Fishing Bait > Boilies Fishing Bait

Advantages: Saves you tons of money
Disadvantages: Stinks and your wife will nag you

I have been fishing for over 25 years approx and can say the secret to catching the big fish is how you feed the lake or river before you start on a serious fishing expedition. It gets pretty expensive buying your Boiles from your local fishing shop and the more you get into fishing the more determined you are to make the perfect boilie yourself. I did try the pound shop version but can only say I didn't catch one fish all day long so best to avoid ...
...perfect base to mix your own ingredients to and the cheapest way to do it.. Many of the ingredients are cheaper such as pure fishmeal from your garden centre rather than your local fish tackle shop. Ok they might not like to hear that but as you are giving the fish your food free then the cheapest option is the one we would all use. Many people will use the powdered colouring again available at you local tackle shop but the cheap food colorants ... Read review

Advantages: Easy to use and all of the yucky work has been done for you
Disadvantages: Fish don't bite them.

"A new breakthrough in crab bait technology, for sea and course anglers alike" they said. "We can now offer fresh crab that does not decay for several days" they said. "Stays firmly on the hook during power casting" they said. "All the catching power and odour of fresh crab" they said I believed them. Unfortunately, no-one told the fish. What is it? In short, these are small bits of soft, crab putty, held together by a wee bit of net. These ...
...I have yet to find out what WAS the greatest thing BEFORE sliced bread, but I am sure that it wasn't these things. I was just about to write that they are PANTS when a thought occurred to me. Perhaps I would have a better chance of catching fish if I used my pants as bait instead of this rubbish? Maybe next time. At 11 quid for 24 "nuggets" they are reasonably priced for decent bait. Unfortunately these are NOT decent baits. Drill a hole in a 50 ... Read review

Advantages: it is free
Disadvantages: Takes a bit of time and effort, and can be a bit smelly

Mackerel as bait for sea fishing. Those of you that have been sea fishing from a boat will know that Mackies can be a pain in the proverbial b*m when you are trying to get your rigs down to the sea bed where the decent fish are supposed to be. But you probably know that Mackerel make good bait for those self same (and in my case, ELUSIVE) big boys. Here is my tip for you: Catch the b*ggers, fillet them and freeze them. BEFORE YOU START CLICKING ...
...BUTTON, let me explain a bit more. Freezing mackies, or more accurately, THAWING mackies, makes them go mushy and difficult to keep on the hook. The clever thing to do is to cut into fillets whilst fresh, layer them in a box containing 3 cm of salt and totally cover them in MORE SALT, 6 - 10 cms deep. These fillets should be left in the garage FOR A WEEK before they are bagged and frozen. When you are going to use them, take them out of the freezer, ... Read review

Advantages: Many species of freshwater fish can be caught using casters
Disadvantages: Keeping them in the fridge might upset your other half.

...carp. This is what makes casters one of the most popular baits available to any angler. Price and availability Casters can be purchased from any tackle shop, the cost varies from place to place, but as a general rule expect to pay in the region of £5 per pint. This is a fair price since it takes about five pints of maggots to make three pints of casters. Alternatively you can make your own. If you have read my other review on ...
...bucket below, leaving all the casters behind. Any dead maggots should be thrown away. This process should be repeated every eight hours, and the resulting casters must be placed in a container in the fridge. The colours of the casters will vary, however you can change their colour so that they all look similar quite simply. On the evening before you intend to go fishing you should wrap all your casters in a wet towel inside a bucket. The next morning ... Read review

Advantages: Almost all species of freshwater fish like maggots.
Disadvantages: Keeping them in the fridge might upset your other half.

...are now baby maggots. The maggots then feed on the meat until they are large and fat, at this point they stop feeding and quite quickly turn into casters (this only takes a few days or so). The casters (pupa) then remain dormant for a further few days and then out from the shell of the caster emerges a fully grown fly, although not mature enough to start breeding. Then the life cycle repeats ad infinitum. Bluebottle (Calliphoria vicini) ...
...and produce loads of large maggots that have a quite tough skin. This makes them ideal for general use, wether they are used as loose feed or as a hookbait. Greenbottle (Lucilia caesar) The Greenbottle fly also produces a high quality maggot however they are smaller in size to that of the Bluebottle. This makes them ideal for loose feed and hookbait too, when shy feeding fish will not take ordinary maggots since they associate ... Read review