Hemp

[Santiago]

Crushed hemp is very very good! But I've not used it for a few years and that might help to explain why I've caught much less!

[Reedling]

I remember the first times I used Hemp at our local lake in Welling kent, when I was a youth. The lake had some really big Roach at the time and they were hardly ever seen falling to a baited hook so on reading an article in a fishing paper I decided to give Hemp seed a bash. The first time I used it I virtually gave up the ghost as it was very quite, but after a couple of warm fishing days the Roach came on the feed, and they really did come on the feed, they were crawling up the rod so to speak. Many of the fish were in the one pound bracket but a good number were around the two pound mark, and this is where I caught my first two pounders...deep joy! Once I had got used to Hemp as an occasional bait I gave Tares a go alongside them and although it did seem to sort out the larger fish I never really had confidence in them. I think this was probably due more to my impatience than the bait itself, as the hemp always had the bites coming fast when the fish were feeding.

[Santiago]

Tares work much better if one boils them in the same pan as the hemp at the same time etc.

When I feed hemp to roach, I just throw in lots to begin with and then about 10 grains every cast, and use it on the hook until I start catching regularly. Then I switch to a small black rubber bead with a spot of white tippex on; this save time fiddling with putting new hemp on after every bite/fish when it's prolific. It's great fun when the roach are really going for it in a feeding frenzy, they come right up in the water and do'nt appear to care about anything. But then one needs to ease off on freebies because the roach become vulnerable to pike attacks, and then if they spook you have to wait about 30 minutes before you get another bite!

[AshbyCut]

Tares work much better if one boils them in the same pan as the hemp at the same time etc.

I suspect that the same will be true if you add fennel seeds to the boil. I grow plants in my garden, and scour my worms (as Issac suggests), and sometimes maggots, in fennel plant cuttings in summer ... and save the seed in winter ... leaving plenty of unharvested flower heads on the stalks for the birds in winter. Chaffinches especially love that.

[Santiago]

Sir Ashby, you words seem a tad muddled and dis-jointed! Like from a man that's very excited about something!!! Perhaps something on another thread is distracting your thought process

[The Mog]

The problem I have found with hemp is that if you use it as a main attractor fish can very easily get fixated on it and leave the hookbait alone (if hemp isnt used ) I sometimes mix washed out 2 mm halibut pellets with the hemp inter spaced with a handful of 4 mms so they have a choice .Mainly I do this for Tench as long as they are small and are crunchy (similar to the natural snails that they eat )