Novel bait, worth a try.

[Macko]

Your thoughts gentlemen.
I read the Fred Crouch autobiography and he said chub and barbel used to follow a disco boat on the Severn,
and that the fish used to feed on the sick that eventually came over the side of the boat.
Perhaps that's why there's hundreds of beer cans left on the bank where i fish.

[Beresford]

:o

I suppose you could use diced carrots as a bait if you were that desperate.

[Macko]

I should take a few Stella's over there tomorrow and do a bit of pre-baiting.

[Snape]

This is not a daft at it sounds.
A component in vomit is butanoic acid which is a carbohydrate decay product.
Carpers will know it by its old fashioned name of butyric acid. It smells of sick!
Animals including fish find it very attractive as they do with most decay products.
Most of us know how effective it is because we use ripe cheese as bait which also smells of it (esp parmesan cheese).
Cheese is decaying and the carbohydrates in it produce butanoic acid - yummy!

[Macko]

Beers all round then.

[Snape]

On a novel bait theme I know someone who swears he caught a barbel on a dog t*rd! :hide: :hahaha:

[Vole]

I suppose if you're cold-blooded and not heir to the most efficient digestive system, stuff thats been at least partly pre-digested must be a bit of a boon, especially if someone else's enzymes are still busy digesting it.

"Green baits" were touched on in another place:
http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/Trot ... 03315.html

Don't forget your Elfin Safety, both personal and environmental.

A shame Benger's food has gone; that was pre-digested.... and it also triggers a question about the appeal of pineapple; is it the butyric acid derivative (butyric butyrate? Snape??) or is it the protein-digesting enzyme that is the attraction for fish?

It might be worth experimenting with meat tenderiser, which I think is Papain - Paw-Paw extract. Brace yourselves for a ruddy great "SHUSH!" from the carpers if I'm onto something, even if I'm thirty years adrift of the pack...

There's also a starch-digesting enzyme in saliva; Fennell's "The Book of the Roach" mentions an angler who used to chew bread to prepare it for feeding the swim... verb. sap., as Mr Marshall-Hardy would have said.

Why didn't I think of this decades ago?

[Rutilus.Bobicus]

I used to live in Stourport, so I know the 'disco boat' well.
I've not read the Fred Crouch book, but I have heard whispers about this from some of the 'older' Severn anglers.
It does make sense I suppose but wouldn't fancy casting a float into it though!

[Tony1964]

On a novel bait theme I know someone who swears he caught a barbel on a dog t*rd! :hide: :hahaha:

Noooo. The worst thing about this tale is that fact that he actually saw a dog do and thought "Mmm I think I'll give that a try" or even worse brought one with him.

[Michael]

Keeping on a nicer tact, the Thames in Staines has a small tributary entering, from which I have extracted several reasonable chub using cold chips. Whilst I would like to acknowledge it was my idea solely, it was the then, Vince Davis of Davies Angling in Staines. Many years ago he observed folk throwing the remainder of their chips in the stream, and watched the chub snatch a few. I`ve subsequently read Mr Wilson commenting on this idea.