carp, roach, bream, barbel, tench, chub, …) any time of the year.

Some Facts About Hemp – Seeds

Hemp is the common term for a variety of plants in the Cannabis family.
Hemp and its seeds have been used for thousands of years by various cultures.
- Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5000 years in China, although hemp industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.
Hemp has the potential to replace plastic material.
One of the most important hemp seed benefits is its high quantity of proteins.
Hemp is incredibly sustainable.
Hemp seed food products are also considered more allergy-free than many other seeds.
Hemp seeds are high in nutritional value and contain 20 different varieties of amino acids and all nine of the essential amino acids.
Hemp and marijuana are not the same.
It was legal to pay taxes with hemp in America from 1631 until the early 1800s. (LA Times. Aug. 12, 1981.)
Refusing to grow hemp in America during the 17th and 18th centuries was against the law.
For thousands of years, 90% of all ships’ sails and rope were made from hemp.
Henry Ford’s first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the car itself was constructed from hemp.
In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs. (U.S. Department of Agriculture Archives.)
80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc., were made from hemp until the 1820s, with the introduction of the cotton gin.

Hemp seeds can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days (3 to 5 days maximum) or frozen and taken out of the chest when you need them for fishing.

Natural protein fishing bait.

When the hemp seeds are cooked there is no need to add anything as the seeds are already attractive enough for fish (high in proteins, natural oils, feed stimulators and attractants).

I most often add hemp oil to the warm seeds for even more attraction.

Conclusion

Cooked seeds can be used in spod mix, a great addition to ground bait mix, hook bait, It can be used on its own, etc.

My opinion is that this is one of the very rare baits that you can cook in your wife’s kitchen (talk to your wife first anyway 😉) without stinking up the kitchen with unpleasant aromas, such as cooking chickpeas, corn, fish meal boilies with the aroma of squid, octopus, liver, monster crab and so on.

The smell of cooked seeds is very pleasant, no wonder fish love it.

Natural fishing bait: How to soak, cook and dip chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

Till next time …

… tight lines and wet landing nets!

Author: Marina Kropec

Disclosure – if you buy anything using links found in this blog post, I may make a small commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links – and please feel entirely free not to do so of course – but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you for your support .

THANK YOU for all of your support, for visiting my blog, commenting, and sharing my posts with your friends and social media.

This video was not paid for by outside persons or manufacturers.

No fishing tackle or bait or anything was supplied to me for this video.

The content of this video, photos and my opinions were not reviewed or paid for by any outside persons.

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Bait making June 30, 2021

How to cook Chocolate Corn / Maize for fishing I Old School Carp Bait I Easy and Cheap

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Dry corn / maize

First, the corn / maize had to be peeled the old-fashioned way, by hand.

The corn / maize is now peeled and ready to soak in water.

Soaking dry corn / maize

To soak the corn / maize, it is necessary to cover the corn with a few inches of water (tap water or lake water) . Corn / maize should be soaked for at least 24 hours to 30 hours or more.

I soaked the corn for 24 hours in a warm place. I strained the corn before cooking and drained the water (I will not use this water anymore).

Cooking soaked corn / maize

In my case, I poured water on the corn / maize in which I cooked the boilies. If you do not have this water, pour clean water from a tap or lake.

Now the corn / maize is ready for cooking.

Stir several times during cooking.

When the corn / maize started to cook I added one packet of instant hot chocolate powder and mixed everything together.

For an extra chocolate flavor I added 2 small bars of chocolate.

About an hour of cooking (on low heat)

If the corn / maize is cooked, check it by squeezing it between two fingers. it is cooked when you can squeeze it very easily.

Now the corn is cooked. Turn off the stove and cover the pot. It is best to leave the corn / maize in the pot for at least a few hours or better until the next day.

Corn / maize is ready for fishing

Till next time …

…… tight lines and wet nets!

Author: Marina Kropec

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THANK YOU for all of your support, for visiting my blog, commenting, and sharing my posts with your friends and social media. I am SO thankful for you!

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Disclosure – if you buy anything using links found in this blog post, I may make a small commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links – and please feel entirely free not to do so of course – but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

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Coarse Fishing November 3, 2020

Free live bait from soil: Common Earthworm – the easiest way to catch

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Some basic information about common earthworm:

Latin name: Lumbricus terrestris
Also the name used as night crawler (feeding above ground at night).
Diet: Herbivore (leaves, decaying roots, living organisms – protozoans, rotifers, bacteria, fungi in soil)
Size: Up to 38 cm / 15 inches
Weight: Up to 11gr / 0.40 ounces
Earthworms don’t have lungs; they breathe through their skin.
Earthworms have five “hearts” that pump blood through their bodies.
Worms are hermaphrodite – both male and female.
They lay eggs every 7-10 days.
Worm eggs are called cocoons.
Worms can produce 1000 babies in 6 months.
Baby worms hatch out after 7 days.
Worms die quickly when they get dry.
Earthworms provide a principal food source for various wildlife including birds, reptiles, insects, fish and more.

