Obviously, if you are going to spend time pre

Obviously, if you are going to spend time pre-baiting a river there is no point in using a bait that is commonly in use by others. In the past I have had great success using 8mm trout pellets as my winter chub bait, but it has been noticeable that catches fall away when the water temperature really falls. Different types of pellet have really become popular in the last year or so and so it is getting more difficult to find naÔve fish to use them on. This year I will concentrate my efforts into boilies. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, from talking from more experienced anglers than myself I know these baits can work very well all winter long. Secondly, it is easy to make a bait which is going to be different to anything else being introduced simply by changing the flavour and colour of the bait. I must admit I am a great fan of green and blue baits, simply because very few anglers ever use them. How many ready-mades are green? Not many, simply because humans prefer to use red and orange baits. Now, the fish donít seem to show the same preference so why should I? When it comes to flavours there is again a great deal of information in bait company literature about what does and doesnít work in winter. I have been given a couple of ideas by friends, so I am honour bound not to divulge those, but believe me, there are a good number of very good winter flavours available so you should find no trouble in creating a bait that the fish will take. Although there has been a lot of rubbish talked about baits, a good bait will not need to be pre-baited before the fish will take it. If they like the smell of it then they will take it from the first session. I also tend to test out my baits on anything else that will eat them. Feed a little bit to the ducks, if they eat it then I am confident that the fish will also find it acceptable. These little extra confidence boosters are really important when you first start making your own baits, as it is very easy to go back to the same old ready-mades. Most baits these days are well researched and will come with guidelines on their use. I tend to use about half the stated dose of flavour, as I have found this the best for a long term response. Some people may suggest using higher flavour levels in their hook baits, but this seems contradictory to me, particularly when pre-baiting. What I want are my baits to be taken with the same gusto as the free-offerings and the simplest way to do this is to take them from the same batch. For some reason chub, like most coarse fish, show a marked preference for milk protein baits in winter. Why this should be I really donít know. It cannot just be taste, as they would eat them in summer as well. Perhaps it is the low fat content of such baits and high protein signal which makes them more attractive?

Rather than pretend that I know the answer, I will say that this is the type of bait that I, and many others, now use in winter. Although itís nice to know why something works, I am not that bothered as long as it does work! Although milk protein baits were at one stage incredibly complicated, I am now quite happy to use a simple mix of casein and sodium or calcium caseinate as the bulk of the bait, with perhaps a small amount of baby milk, or animal starter milk added to give it a little more taste. This catches me plenty of fish without the need for other expensive ingredients.