Elder berries

[Ian]

has anyone got any insight into using these berries for bait,not wine ha.ive heard they work but have never used them.do they need prepared in any way or can they be used straight from the bush.

[RBTraditional]

Great for use on the hook whilst loose feeding hemp. We used to catch a fair few chub using this method on the Medway when we were kids and cheap bait was essential.

[Santiago]

What he said!

[Lea Dweller]

They used to be widely used on canals and rivers with hemp or tares or both, but like stewed wheat they seemed to go out of fashion years ago. A very traditional bait though. Many canals and rivers had elderberry bushes on the banks and clearly the berries would have dropped into the water, but with the clearing of much of the bankside vegetation over many years, perhaps this is the reason the fish found elderberries less appealing?

[Ian]

Cheers for the input guys,I might give them ago this year.

[Dave Burr]

There was a shoal of big roach on the Teme that my mate was feeding (without fishing for them) with elderberries but when I went for them the next day there were less there and too many chub to give me any chance of success.

Come the autumn you can shake a bush to loose feed and follow up with a float. I have read in the past that you can collect berries and fish away from natural bushes and they will still be readily accepted by roach and chub.

[Chubman]

the berries need to be ripe, some times chub can get fussy, same with blackberrys,last year i was throwing blackberrys at a large shoal of chub and they only took the over ripe ones, the only problem is how do you hook a blackberry and keep it on the hook,hair rig maybe?

[Tengisgol]

We used elderberry on the Thames as hookbait whilst loose feeding hemp for the roach. Many years later, whilst fishing the Kennet, I rather impressed Fred Crouch when I managed to hook a barbel on elderberry (beneath an elderberry bush!) over a bed of hemp that he had fed.

(It got off and if I'm honest I can't be certain it wasn't foul hooked but Fred nodded approvingly!)

[John Harding]

I have caught some nice roach on elderberries fishing on the Shropshire Union Canal, the funny thing was there were no bushes overhanging the canal, the bush I took the berries from was behind me at the rear of the towing path. Also there was a surprise amongst the roach when I landed a perch of about half a pound on the berry as well. The fish probably took the berries for a large piece of hemp.
Regards,
John Harding

[Chris Bettis]

Elderberries are a very traditional bait that I have not used for years. The fish have not changed so thy should still catch OK. We used the in conjuntion with hemp when I was young, mainly because they were free! (important then!)