First step: preparation

in these times when there are restrictions on movement outside municipalities (depending on the country) and thus more or less impossible to buy live baits in fishing shops (usually live baits are not sent by mail) it is necessary to use good old techniques to find earthworms and other baits. This technique is of course very difficult to use if you live in a city or do not have access to meadows, fields and the like. But if you have this option as I have, I highly recommend it because you can collect enough earthworms in a bad hour (especially if it was raining the day before) for a few hours or even the whole day of fishing.

You just need it:

bucket
shovel or spade or garden perennial fork

First you gather a few leaves to cover the bottom of the bucket. However, you can put straw or something similar at the bottom of the bucket instead of leaves (ue to the absorption of excess moisture and liquid from the soil). It is true that earthworms like moist soil but too wet does not suit them either.

A shovel is required for this worm-catching technique.

Put soil on the leaves (the best soil is molehill because it is loosened).

I found the first earthworm and haven’t started looking for them yet. They obviously adore loosened earth, even though they are food for moles.

Another fresh bunch of mole hill.

The bucket is ready for new residents.

Second step: catch earthworms

Now follows a very simple process to get the worms out of the ground: you push the shovel into the ground and then push it back and forth at least 20x times. You repeat this to cause vibrations in the soil around the shovel, which you can of course feel yourself.

Earthworms usually come out of the ground very quickly. when the earthworms no longer come out of the ground just move a few meters forward or go to another meadow and repeat the process.

If earthworms are in the area they come to the surface soon. Longer and thicker earthworms take a little longer to get out of the soil (if they are in the area, of course).

Patience is needed here if we want to catch larger earthworms, otherwise smaller earthworms are caught faster. For fishing smaller fish such as roach, perch, common bleak, rudd, dace, gudgeon, … smaller and thinner earthworms are most suitable for bait.

They usually crawl out of the ground very quickly and also quickly hide back in it.

Earthworms need to be picked up as soon as they come to the surface because otherwise they will hide back into the ground.

Photo / video equipment I use in my work: 👇

Some of the earthworms were really huge. Suitable for fishing larger species of fish such as carp, bass, barbel, catfish, eel, chub, ….

A delicious protein bite that fish can’t give up not to eat.

Earthworms hide underground very quickly.

In the end it is necessary to cover the soil with grass to prevent the soil from drying out.

When you have finished collecting earthworms, store the bucket in a dark and cool place. I recommend that you do not keep earthworms in the bucket for more than 7 days (in the meantime it is also necessary to take care of soil moisture – light spraying with water at least once a day).

Earthworms do not escape from the bucket but it is better to cover the bucket with a net or something similar (it is important that air circulation is enabled at all times, otherwise the earthworms will die).

If you want to have earthworms available for a longer period of time or to cultivate them, it is necessary to provide them with a much larger living space and, of course, food. This type of earthworm cultivation (also different types of earthworms) is called vermiculture.

Baits are ready for fishing

If you are limited only to movement in your municipality and fishing is of course allowed in it (subject to all safety rules of course) there is almost always some small pond or stream to be found. Sometimes even very small ponds and extremely narrow and shallow streams hide fish that you don’t even see at first glance. It is true that in most fish these are smaller species (roach, rudd, chub, perch, …), but what could be nicer than an hour or more to enjoy nature and at the same time breathe fresh air and catch a fish or two maybe more, try it you won’t be sorry.

Till next time …

Tight lines and wet nets!

THANK YOU for all of your support, for visiting my blog, commenting, and sharing my posts with your friends and social media. I am SO thankful for you!

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Disclosure – if you buy anything using links found in this blog post, I may make a small commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links – and please feel entirely free not to do so of course – but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

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Bait making April 9, 2020

How do I make boilie base mix – Part 1

Reading Time: 3 minutes

in this post I write how I prepare my base mix for boilies and recipe. I always mix boilie base mix at least one week (usually one month) before making boilies. I do this to give the mix a special scent from all the ingredients. But of course this is not absolutely necessary and you can skip this step. This is my method of preparation, but of course you can upgrade it to your own, as this is also the charm of making your own boilie base mixes.

You can use different flours and other ingredients in boilie base mixes. At the beginning of making your own boilie base mixes, it is important not to buy expensive ingredients (at least not in quantity) and I recommend that you focus on making simple recipes. Simple recipes mean that base mix consist of 3 to 5 ingredients that are more or less available at the grocery store and of course they catch fish.

Boilie base mix described in this post does not fall into the category of simple mixes, but you can try using some of the ingredients in your mixes or use my recipe described below. Because I make boilies by hand I do not use a boilie sausage gun (i had it and i sold it) and I also very rarely use boilie roller. So I don’t know how this mix works with these tools for making boilies.

