38 simple ways to improve your bait

1 Need to harden your hookbaits? Soak them for a few days in glycerine, which is available from your local chemist.

2 Try rock salt or celery salt instead of table salt to season particles. For a big edge add cider vinegar – more the better.

3 Getting plagued by crays? Then try Hair rigging some garlic capsules next to your hookbait. It’ll keep them away and add attraction to your hookbait for the carp.

4 Try using cod roe as an alternative to a fish additive in your Stick mix. You can get away using it neat, straight out of the can with thick mesh PVA.

5 Give your plastic (artificial) baits an edge: soak them in a sweetener or a sweet sweetcorn extract (Nashbait’s is brilliant), they love it.

6 If you want an alternative bait soak for the winter, then look no further than to Solar’s Candy Sweetener or DT Bait’s Fruit LMPSE. The longer you leave your hookbait, be it a boilie, particle or plastic, the better they will become!

7 Another alternative way to fish single hookbaits or just boost attraction around your bait is to use the Richworth capsules in conjunction with their special leads. Use a dye in the attractor to add a visual cloud.

8 Try a total liquid stick with natural water-soluble attractors such as Richworth’s Aqua-Stim or DT Baits DNA Fish Pro. You’ll need to use a solid PVA tubing system to do this with ease.

9 If you are fishing short sessions try cutting your boilie in half and then fish them back-to-back. It offers better attractor diffusion and a different hookbait shape.

10 With the colder weather coming, look at trying the fast dissolve Richworth range of paste in a tub. A wide range of attractive ingredients, made even better when mixed with water-soluble natural attractors.

11 Don’t forget the bread and sweetcorn. Liquidise the bread into a fluffy crumb, add a good helping of rock salt and corn and you’ve got a brilliant visual attractor in the PVA Stick. Alternatively use Solar’s Growler Juice instead of the salt.

12 Don’t throw away your wine corks. The new style synthetic corks used today are excellent for Zig Rigs or balancing out your hookbaits.

13 Tutti Frutti might be one of the best winter attractors out there, but invariably it is always placed on an orange base mix. Why not change the colour to something different?

14 At this time of the year, white baits can be an excellent colour for a late autumn, early winter bite or if you can get it, try something in blue.

15 Want an extra edge? Then stick a few attractor baits in with your normal boilies; it’s surprising the difference it can make.

16 On a short session? Then get hold of some DT Baits Coldwater base mix, make it into a paste and then sit back and watch all those water-soluble additives do their job.

17 Got issues with getting a soft boilie out in the throwing stick? Just soak them for a couple of days in soluble fish protein. This will make them go rock hard and attractive.

18 Try rolling some damp boilies in neat Betaine to give you an added pull.

19 Want a hookbait with a serious difference? Then form your hookbait paste around a Sugar Puff and then boil. The puff will then melt and you have a hollow cavity into which you can inject additional attractors for single hookbaits.

20 Make your own hookbaits? Then give this concoction a go: essential oil of black pepper with N-Butyric Acid and a fruit ester based flavour. A seriously good combination.

21 Add attraction around your hookbait without feeding by using foam-impregnated feeders soaked in natural food attractors. Fox do a good range of these types of feeders and sell them in a variety of sizes.

22 Still want some form of small feed items out by the hookbait? Then give the liquidised bread a go, or try CC Moore’s Milkimin Pellets.”

23 Fishing over chod, but don’t want to use a Chod Rig? Then why not use long braided hooklinks with paste discs? By using this method, it means everything will gently sit on top of the debris offering you a good visual presentation.

24 If you are fishing with maggots, then make sure there is a good helping of dead ones in your PVA bag. This way, at least there are some that won’t escape. It’s also worth trying fluoro maggots on the hook.

25 A great Zig Rig bait is Enterprise Tackle’s Fake Peanut. It’s a nice shape and colour and can easily be trimmed to size for smaller hooks. Match this with Ultima’s Flo-Cast hooklink material.

26 Don’t overlook the old school baits: luncheon meat, peperonis, cubed Belachan blocks, cat/dog tripe blocks etc. Either use straight out of the pack or rev it up with soluble liquid foods.

27 Want a single hookbait with a difference? Then make your own multi-coloured hookers by rolling two different coloured and flavoured pastes out on top of each other and then rolling them into individual balls; it’s a tad different.

28 The most important tip in coldwater is to make sure your attractors and the base mix are all water-soluble!

29 Use Richworth Attracta Leads and capsules filled with neat attractor and use it as a roving rod. You’ll be surprised at
this time of the year how it will often bring
a quick bite.

30 Remember it’s worth trying different coloured baits at different depths and in different light conditions.

31 Soft, attractive corn is always worth a try, especially when tipped off and balanced with a piece of the fake stuff.

32 Peperami sticks in cold water conditions often go against the grain in as much as they will provide a bite when all else fails.

33 Rather than just use ester flavours in boilies, try then in other formats, such as with sweetcorn, low oil pellets, germs (maggots), bread etc. After all, it’s the attractor of the season!

34 Soak your hookbaits in condensed milk for a few days; this will give them a lovely milky, sweet plume in the water. High fat ones are the best.

35 Try frying luncheon meat or Peperami chunks and then while they are still hot coat them with natural additive powders such as Betaine HCL or marine halibut powder.

36 If you are on the Zigs, not only is it a good idea to try various colours on each rod, but soak the hooker for that bit more attraction.

37 For short session fishing why not have your stringers prepared in advance? Simply put a small cereal biscuit in between each bait as you thread them on the PVA, then freeze dry.

38 If you are using low oil pellets why not give them an extra boost by adding a neat flavour to them? Around 5ml per kg is
a good starting point.