The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Is it just me or do some of these recipes make you feel hungry?

If I was a Silkie cross Saluki I would agree with you Paul D.

BendSomeCane ,in whose company I have been fishing today,uses soaked sheep nuts(please no silly jokes!) as groundbait.I have a sheep and I may steal some of his nuts( that are stored in a paper sack))to try this ground-bait.

Penninelad wrote: ↑Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:38 pm BendSomeCane ,in whose company I have been fishing today,uses soaked sheep nuts(please no silly jokes!) as groundbait.I have a sheep and I may steal some of his nuts( that are stored in a paper sack))to try this ground-bait.

I have just read your post out to my wife and when she stopped laughing I suggested that as we don't have sheep we could use conditioning cubes she buys for horses. This did not meet with a good response. However, as I know your wife keeps horses, maybe a small quantity of "horse nuts" might be acquired for experimentation along with the "sheeps nuts"??
I will obtain (by devious means) a small quantity from our stock to try out too. Do you soak it prior to fishing or soak it on arrival at the bank? I may try grinding some up too.

BSC soaks it and then riddles it.

I think that the sheep nuts are the compressed remnants of the process to obtain corn steep liquor (CSL). CSL liquid is a potent barbel attractant and a great additive to any bait mix but the pellets are poor by comparison in my opinion.

When CSL hit the headlines back in the 90's, certain bait dealers were selling CSL pellets for lots of money. It became widely know that they were just sheep nuts and some still used them. But at that time I was experimenting with barbel in an aquarium and watching their responses to baits and flavours. Add a few trout pellets to the tank and they were like mini piranhas yet, when I added CSL pellets, they responded to the introduction of items to their environment, swam over them but did not actively feed on them other than a quick test with their mouths. I haven't used a CSL pellet since.

When making bread crumb (either white or brown) for groundbait in a food processor do people dry the bread first, e.g. in a microwave, or do they just use the bread as is?

No.I make it up in batches,eight loaves at a time and then bag them up and freeze them.

Stathamender wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2017 5:51 pm When making bread crumb (either white or brown) for groundbait in a food processor do people dry the bread first, e.g. in a microwave, or do they just use the bread as is?

Brown crumb.
Brown it in oven,crush down for a basic brown crumb where loose feed can be added for balling in or cage feeder.

White crumb
Use 3-4 day old bread,don't dry,just put it as it is into a blender.

Bread mash is same principle except water gets added to the 3-4 day old bread instead of drying it out.dont try with fresh bread as it will just form into a big lump,no good.

So that's one for drying and one for fresh. Think we may need a poll on this.