**Buckwheat flour, polenta, blood powder (purified)**

Brewer's yeast, krill meal (antarctic), herring meal — **Brewer’s yeast powder, krill meal (antarctic), herring meal**

**Bird seeds mix, Supergold 60 (60% maize protein), the final mix**

Boilie base mix recipe

Recipe for one kilogram (1000 gram/gm/g) boilie base mix.

Polenta: 38% or 380g or 13.4 ounce or 0.84 pound
Buckwheat flour: 20% or 200g or 7.1 ounce or 0.44 pound
Supergold 60 (60% maize protein): 20% or 200g or 7.1 ounce or 0.44 pound
Bird seeds mix (: 7% or 70g or 2.5 ounce or 0.15 pound
Krill meal (antartic): 5% or 50g or 1.8 ounce or 0.11 pound
Herring meal: 5% or 50g or 1.8 ounce or 0.11 pound
Blood powder (purified): 3% or 30g or 1.1 ounce or 0.07 pound
Brewer’s yeast: 2% or 20g or 0.7 ounce or 0.04 pound

Conclusion

The combinations of ingredients to make a boilie base mix are enormous. All you have to do is research and test different ingredients to make the bait stand out from the competition. Most importantly, keep the ingredients in a cool, dark place and I recommend buying the ingredients as much as you need. Old, moldy, rotten and expired flour and other ingredients are not suitable for fish and aquatic life (you probably wouldn’t eat it yourself).

Disclosure – if you buy anything using links found in this blog post, I may make a small commission. It doesn’t cost you any more to buy via these affiliate links – and please feel entirely free not to do so of course – but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.

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Carp Fishing January 24, 2020

How to make pop up boilie, home made

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Nowadays when fishing shop are more or less very stocked with a variety of carp fishing bait (pop up boilie, wafters, ready made boilies, hook pellet, frozen boilies, dumbell,…) today many people do not even think about doing the bait themselves.

Are we always satisfied with the carp fishing bait purchased at the fishing shop? My opinion and answer is no.

In my test I used a basic pop up mix to make pop – up boilies. But I added quite a few other ingredients to this basic mix. I can’t write recipe for this pop – up boilie mix, because unfortunately i just tried something without measuring the exact weight in grams. I know my mistake, which I will correct and write in the near future.

But I can write the names of the dry ingredients I added to the basic mix and you can try it for yourself:

krill powder (additional buoyancy), squid extrat, strawberry flavour powder, cork granules, betaine powder, Green Lipped Mussel Extract ( GLM ), blood powder, robin red , kelp powder

I’ve added quite a few ingredients, but you don’t have to use everything in your mix. I like to try different ingredients so my mixes are sometimes very extreme.

Video How to make pop up boilie on my YouTube channel, to watch the video click below ??????:

Equipment for making pop up boilies:

fork, mixing bowl, towel or kitchen cloth, saucepan, kitchen mesh strainers or similar to capture boilies from boiling water, boilie rolling table or your hands ?

The first step is to crack one egg (or more, depending on the amount of pop up mix).

Mix the egg well. Air bubbles improve the buoyancy of a pop up boilies.

Liquid additives (flavour, sweetener, preservative, …) are added to the egg. In my egg I added the liquid flavor of pineapple.

Mix all the liquid ingredients together.

Slowly add the dry mix, but not all at once.

I added too little mix so it looks liquid, so i add some dry mix.

Better to slowly add the mix until the paste is compact and no longer sticks to your hands.

The pop up boilie paste is made and I left the paste for about 24 hours. Otherwise, about 30 minutes is sufficient for the ingredients to bind and absorb the liquid.

Boilie I made by hand, without the use of bait rolling table and extrusion guns (even with such a small amount, this is not necessary).

The water is already boiling and the boilies are ready for cooking.

Pop up boilies should be placed in boiling water and in such a quantity that the water does not cool when placed in boiling water (that the water is still hot and quickly starts to boil again).

Boil for 1 – 3 min, depending on the size of the boilies (the larger the diameter of the boilies, the longer they boil). In my case they boiling for 1 – 2 min.

Place cooked on towel to cool and dry. Do not load boilies on top of each other, it is very important to cool them as soon as possible.

The pop up boilies will now dry about 3 – 4 days. Because there are no preservatives in boilies they will be stored in the freezer.
If you want harder pop – up boilies they need to be dried longer (at least 3 – 8 days). The drying time of the boilies also depends on the mix itself, the cooking time, the air temperature, egg size, moisture, … .

There is something special about catching carp on a boilie of your own making. It is true that it takes quite a bit of research and search for ingredients in different stores (fishing and grocery stores), but when you hear that beep and see the curved tip of the fishing rod, at that moment all the effort is paid off.

Till next time …

… tight lines and wet landing nets!

If you would like to use content from the Fishing Religion website (in whole or in part), please add a link to the contribution on our site in your post.

Disclosure

Some of the links in this blog and in our videos may be affiliate links, and pay us a small commission if you use them. We really appreciate the support. Thank you for your support.

This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated. As an eBay Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase. As an Amazon UK Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase.

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