Hemp and Tares

[Tony1964]

I have never used hemp and tares but I have heard a lot of anglers, mainly match anglers, praise them; especially for big winter roach. I use hemp quite a lot in ground bait mixes and by the handful as a loose feed but never on the hook.

How are hemp and tares used? What is the best method? Do you need some kind of thin wire hooks or are they glued to the shank of the hook?

[Snape]

I seem to recall tares being very popular in the 70s when I was a boy and fished in junior club matches.
Supposed to be excellent for roach.
I haven't heard of them being used for years so maybe its time for a revival.

[PDuffield]

We used hemp and tares a lot in the early 80's fishing for roach in Bristol docks. For some reason it was a selective method that worked for roach - there were loads there then and bags of 10lbs or more were common, even easy, with fish mostly up to the half pound mark, some going close to a pound.

We loose fed hemp just like you would maggots and fished tares on the hook because they were softer and would take a larger hook. Hemp on the hook worked too, but if you put on a maggot you would also pick up small perch and dace. We used to get a lot of false bites until we realised that fish were taking the shot used to cock the float as it was a similar size to a grain of hemp. Switching to tungsten tubing or large styl type weights avoided that.

Hemp was a good bait for roach on the Warks Avon when I was fishing there too, but we used elderberries on the hook as they are about the same size as a grain of hemp.

Haven't used hemp much for years, but on waters where there are plenty of roach I expect loose fed hemp with a pellet on the hook would work just as well.

Paul

[Mark]

My biggest roach of 1lb 14oz was caught on hemp seed. I have never used tares.

[Tony1964]

Are tares bought ready prepared or do you have to boil them like other particle baits?

[Snape]

Are tares bought ready prepared or do you have to boil them like other particle baits?

They have to be boiled like hemp.
see http://www.blacksilverbaits.co.uk/Tares
or bought in can
http://www.dynamitebaits.com/products/p ... zied-Tares

[Tony1964]

Thanks Snape, I might try a tin. Would love to get a good size roach out this winter.

[Snape]

Here's an article on tares as bait from 'The new encyclopaedia of coarse fishing baits' published 1974
Final 2 paragraphs hold the key!






Sorry for the variation in font size.

[MGs]

Similar to the posts above. I used hemp and tares on the canal and local lakes. Fished a single tare on a 14 or 16 hook with a float shotted with styl leads to avoid false bites. Loose feed was always small handfuls of hemp. I found that fishing hemp on the hook worked well but tares tended to pick out a slightly better stamp of fish. My experience was that it worked better as a method in summer than winter. However, I may give it another go, over the next few weeks.

[Snape]

Hermes and MGs did either of you try the technique of dying the tares black and painting the point of the hook white to imitate a giant hemp?